A review by impreader
Harry Potter's Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures by John Granger

3.0

If a bit heavy-handed in its reading-in, so to speak, it makes up for it in knowledge and detail concerning the "great books" it discusses. There always seems to me to be a bit of grasping-at-straws attitude when it comes to books about books about the books that built the books. Studies have sprung up in wake of The Lord of the Rings' commercial success, as well as Narnia and various others (Percy Jackson comes to mind, with Riordan's playful pop-cultural update of Greek Myth)--and they invariably feel tacked on.
Tacked-on or otherwise, however, this is an informative read, and fun for any book-lover. As long as one doesn't take as gospel Granger's range of stories claiming to form the world of Harry Potter.