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Introduction to Potterverse

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Introduction to Potterverse Empty Introduction to Potterverse

Post  Elanor Sun Jun 26, 2011 11:28 am

Introduction to Potterverse

This topic serves as an archive of a thread from the Harry Potter Lexicon Forum as hosted on World Crossing which ceased operation on April 15, 2011. At that time, this thread was still set in the "Archived Thread to be Worked" folder of the WC forum. Elanor

Devika - Feb 10, 2004 2:56 am
Edited by Kip Carter Jan 12, 2006 12:12 pm
I thought it would be interesting to have a thread on which we could all post how we were introduced to the Potter books for the first time and what were our first impressions and how they changed or were proved right! My dad got me the 1st book PS after an official trip. He told me he had heard that this was the latest book which had changed the reading habits of people wordwide. I was initially a bit skeptical, especially since it was called 'Philosopher's Stone'. The 1st chapter started off ok... I didn't really think much about it, but by the time it ended I had goosebumps! And then I was hooked and refused to put it down! My dad insisted on reading it too.... but he never got beyond Diagon Alley! It still surprises me! Of course the irony of the whole thing is that he is the one who is most irritated with my Potter obsession and rues the day he bought me the book!

That's for the 1st book... I want to know how all of you got your 1st books and what you thought of them...
Elanor
Elanor
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Introduction to Potterverse Empty Introduction to Potterverse (Post 1 to 42)

Post  Elanor Sun Jun 26, 2011 11:29 am

virgoddess1313 - Feb 10, 2004 10:05 am (#1 of 42)
My mom read them first and kept bugging me to read them. I flat out refused. I was in high school and much too mature to read kids books like Harry Potter. Finally, she talked me into it. I was hooked totally. I read all of the rest of them within a month and have read them all at like ten times each since then (except OoP... still working on that for a fourth time!). I've always been a big reader, and now I'm totally voracious.

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Madame Librarian - Feb 10, 2004 10:06 am (#2 of 42)

Good thread idea, Devika!

OK, when I first noticed how popular the first book was with both kids and adults (mostly parents and grandparents), I felt I was obligated as a librarian to give it a try. I read about half of PS, and even though I enjoyed it, I flippantly commented that I could figure out exactly what was going to happen (big mistake). I felt I had read enough to tell patrons what to expect (I always said to definately read it if they were kids, to give it a try if they were adults). When life got busy with too many books, too little time, I put down the book and that was that.

Well, as you know the frenzy only got more intense with the 2nd book. With the release of the movie, which I loved, I kept getting these niggling feellings that I should give the books a second chance. Then my family took this long car trip, and luckily for us, I grabbed the first book on tape to have on the way. Wow! We loved it. All three of us snarfed up the (by now) three books when we got home. Then we listened to them. I was hooked.

I didn't discover the Forum till last summer just after the release of OoP. Actually I found the Lexicon first because my son and I were disputing some fine point of canon, and I did a google search. The Lexicon led me to the Forum and the rest, as they say, is history.

My son and my husband both think I've gone a little ga-ga over this, but they do occasionally ask about the latest, hottest discussion that's going on here. So, I guess they're not immune to the delights of plumbing the books for clues and solutions. We've had some stellar arguments over the dinner table over some of the same issues that have produced sparks here. This fall we expanded to include the LotR books and, of course, there's a lot of "compare and contrast" going on. I love it!

Sorry, for the ramble, but I warn you that librarian's can really get going on books, especially favorite ones.

Ciao. Barb

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haymoni - Feb 10, 2004 10:25 am (#3 of 42)

My son wanted to read the books. I believe Books 1-3 were out at the time. He was only 7 and I had heard that there had been all kinds of controversy surrounding them. He brought the first book home from his school's library and we sat down to read it together. I read ahead to see what the "controversy" was about and couldn't find anything that I felt was objectional.

Anyway, we were both hooked and now own our own copies. We've read each one together and yes, I still read ahead - I was a little worried about the Cho Chang thing in Book 5. Harry is 15 and my son is only 10.

I think my husband feels a bit left out, but he's enjoyed the movies. I think we may actually get him to sit down and read POA before the movie comes out. He's actually tired of hearing us say, "In the book..." when there is a book/movie conflict.

