Book

Warning!

At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery & Harry Potter: Magic Awakened & Hogwarts Legacy.
As such, spoilers will be present within the article.

"Is this all real? Or has this been happening inside my head?"

The topic of this article is of a real-life subject that has been mentioned "in-universe" in a canon source. The Harry Potter Wiki is written from the perspective that all information presented in canon is true (e.g., Hogwarts really existed), and, as such, details contained in this article may differ from real world facts.

A book was publication consisting of a certain number of pages encased by two covers and bound together by a spine. A book contained a collection of written, printed, or illustrated content, typically used for reading or reference. Books served as tools for storing and sharing knowledge, stories, and ideas.^[1]

Overview[]

There were countless different books in the world, and different books come in a variety of topics, including but not limited to law, science, religion, cooking, sports and games, poetry, and of course works of fiction. All books contained a specific range of information, some more specific than others. For example, one book might have had comprehensive information about various animals, while another book might have been devoted to one animal species in particular.

Some people wrote books as a means of gaining fame and fortune, such was the case with Gilderoy Lockhart, who stole stories from other wizards and erased their memories so he could pass off their accomplishments as his own. Other people wrote books because they felt it was necessary for the betterment of the world of scholastic achievement, and society as a whole. Miranda Goshawk wrote the The Standard Book of Spells series because she felt the textbooks of her student years were too difficult to understand.

It should be noted that not all books were worth reading. Barrett Fay wrote several books about how Muggles and Muggle-borns were naturally inferior to other wizards. A blatantly false and highly biased assessment. Then there was the book: Defensive Magical Theory; the author, Wilbert Slinkhard meant well, but understood nothing about real-life dangers and what was necessary to defend oneself against them. As such, all the information in the book could be categorised as worthless.

Additionally, there was no guarantee that books would have the answers that someone was looking for. After all, a book was only as knowledgeable as the person who wrote it. For example, on the subject of Horcruxes; before Voldemort, no one in history had ever even thought to make more than a single Horcrux, and as such, no book in the world had information about what would happen if someone did make more than one.

A library was a place where a vast multitude of books were stored, and library books could be temporarily borrowed by members of the public. The Hogwarts Library had the largest collection of books of any library in Wizarding Britain. Another place one could get books was a bookshop, like Flourish and Blotts. Books purchased from a bookshop could be kept permanently.

Books in the wizarding world[]

In the wizarding world, the content of most books revolved around academic subjects known to be taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; transfiguration spells, charms, potions, herbology, alchemy, magical creatures, astronomy, arithmancy, divination, ancient runes, the lifestyles of Muggles, the Dark Arts and how to defend against them, and the history of the Wizarding world.

Every summer, before the start of the school year, students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were sent a Shopping List of all the books and other equipment they would need to purchase for their upcoming course work.^[2]

Pages filled with helpful notes from the book's previous owner

Naturally, most people preferred to purchase brand new books, as they were more pristine than second-hand books. However, most people failed to realise that used books (particularly ones that were extremely ratty and worn out) could have actually proven to be far more valuable to one's magical studies. This great deal of wear and tear was a sign that the book's previous owner had a great personal interest in the subject, and wizards with such an interest tended to experiment, allowing them to discover helpful little tricks and more efficient methods. When they did make such discoveries, they wrote little notes about them in the book. The previous owner might have even written down notes about one or more original spells that they invented themselves. This was the case for the Half-Blood Prince's copy of Advanced Potion-Making.^[3]

Of course, there were works of entertainment as well; The Tales of Beedle the Bard for example was a well-known wizarding book of fairy tales, including the story of The Tale of the Three Brothers, which held profound lessons about life, death, and the choices one made.^[4]

Books were used in the Divination art of Bibliomancy, in which someone opened a book to a random page and interpreted the writing in a contextual way in order to glean information about their future.

Books in the wizarding world were known to sometimes be enchanted. In some cases, it was as simple as having pictures that were enchanted to move, like a short video on loop. In other cases, the book might have had interactive content, such as how the Book of Spells and the Book of Potions conjured the necessary equipment for the reader to practise what was written in them. The Monster Book of Monsters was even enchanted to act like a highly aggressive living creature.

Wizard books might have also been cursed. Some books made it so the reader could never stop reading them. Another example of this was the Thief's Curse. Its effect is unknown, but it activated if someone tried to read a book for too long without paying. Sometime before 1993, Arthur Weasley, while working for the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, confiscated a cursed copy of Sonnets of a Sorcerer that would force anyone who read it to speak in limericks for the rest of their lives. One cursed book could even burn the readers eyes out.^[5]^[6]

Appearances[]

The Harry Potter Wiki has 2,318 images related to Book.

Notes and references[]

↑ Book on Wikipedia
↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 13 (The Very Secret Diary)
↑ Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, Year 2, Card Primer: Expulso

[1] Book on Wikipedia

[2] Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

[3] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[4] Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

[cos13-5] Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 13 (The Very Secret Diary)

[MA-6] Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, Year 2, Card Primer: Expulso

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