Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale - J.K. Rowling

I started this for the first time in April 2007, while on holiday in Sardinia with S and a few chums. It didn't go very well. My GCSE Italian was not really up to the challenge, and I'd forgotten my little dictionary, so I quickly gave up. I started again last summer, hoping for a bit of light relief following my A level, and a fun way to build up my fluency and stamina. I think it worked - when I began, I was looking up dozens of words on each page, and really puzzling over quite a lot of grammar. Last night I didn't look up a single word, despite having my dictionary beside me, and my www.wordreference.org app on my iPhone, ready and waiting just in case.

I'm also reading set books for my degree course, and finding that they're tougher than Harry Potter, but a little easier because of him. I know that I can read now 7 or 8 pages in Italian in one sitting, without being tied to a dictionary, and while it's harder to guess what unknown words mean when you don't know the story, that doesn't mean it's impossible.

I'm off to Milan for a week on Saturday, and I think I'm going to be picking up 'Harry Potter e la Camera dei Segreti', and possibly one or two others. That way, no matter how confused I get by my set texts, I'll know that I've always got something manageable I can read - just what I need to make sure I actually do some Italian every day.