How did you get into it?, How (and when) did you start reading Harry Potter? |
  Mar 23 2009, 12:09 AM
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Just Through the Brick Wall Posts: 8 Joined: 12:39pm March 2, 2009  |
Voice your experiences of how you bacame a HP fan!
 What exactly led you to pick up the first HP book?  I picked mine after seeing the first two HP films... I really liked the second one, so finally decided to join the armies of HP readers...  And what were your reasons?  Got it as a gift? Heard the books were good? Read it for someone else? Wanted to see what all the fuss related to HP is about? ... or maybe you just picked it randomly? 
This post has been edited by shtormas: Mar 23 2009, 12:28 AM |
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Mar 23 2009, 08:32 AM
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#2
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Monster Book Stacker Posts: 360 Joined: 6:47am August 4, 2005 |
First off i'm an adult in my 30's with 2 children!
I used to teach a group of children between the ages of 8 and 14 to fish. One of those youngsters was an avid book reader and told me how much he'd enjoyed Harry Potter (this was around 1999) so i borrowed the book from the library, and have thoroughly enjoyed being a big kid whilst reading them, and am looking forward to passing on the same pleasure of reading to my children. Cheers Al -------------------- <a href="http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/#quiz:2"><img src="http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/newquiz/take_quiz/image_sm/29869" /></a>
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Mar 23 2009, 09:14 AM
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#3
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Shopping for a New Firebolt Posts: 830 Joined: 3:20pm June 5, 2007 Location: School, waiting to get home so I can log on to LL with out the potentail of getting in trouble. |
I moved to Sweden when I was seven, and it was may so I wasn't going to start school until the next school year. We went to the library a lot, and I read a lot of books that summer. My parents had already read the, and my mom though that i was a strong enough reader to read them on my own. So I started and I couldn't stop. I read the first four within a month, less than a year after learning to read in english. I truly believe that they are what got me into reading!
-------------------- Ravenclaw Forever!!!
The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness are great books! Read them! |
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Mar 23 2009, 04:16 PM
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Knight Bus Driver in Training Posts: 600 Joined: 6:25am December 9, 2007 Location: Canada |
I became a Harry Potter fan through tragedy.
As an almost-senior who has never been interested in fantasy (still not, for the most part) - although a lifelong avid voracious reader! -, I had never had any desire to read these Harry Potter children's books everyone was talking about. Then, in 2005, I experienced a deep personal loss. When Halloween came around and there were ghosts and gravestones, etc. decorating every store and the pages of magazines, it made things worse. The last thing I needed to see was more death and its representations! For some reason, I decided to read just the first Harry Potter book as a harmless diversion. To my utter amazement, I became hooked in a VERY deep and personal way. You see, for me the Philosopher's Stone was more than just an escape from my grief and despair. It showed me the possibility of overcoming great tragedy, of having strength in the face of that which will surely defeat you from within if you let it. I had, of course, read many, many books with that message in them but none before had touched me in quite the same way - none touched me in quite the same part of my soul - as this book (and the rest of the HP series) did. To this day, I don't understand why this is so; I just accept that it is. As one who is and always has been very engaged in social justice issues both on a personal and professional level, my initial reaction to the Philosopher's Stone was, "Why, this book is about social justice issues: child abuse, racism, classism, war and peace, treatment of the disadvantaged and the 'different' in society, morality and ethics on a global level, power, corruption, self-sacrifice, etc.! Nobody told me that! I just thought this was going to be a well-written fantasy novel for children, which is fine in itself but wouldn't be anything I would normally choose to read. It is SO MUCH MORE." Anyway, I then went on to read the next five books in succession. (It would be a while before Book Seven was to come out. - Grin) As strange as it may sound, considering what sadness and heartbreak these books contain - for Harry and other characters -, I continue to receive comfort and strength from them. Laura This post has been edited by Laura W: Mar 23 2009, 07:33 PM -------------------- |
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Mar 27 2009, 02:27 PM
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Leaky's Resident Borg Queen  Posts: 11,519 Joined: 11:45am July 25, 2005 Location: in space, the final frontier . . .  |
Wow, that's quite an inspiring experience, Laura W! Thanks for sharing that. I remember when one of the books came out there were a number of articles both on TV news and in print talking about the way HP inspires and encourages people who are or have been through some terrible times.
My experience was much simpler. We'd bought the first book for a son who wasn't into reading. He never did read it (though he's since listened to the entire series over and over again), but about a year later his next younger brother picked it up and was hooked. He insisted that we take him to Costco and get the next two books. He was dying for the 4th book to come out. About that time there was starting to be a lot of press about the coming release of GoF, so I decided I needed to find out what the deal was and read the first three books. We couldn't afford more than one book at that time, so we had to share GoF. It was summer and I would come home from lunch, and my son would have to surrender the book so I could read until I had to go back to work. (By the time OotP came out there were also audiobooks, so the boys--all of whom were now fans--would listen to the book and I got the hardback!). But then I thought my hubby would like the series, so when I finished GoF I started reading them to him. What a surprise it was to see how much foreshadowing there was! Now we're all hooked--though none of the family is as rabid a fan as I am. 