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Joanna S Lupin - Feb 10, 2004 10:25 am (#4 of 42)

Little Bobik
Edited by Feb 10, 2004 9:27 am
My sister brought me first HP book from her trip to USA, it was American edition Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone. I heard big deal of the book by then, and I was eager to get started. It didn't make big impression on me then, it was the very first book I have read in English, and I wasn't confident at all while reading. I would perhaps never become HP fan if it wasn't for my English teacher who encorouged me to read more in English. More than two years after my first try, I was finally tired with my teacher's reading taste, and I decided to buy something on my own. It was Chamber of Secrets that bound my heart with Potterverse and I have read the whole series many times since

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Sly Girl - Feb 10, 2004 11:00 am (#5 of 42)

I scoffed at the Potter books so there is a lesson right there for everyone- be careful what you make fun of, it'll come back to haunt you. Seriously, when I found out they were doing the movie and that the cast was really decent-Rickman, Harris, Smith etc, I couldn't resist taking a peek at the book. The rest, as they say is history. I probably had them all read in a few weeks. I was obsessed and there was no going back. I found the forum through Google and fell in love.

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Julia. - Feb 10, 2004 11:08 am (#6 of 42)

74% obsessed! Uconn Jew Crew says: is it August yet?
I was introduced to the Potterverse on December 25, 2001. My family and I did what most Jews do on Christmas, go to the movies and eat Chineese food. That year, my sister, who had read the books which were out at the time (the first 4, I think) picked the movie, and decided on Sorcerer's Stone. I thought it was good, but didn't pick up the books. The real intro was last fall. In my AP English class we were given the assignment to write an 8-10 page paper compareing two books by the same author, talking about themes and litterary tools used to convey those themes. Well, I convinced my teacher that It would be a good idea for me to do Harry Potter, and since it was a "children's series" that I would do all four. She agreed, and thus began the story of Julia and Harry. I was so intreagued by the books. There was something I just couldn't put my finger on that made them so wonderfull. It might have been her character development, or her story telling, I don't know, but something was drawing me to these books. A few months later I was given the first three in paperback for Hanukkah, and given a copy of the Bloomsberry edition from a friend, and I've been constantly reading them ever since.

Sorry for going on, but I get very emotional when it comes to Harry. You understand.

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Little Ginny - Feb 10, 2004 11:28 am (#7 of 42)

When my brother got the first book from my godmother, the books were not yet really popular in Germany, there was just a strange rumour that they were thought to be rather good, which I think was the reason she gave it to him. Anyway, he wasn't interested in the book at all, but I wanted to read an English book, but found most of the "adult" novels to difficult, being just fifteen and not having a large knowledge of words. I began to read the book just because of the language, but was so completely hooked by it that I read all the night, although I had to look up a lot of special words that had never come up in my English lessons (wand, toad, cauldron,...). Some days later I convinced my mother to go and find the other two books somewhere. That was some month before GoF came out, I think. The rest, as you say, is history.

Note: My brother has now read all the books as well, but thinks I'm gone mad with all that discussing stuff.

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Tomoé - Feb 10, 2004 12:42 pm (#8 of 42)

Back in business
The first time I heard of Harry Potter was when the fourth book was release. They told on a news show that Harry Potter was a new phenomenon among the kids. I remember myself thinking "Yeah, yeah, last year it was the Pokémon, this year it's Harry Potter and next year it'll be something else."

Then came the movie. I encounter one of my friend a few days after that, she told me those Harry Potter's book are great and the movie is a good one as well, but she urge me to watch the original English version. I got free tickets for any movie in a theater so went with my sister to give a try to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone. A good film, not a great one, but a good film nevertheless.

Few weeks after that, I was victim of a car crash and as I was in the hospital, my friend lent me the first book. I took me three days to read it all, as I slept almost 18 hours a day, but I like it a lot. As I get out of the hospital, my cousin lent me the second and third books of Harry and finally my friend lent me the fourth. I read them all enjoy them a lot, then give back the books.

A year and a half later, the fifth book was in store, my parents bought me a copy for my birthday. I read it, then bought the others to reread them all. I saw a lot of thing that I didn't before, I began to take a sheet to note the names of Harry's year-mate, of the Weasley family, but then I thought somebody probably did that before and I googlize some of the name and ended here.

