#re3 - Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them

I have been in two minds over whether I should get this on audiobook or not when it was announced. On the one hand, IT'S AN AUDIOBOOK! With Eddie Redmayne (aka Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts movie) narrating it! But on the other, it's not really adding anything new to this. And I have other reasons, which I will go into later.

But, when Midas PR (people who I chat with for Audible credits - they are very kind and lovely people) gave me an extra two credits a month or so bad by mistake, they said I could keep them and use them for any audiobooks that catch my eye. So, I used one of the credits on this (even though I have a ton of audiobooks I really should be listening to instead). And after the drama of trying to get this onto my iPod (don't ask! It was a nightmare and only with the help of Audible.co.uk's Twitter did I figure it out as this has never happened with any of my other audiobooks!)

In this updated version of the Harry Potter textbook, we discover the magical beasts that live in the Wizarding world that was referenced or we have seen in both Harry Potter books/movies and the Fantastic Beasts movie. Because this is updated, we have a new foreword from Newt himself (with information/hints linking to the Fantastic Beasts movie) and addition of six new beasts (why these have been added have been explained in the foreword).

Now, as a Harry Potter fan and as someone who has read and reread this over the years, what i found so enjoyable is how in-depth this "textbook" goes. Plus, it was cool to go back and go "oh! That was in the movie!" and compare to my old edition of Fantastic Beasts.

There was a bit of drama before Christmas when the movie was released and no bookseller could get a copy as publishers in UK/US were publishing the new, updated version in time for DVD release and Comic Relief (which donates a percentage of money towards this charity as well as the Lumos Foundation). So, while it's a bit of the pricy side for a under two hour audiobook, knowing that some of that money is going to good causes makes me feel warm, fuzzy inside and glad the world isn't such a dark place (have you not seen the news the past week?!)

And as for the new six beasts... I only spotted three to my knowledge. Might have to go back when I have an afternoon free and listen to this with my now "out of date" copy in hand and compare...