"Blaspheme" on Harry Potter

Back in my Bali days in late 2003, I told my Australian-educated old pal Koko, "Ko, Harry Potter is simply the best book ever authored... Don't you agree?"

I was expecting a yes when Koko replied, "Nah... I beg to differ"

His disagreement caught me by surprise.

"You mean.. There is another book better than Harry Potter? But I thought you've been enjoying Rowling's series all this time"

"Well as a matter of fact I do enjoy it, Toshi. But I honestly think that you should check another book called Narnia which is a hell lot better than Harry Potter"

"Narnia? What's that?"

(FYI, the first Narnia movie was released in Indonesia in 2006)

"A fantasy series. You should check it out, T.. It really is a good book, You'd love it"

I was quite disappointed hearing that there is actually another book better than Harry Potter.

When we went to the same school in Singapore a year later, Koko promoted that same Narnia series to other Indonesian students there. Apparently he was the only one who was well-read in our class: Most Indonesian-educated students were never used to reading novels, you see.

Most of them followed Koko's suit (Boon even went great lengths to buy the entire series altogether, LOLZ). While I, on the other hand, still refused to read the novels as to keep my stand that "Narnia is in no way better than Harry Potter".

Later on during the June 2005 hols when Boon was about to leave Singapore for Indonesia, he lent me his Narnia series and told me to have a scan.

I said yes, though deep down in heart I still resented Narnia due to my stubbornness.

As there were only three people left in the hall, my days were largely repleted with boredom and loneliness. Then on one of those days, I took a glance on the first book of Narnia.

Finishing the book that night, I told myself, "Hey, Narnia's not bad after all!"

Then I devoured the second book. And the third book.

During the next consecutive three days, my hours were filled with consuming all those books.

I finished the entire Narnian series that week, except the last one (Narnia and The Last Battle)*.

With all the Narnia books I had read that time, I think I pretty much regretted not heeding Koko's kindly advice back in Bali.

LOL.

It never hurts to read a book suggested by a friend, does it not?

* You see, I have a habit of not finishing a series (be it book or film) if I find it to be exceptionally great (until this day I still refrain from watching the last episode of the Japanese drama Nodame Cantabile). You may find this habit of mine to be kinda weird (because I agree with you), but let me elaborate more of this habit on another blog post.