Edit : of my car crash, I still have a scar on the forehead, bigger then Harry's, but not as pretty. -_-

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I Am Used Vlad - Feb 10, 2004 1:01 pm (#9 of 42)

I Am Almighty!
I, like Sly Girl, scoffed at the books at first, thinking they were just the latest children's craze. I didn't even see the first movie when it came out. I started reading my nephew's copy of SS/PS while waiting for my brother's family to get ready to go away for the weekend. I liked it, but wasn't hooked. A couple of months later(yes, I said months...what was I thinking) I started reading CoS, and it only took a few chapters to turn me into the complete Harry Potter freak that I am today.

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septentrion - Feb 10, 2004 1:48 pm (#10 of 42)

Art by Makani, icon by Pearle
I was more like virgoddess : children stuff...bôf ! The critics of the first film was not very enthusiastic...I let go until I saw the Cos trailer and I thought it didn't look too bad so I went and see the movie among families and children...and I liked it very, very much. I then decided to buy the books and I couldn't leave them until I read the four. It wasn't enough, I began to search for websites about HP, and I noticed they have it in english in the library where I'm used to go. I tried them and found them not too difficult even if I had to read them with my english dictionary beside me. Plus, it prepared me to read OotP without any french translation to help. And last fall, I discovered the forum where I can express my HP madness without any husband saying : "it's children stuff !".

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MrsGump - Feb 10, 2004 3:35 pm (#11 of 42)

My best friend since grade school (who had introduced me to the Narnia chronicals) bought SS for my son (then 7) for Christmas. She hadn't read it, but that was when everyone was talking about it and she thought it would be similar to the stuff we like to read. It disappeared into the recesses for my son's room. He tried to start it a couple of times, couldn't get past the Dursley chapters.

About a year later, I found it in his room, and decided to try it first to see if I could encourage him to give it another try. I'll admit that the first read, the beginning was kind of depressing. But I made it to Diagon Alley and that was it. I pushed him to read until he got past that point and he loved it.

My mom was glad he was reading real books, so she bought him CoS, PoA, and GoF (just released that summer) for Christmas. He very nicely let me go first.

We then "infected" the rest of my family. My mom and dad, my brother and his whole family, even my sister who normally only reads romance novels.

In the long wait for OotP, we looked forward to the movies. I threw a Hogwarts banquet for the opening of the first one, then a dinner at the Burrow for the second. I think a sleepover on the Knight Bus is in the works for this summer.... the books have given my whole family another excuse to get together and share. I was the first one to finish OotP, and I kept calling everyone until I found someone who also finshed so we could chat (turn out to be my 10 year old niece)

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Luanee - Feb 10, 2004 5:27 pm (#12 of 42)

Devika, I think this is a great thread!

Like most people, my initial reaction to HP books were 'oh please don't ask me to read children's stuff'. Later on, when my younger sister borrowed books 1-4 from her friend (yes I am a bit slow), I finally decided to pick up one to read in order to see what the hype was all about. But I started with CoS as she was reading PS/SS at that time, so it was a bit confusing there. As for the rest, as they said, is history.

I still have problem convincing my other friends to read HP though, their reactions are still 'children's books!'. They really do not know what they are missing....

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tracie1976 - Feb 10, 2004 7:18 pm (#13 of 42)

"Harry needs her badly." JKR on Hermione...interview from The Times June 30, 2000 artwork for avatar by logansrogue at livejournal.com
I heard about Harry Potter and thought "Oh brother just another childish trend." Well, when the P/SS movie came on cable tv I'd thought I would let the kids watch it since there was nothing else on tv. Well I got hooked, well at least to the movies because my husband borrowed CoS from his mom and we watched it. I then became curious about the books and I downloaded them off the internet (go ahead and yell at me but my daughter's friend had already lent her books out and I was too impatient to wait) but I read them and read them off of the computer. I eventually bought the first 4 books from a book order my daughter brought home for school and we got the 5th book for Christmas. I was more excited about getting the books than my daughter was. Anyways I am totally addicted now and that's a good thing

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popkin - Feb 11, 2004 1:48 am (#14 of 42)

mother
tracie, I'm very surprised you can download the books off the internet. I've done so many searches for various HP things and never come across anything like that.

My sister gave GOF to my son, Steve, for his birthday and expected me to be impressed that she was able to get hold of a copy - they were sold out everywhere at the time. I was clueless about the phenomenon, but wary of a book about magic, so I did not encourage Steve to read his new book.

