sunsetsanddragonflies: Review // 20th Anniversary Harry Potter Books

Hey guys!

This is going to be a VERY photo heavy post, so be warned now!

When me and one of my best friends, Beth, went to Manchester a few weeks ago, we popped into Waterstones while we were wandering around the town centre - we're both bookworms, although I wasn't really feeling book shopping that day. However, when we were in the young adult section, I stumbled across some of the most beautiful books I've seen in a long time!

I was unaware that they were releasing special edition versions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, to celebrate 20 years since the book was released! (which is crazy to me, as I still remember my best friend at the time, Maud, giving me a copy as a present - I would have only been 5 at the time - and my mum used to read it to me and my brother as a bedtime story)

They had paperback versions and hardback versions, and my eye was immediately drawn to the hardback versions. They have the house crests on the covers, and the house colours on the edge of the pages in stripy scarf form - there's a version for each house as well, so you can choose your own Hogwarts house to own. The paperback books were solid house colours with different coloured embossing on the writing/house crests - red with gold embossing for Gryffindor, green with silver embossing for Slytherin, blue with bronze embossing for Ravenclaw and yellow with black embossing for Hufflepuff. The edges of the pages are also the solid house colours!

On the back covers of the hardback books, there's a portrait of the house ghost for said house - on the back cover of the paperback books, there's a portrait of the house ghost again, and also the lines from the song the sorting hat sings for said house, which I think is a really cool touch!

That day, I didn't end up buying any - although I really wanted the hardback Gryffindor edition - but about a week later, I realised I couldn't stop thinking about it. To cut a long story short, I ended up with all the hardback copies and they were even more beautiful in person! I didn't want to read them, as I didn't want them to get all smushed up, so in the end I caved and bought the paperback editions too, so I can read them without them getting too damaged!

They've added some new stuff to the books, too - including information about the house founders, house ghosts, etc, as well as memorable students from the chosen house and J.K Rowling - 20 years of magic!