Many moons ago, I borrowed all the audiobook CDs of the Harry Potter books from the local library, ripped them into my iTunes and hoisted them onto my iPod (isn't the future great?). I listened to them constantly: in the car, on the walk to/from work, and while cooking. It took me a long damn time to finish, but I will miss them from the bottom of my heart.
It's definitely not just the wonder and joy of experiencing the books once again. And it isn't only because I found myself understanding more by listening than reading myself (count me as one of those that sucked the books in through every pore as fast as possible). More than anything, it's the beyond-words genius of Jim Dale, the narrator, that really does the trick. His Hagrid, his Snape, his Kreacher, for gosh's sake. I find that when I'm listening to him voice all these characters (every one of them differently) it becomes impossible to recall his real face. If that's NOT genius, I don't know what is.
I did discover that Book 7 is a bit more complicated than it should be. Specifically, I have three problems with it: 1) the number of horcruxes, 2) the wand hoo-hah, and, 3) the life and deaths of Harry, with its decided lack of decent explanation. I want to say these don't matter, but they do point to the need for a better editor, at least for the last book.
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