Steve's school uses the Accelerated Reader Program to encourage reading, and they have to earn a certain number of Accelerated Reader points each quarter as part of their grade. Steve was far behind on points, and GOF is worth almost 40 (that's tons), so he wanted to read it. I was worried that the book might encourage real witchcraft (a big no-no in our house), so I told him we could read it together. It soon became obvious that his reading skills were very poor, and he struggled to read about every tenth page while I read the rest aloud to him. I did gloss over the graveyard scene, as I found it to be too harsh for a 10 year old. Anyway, once we got about a chapter into the book, I read ahead alone that night and finished the book before the next morning. So, I read the book through twice on the first read through.

I purchased the rest of the books as a boxed set, and Steve and I started at the beginning and finished the series (so far) together. By the time he was on PoA, he was a really great reader - using expression and voices, and understanding. And I was a fan.

We had to wait about a year for OotP to come out, and that was very hard. I feel sorry for all of you who waited for three long years. I read it through before the rest of the family, and then we read it out loud together. Now my husband is hooked on reading the books and I got tired of him reading what I was also reading at the same time, so I've purchased a second set of books.

I found the forum while trying to find out when the sixth book will come out. It's made the waiting a lot more fun.

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Devika - Feb 11, 2004 2:32 am (#15 of 42)

Isn't it interesting,... most of us here were initially so skeptical about the Potter books, and thought of them as children's literature. Today of course we'll debate our hearts out on the literary value of the Potter books!

I got my 2nd and 3rd books just a few months before the 4th book was to come out. My parents had already seen the craze that the 1st book had brought about in me! They didn't really want me to buy the books, but of course I finally over powered them! I was done with both books in some 36 hours! All my mom could say was... 'what a waste of money ... you've already read it... now what will you do with it?!' My granddad gifted me the 4th book for my birthday... and I got him to read the whole series...! Of course he was quite embarassed to admit initially that he had enjoyed a children's book... but now he likes the books too! The story of OoP is of course less dramatic because by then the the frenzy was at its peak and there was no choice but to buy the book the minute it was released. I had my copy booked a week in advance and got it 1st thing in the morning that day!

Popkin... it made me really happy to read your post... It goes to show that Potter books can help people in so many ways... I was always told to read classics when I was young... so that my english would improve. I did read them, but I realise now that I benefitted mainly from those books which I genuinely enjoyed and not just those which I was supposed to read. Today, if anyone asks me how they can improve their language, speaking skills or reading habits, I always tell them to start with HP. It's a rare combination of an exciting story and a well-written book.

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timrew - Feb 11, 2004 11:43 am (#16 of 42)

Middle-aged Harry Potter fan
I was a late-comer to the books, having put all the hysteria down to Publisher's hype. But when the fuss hadn't died down by the time GOF was released, I realised there must be something more to it than a good publicity department.

So I went down to my local bookshop and found the shelf which was full of Harry Potter books. I then spent a good half hour there, wondering whether to buy PS/SS, or all three: PS/SS, COS, and POA.

In the end, I decided on all three; because I knew that if I bought book One and liked it, I would read it in one night, and then have to return to the bookshop for the next two the following evening! I was still going to leave GOF until it came out in paperback!

On approaching the counter with my three books, the sales assistant said, "Were you waiting till the coast was clear?"

I didn't understand what she meant, until she explained that, seeing as I was an adult, I might not want other adults to see me buying kid's books. I tried to explain why I had taken so long, but I don't think she believed me!

Anyway, within three days I had read the first three books; and then I bought GOF in hardback. I couldn't wait until the paperback came out. By this time, I was hooked!

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Acceber - Feb 11, 2004 5:41 pm (#17 of 42)

Ruler of Omeletteheads
I started reading them because that's what the average third grader does, follows the crowd. My mom read the first three to me, one chapter a night (except at the end of PoA, but that's a different story). After GoF came out, I thought I was too old to be read to, so I read that one myself, over a long weekend. After I finished, I was bursting with information and leaked it out to my dad, who didn't get any of it.

During the too-long wait for OoP, I read the Quidditch chapters in the first three books over and over. That was my favorite part of the books at the time, and still is. I read OoP at camp, in about two days, but I didn't really get anything out of that first read. That's probably because I really wanted to see what would happen, I read it so quickly, skimming instead of nitpicking. I now regret it...

