The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to Harry Potter Fiction and Related Materials

I read this book cover to cover, and was honestly a little surprised to find it was a delightful lens to view Harry Potter through all over again. The italicized commentary added to many entries was a wonderful surprise, and there were multiple instances of insight that were new to me. I'm of the generation that was the same age as Harry as the books were released, I have read the series countless times, and have listened to the audiobooks many, many times through (I have Jim Dale's inflection nearly memorized - my love of HP has been very real for a very long time!). I'm unsure that I will go back and use this book as a reference text, but I can say I did thoroughly enjoy reading it straight through and adding annotations in the margins. The text winks at those who know the entire story arc, without being insanely spoiler-heavy or patronizing.Published in 2009, The Lexicon is blissfully absent of both The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Cursed Child. I am disappointed and displeased with the new content created by JKR, as well as her unnecessary and harmful aggression towards the transgender community... and for this reason, I prefer to find third party sources that discuss the original HP canon. Prior to reading The Lexicon, this was usually in the form of chapter-by-chapter rereads and discussions (either written, like The Harry Potter Companion website or podcasts like Alohomora, Binge Mode, Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, The Real Weird Sisters, Unspoiled, Witch Please, Wizard Team, and Swish and Flick). This was a change of pace, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.If you are deeply steeped in the canon and still searching for more, I recommend reading The Lexicon cover to cover! I've heard The Lexicon website referenced over the years but had never dug deeply into it myself beyond the occasional search, so I'm interested to start perusing the website as well. Thank you to The Lexicon team, this was a nice refresher in a fun format :)

I really enjoy having this. I’m late to the game reading Harry Potter. I’m 64. I like this book as the characters are so well developed in JK Rowlings series I needed to read more about them as I went along. BUT be careful. If you’ve not read all of the books you may read something that tells you what happened to the character later in the series. That being said I’m enjoying having this reference and loving these stories. What a ride. Brings some reminders of my youth.

While you will not understand the magic that J.K. Rowling created in her Harry Potter series without reading the books first, you will however, be able to reference just about any specific person, place or thing ever used in the series by name with this delightful tome. It is obvious that it was created by loving hands and minds, and so it is a treasure to any true HP fan! With all due respect to this book, it will not overshadow any future encyclopedic digest that J.K. Rowling may produce herself; but for the time being, it is one very handy volume and a very useful source to the world of Harry Potter! A wealth of information and fun!

Unbelievable amount of information including minutiae I didn't much remember although I've read the whole series 5 times. This book provides a great service and I'm glad it made it to publication. It's more like a dictionary than an "encyclopedia" but they were banned from publishing an HP encyclopedia, now, weren't they?I feel bad about the way the author/webmaster was treated--not so much by the legal system as by a certain vocal portion of the Potter-verse. I don't agree with those people who felt they had to show their loyalty to Jo Rowling by back-stabbing this author, even though it turned out, one of them had their own book they needed Jo's blessing on. Yes, that's bad grammar here, but I'm trying not to name names as I only want to congratulate the author on his "Lexicon".

Initially, I was very excited to buy this book. After Mr. Vander Ark made the changes that had to be made by the recent court proceedings, the purpose of the book changed radically. If I had been in a bookstore and persnally viewed the book, I probably would not of bought it. I will still use it for reference material. I love to use his Lexicon on the Harry Potter Books on the computer. If not for the law suit, this book would be vastly different and more exciting.

The Harry Potter related Lexicon website is a handy internet reference to J.K.Rowling's literary and magical world. But the road from the online guide to written one was bumpy to be sure. Now when all was said and done, Steve Vander Ark's "The Lexicon" has arrived in print form. A reference book that painstakingly defines characters, events, spells, places and more with a basic definition (from both Rowling's world or real world, depending...)that enhances and clarifies the readers enjoyment of the monumental series of books about a boy wizard.

This is the book I need for when I re-read the HP books and re-watch the movies. I am not a dedicated Pottermaniac so I don't necessarily remember the names, places, or spells as I get further into the story. This book is a great resource to look up that spell, object, or person that I forgot about. Definitely recommend this book for anyone who has that problem.

"The Lexicon" is more than a glossary of Harry Potter terminology. This listing of names, terms, geographical and magical markers offers definitions, descriptions and connections that are magical, even for muggles. Furthermore, the book captures the spirit and sparkle of the Harry Potter series (and canon) in a way that is faithful to J. K. Rowling's creation and the readers' need to plumb the depths of the individual books or the entire saga. Congratulations to the compiler Steve Vander Ark and his associates. Their vision and perseverance have produced good results. "The Lexicon" is a significant resource for those who take J. K. Rowling's writing seriously.

This is very helpful, interesting, and clearly, the author loves Harry Potter just as much as I do, BUT, it seems unfinished.There's not enough 'factual' detail on any of the characters, and too much opinion. For example, Dumbledore is listed as being 'in love' with Grindlewald (though he may have been, it was never explicitly stated in the books), and nothing is included about the circumstances of [SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER] his death.A good for-runner of an OFFICIAL lexicon or encyclopaedia, but, not what I was hoping; could have been much better. Entries from wikipedia are more informative. Sorry Mr. Vander Ark.

Good for a giggle, not everything is accurate, but any potterhead will find the errors, its deffo a good book all that aside and its always fun finding errors :)Id recommend this book

I had been looking forward to reading this book, ecpecailly with all the fuss about it. Although it is not authorised by Rowling, I enjoyed the book as a reference guide, and satisifed my Potter longing until Rowling brings out her official one :)

I bought this in great excitement - but when I got it I was so disappointed I sent it back (Never sent a book back before). All it is is an A-Z of elements in the HP universe. There is no index. It contains no lists of spells, people, places, creatures etc.I'm sure the material is all there but there is only one way to look it up - and cross referencing is, for me, the basis of a reference work. If it had been thematically organised and THEN had an A-Z index it would have been a massively more useful book.

The book was not in mint condition, and the damages were not caused by the package. Probably, is second handed.