-------------------- "That's why he fought. That's why he lived again, and that was the answer to Tam's question. I fight because last time, I failed. I fight because I want to fix what I did wrong. I want to do it right this time" -- Rand |
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Mar 27 2009, 04:56 PM
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The Other Half of the DDD Posts: 4,945 Joined: 10:10am March 16, 2007 Location: Marauding with Moony, Padfoot and Prongs |
I resisted reading the books at first, because I thought they were just for kids, and I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon. But my mum bought Prisoner of Azkaban for my younger brother, who wasn't a good reader, and I nicked it off him to see what all the fuss was about. I soon found out!
I was hooked, from start to finish, and as soon as I finished that I went and got the first, second and fourth books and devoured them.So, OoTP was the first HP book I had to look forward to coming out, but by then my brother was also reading them because I encouraged him to, and we both used to look forward to the next release date when we would receive seperate copies throught the post. (we were too impatient to wait till the other had finished, lol) -------------------- |
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Mar 28 2009, 08:19 AM
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Daily Prophet Photographer Posts: 874 Joined: 10:52am March 10, 2006 Location: Sharing a pot of tea will Molly. |
I'm another who came to the books after seeing the first two films. I guess before that I'd thought of them as 'children's books'. One evening, having run out of anything else to read and browing through my book shelves I came across POA. We had copies of PS and COS, but as I'd seen both films I thought I'd try POA. And I was hucked from the first page. How could I have over-looked this wonderful book?
I worked in school and couldn't wait to discuss Prisoner with the kids. One of my collegues overheard me doing so, and said she too loved the books. So other adults liked them too! Turns out I'd been about the only one in the staff room who hadn't read them and loved them. I was never very quick on the uptake, I'm afraid. Anyway, after finishing POA I got stuck into PS and then COS, and went to my nearest book store and bought GOF. Then horror, then weren't any more to read. Thankfully, I didn't have too long to wait for Order of The Pheonix. So I had my first experience of sitting up all night with a large coffee and huge bar of chocolate and reading a much anticipated Harry Potter along with millions of others. -------------------- "Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going"
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Mar 28 2009, 02:48 PM
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Neville's Biggest supporter Posts: 11,825 Joined: 8:51am January 28, 2006 Location: On V.S.D.G.  |
I've mentioned this story a lot. Like SnapesSister I had heard the Potter books, but I considered them "Children's books" (
 ) and was frightened that they would be too much like Lord of the Rings, which I had read but was not overly keen on.Fastforward to Boxing Day (December 26th) 2000. I saw the Stephen Fry was going to read the first book on the radio so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. It was the most pleasurable Boxing Day ever I think I was hooked by the second paragraph - why were the Dursleys so "normal"? What were Muggles?  - and by the time Prof. McGonagall turned from a cat into a human, I knew I had found something totally amazing.I immediately brought the first four books and the audio cassettes by the wonderful Stephen Fry. I waited impaitiently for the release of books 5, 6, and 7. The only regret I have is that i didn't join the Lounge earlier!
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Mar 28 2009, 06:42 PM
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#9
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Flesh-Eating-Slug Catcher Posts: 175 Joined: 4:56pm July 14, 2007 Location: Stumbling through life in a bewildered sort of way. |
I was in year six (I'm not sure what the equivilant is in America, but I was 11 years old) and the year was 2000 before I even registered Harry Potter's existence let alone how popular it was, and that was only because we had a big cardboard cut out of the front cover of PoA in our classroom for some reason. As soon as I realised what a big thing it was however, I dismissed it, assuming people only read it because it was the 'in' thing. Or something. Well anyway one day that summer I was tremendously bored so decided to go with my mum and sister to playgroup(kindergarten)where I was just as bored and consequently cast around for any kind of book to read. PoA was the only one I saw with no pictures and so, reluctantly, I began to read. I didn't know what the hell most of it was talking about but by the time we had to leave I wanted to take the book with me and finish it. That was the first Harry Potter book I ever owned and the rest, as they say, is history. = )
Never liked the films though. = s -------------------- Petunia often said that he looked like a baby angel. Harry often said that he looked like a pig in a wig.
Is it Gene Hunt? ...Is he kicking in a nonce? |
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Mar 28 2009, 08:28 PM
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Mending the Chair at Ollivander's Posts: 2,734 Joined: 6:31pm April 2, 2005 Location: Exploring the Hogwarts library :) |
I started reading the books because I wanted to know what everyone was talking about on the bus. The first movie had just come out and everyone seemed to be talking about it constantly and since I knew I probably wouldn't get to see the movie, I decided to hunt out my sister's books. She had never read them, but she had the four that were out at the time, so I just went and found them. I read them all within two weeks then, since I wanted my dad to read them, I asked him to read the first one to me and so I got him hooked on the books too.
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