I discovered the Lexicon, and later the Forum, by accident. My friend is a huge Ginny/Bonnie Wright fan, because they look so much alike. I wanted to find out more about Bonnie Wright so I Googled it and found the Lexicon. From then on, it was history. My lifelong dream (that I accomplished in about five days) was read every single page on the Lexicon. Best Internet experience ever! I found the Forum by misclicking and now I'm hooked on this. When does it end?!?

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Denise P. - Feb 12, 2004 9:52 am (#18 of 42)

Ravenclaw Pony
I belonged to the Sci-Fi Book Club and in one order, they had PS/SS on sale for $1.99. I bought it and it sat on my shelf for about 18 months. About this time, PoA was about to be released so I dusted off (literally) PS/SS and read it. Then I went out and got CoS and PoA. I waited for GoF most impatiently and by sheer chance, stumbled across the Lexicon Forum when it was in its baby days over on Bravenet.

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sarah lou - Feb 12, 2004 10:14 am (#19 of 42)

I started reading the books relatively early, in that after reading PS I had to wait for each one to come out. My problem is that I really want to get my boyfriend reading them; he thinks they're kids books and is quite scathing of my addiction. I've got him to watch both films, and he has reluctantly read the first chapter of PoA - and even more reluctantly admitted it was 'quite good' - I'll keep you posted on how the conversion goes...

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virgoddess1313 - Feb 12, 2004 10:07 pm (#20 of 42)

When my boyfriend learned that I was obsessed with the books he read them all. He even read Order of the Phoenix right after it came out just so I would have someone to discuss the book with (this was before my forum days). He's not nearly as into the books as I am, but sometimes I catch him reading over my shoulder while I'm checking up on things here!! Just one more that got sucked in!

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Luanee - Feb 12, 2004 10:47 pm (#21 of 42)

Virgoddess, your boyfriend is so nice. My husband always pull a long face when he sees me reading Harry Potter, much less say read the book in order for me to have someone to discuss with... sigh...

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Julia. - Feb 13, 2004 6:19 am (#22 of 42)

74% obsessed! Uconn Jew Crew says: is it August yet?
Virgogoddess, your boyfriend was really sweet to do that for you. 10 points to him. My boyfriend is into the books (thank G-d, I don't know if I could go out with him if he wasn't), but not nearly as much as I am. At least he puts up with my ranting and raving about it.

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The Great Abbycadabra - Feb 13, 2004 12:10 pm (#23 of 42)

Crocs Rule!
I started P/SS at the end of May 2000. My mom had gotten it relatively cheaply and had devoured it. She went the next day and bought COS and POA. She kept telling me to read them, but I was rather reluctant, mostly because my mom and I, while we both read quite a bit, don't always agree on what to read. More than a few of the books my mom recommends to me are horrible! So, I didn't have much faith in Harry. *smacks forehead* I don't have a problem with children's books, in fact, that's usually all I read. I was just worried about my mom's opinion. So, I jumped into P/SS the last week of my sophomore year of high school. And, cheesily enough, the book had me at "The Boy Who Lived". I was hooked. I finished the first three a couple of weeks before GOF came out. And I kept thinking, "This is service. I finish the books, and a new one is right around the corner." If only I had known the wait that lay ahead of me.

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Eponine - Feb 13, 2004 7:17 pm (#24 of 42)

I was initially quite skeptical about the books, mostly because of all the hype. My sister and brother had both read them at the advice of an uncle, but I was not sure if I wanted to or not. I was doing my student teaching (English Ed. major) and the teacher I was working with had SS in his desk. One day, I was just observing and there was not much going on, so I decided to read it. I finished the first four books within a week. Then I had to wait 2 more years to read OotP. The college I attended was a small conservative southern school. There were many people who thought the books were bad because of the magic element. My best friend and I had quite a few arguments with people over the books.

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Ladybug220 - Feb 13, 2004 8:05 pm (#25 of 42)

...moves faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo
Edited by Feb 13, 2004 7:06 pm
I had seen the books in a store before Christmas 1999 and I had almost bought PS and CS for my brother (who was 29 at the time) but when I realized that they were "children's books" I put them down not knowing if he would like them. Then in May 2000 my friend/former roommate got me hooked when she received them as a present and started raving about them. After I read her copies about 5 times each and she was asking if she would ever get them back before I moved, I finally ordered my copies off of Amazon. So when GOF came out, I went to the store at 12:45 am so that I would not be there right when it opened but at least get the copy that night. It took me about 6 hours to read it.

Eponine, I have had to bite my tongue on several occasions when people make assumptions about the books without reading them first and I too live in the South (Birmingham, AL to be exact). One of the nurses I work with wouldn't even buy her sister OOP when she specifically asked for it for Christmas (and the sister already owns the other 4 books). My co-worker didn't approve of the witchcraft theme even though her sister is over the age of 45 and is old enough to decide what she wants to read. Sorry, I can go into a rant about that.

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Choices - Feb 13, 2004 8:31 pm (#26 of 42)

*Completely Obsessed With Harry Potter*
I'm not really sure what got me into this devine obsession, but I'll have to go with curiosity. I kept hearing so much about the books, both pro and con, and finally just had to see for myself what all the hype was about. I read book one, immediately went out and bought book two, then bought book three, had to wait a bit for book four and had to wait more than a bit for book five and am in agony waiting for book six. I just read books one through five over and over - I can't stop. If I do, I get to missing Hogwarts and all the characters so much, I have to start reading them all over again. Then I come to this forum where I can mingle with people who understand and share this HP obsession and that helps. Come on book six - get here soon!!

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freshwater - Feb 14, 2004 2:47 am (#27 of 42)

Connections, speculation, discussion: the best part of HP reading! Check out the on-going HP Lex Forum series re-read! Currently reading GoF...
Like Tim, I had actually avoided reading the HP books because of all the hype...while I'm not usually cynical, I couldn't believe they would be as good as everyone was saying. Last August (2003) my son and I were on our way to camp in the Apostle Islands (Lake Superior) for a week, and I bought SS to read on the beach. Even with the temptations of vacation fun and the work of camping, I finished it in about 3 days and couldn't wait to get the other books. As soon as we got home I bought CoS and both movies on DVD. A few days later CoS was finished and...I couldn't find PoA anywhere!! Needing to feed my new addiction, I began reading GoF (took about 3 days), then found PoA which I finished in 2 days, and then immediately read OotP in two days. Thank goodness my obsession began in the summer (I'm a teacher) or I wouldn't have been able to indulge in such a reading spree!

Since then I've read most of the books two more times, have puzzled through the Ultimate Un-official Guide to HP and the New Clues book for OotP, and have read all five books aloud to my son, and have acquired 4 more analysis/reference type books about the HP series. We have OotP on CD(my favorite, despite Jim Dale's horrendous lack of expression) and my son turns it on almost daily, so that we have probably listened to it between 2-3 more times.

I can't BELIEVE we have to wait a year (or more!!! **groan**) for the next book! We are currently counting the days until the release of the PoA movie, and I am planning on attending the next book release (probably at midnight) dressed as Luna Lovegood: long blond wig, black robe (a good use for the robe I wore when graduating with my master's degree), necklace of rootbeer caps, radishes for earrings, etc. (I admire her style--LOL:-).....and I'm 46!!!

Eponine, I attended a small, conservative southern college for a year...in Blue Mountain, Mississippi. Ever heard of it?

Hey, Ladybug220, I lived in Birmingham, AL for 2 years (about 15 years ago). We lived in an apartment just south of downtown and the Univ. of AL, Birmingham. I still have fond memories of the beautiful public garden. I taught at Abram's Middle/High School in Bessemer, AL...and survived! :-)

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megfox - Feb 14, 2004 3:07 pm (#28 of 42)

My name is Madeline Guinevere Fox, and I am pleased to make your aquaintance!
I didn't really pay much attention to the books, except for the news coverage of schools banning them and thinking how it was pretty stupid to ban something that actually made kids read. My roommate in college was an early childhood ed major at the time, and she worked at a children's bookstore, where it was pretty much mandatory for her to read all of the top sellers, so she brought home the books one night (the first three only - GoF wasn't out yet). She read them in a few days, and a few weeks later, GoF came out and she made me drive her to Barnes and Noble at seven a.m. She loved the books so much, she got a friend travelling to London for Spring Break to buy her the UK set. I actually noticed the artwork first, and one Saturday, home with a cold, decided to read the first one. I was hooked, and borrowed the rest over the next week or so, reading them between classes and after work, ignoring homework and apartment cleaning for a while Smile. It wasn't until I moved to Bar Harbor, Maine, the summer after graduation, that I truly got the bug where I wanted to read them all the time, and talk about them with friends. There was one bookstore on the island, and I think I went once a week to see if OoP was coming out anytime soon (too bad I had to wait a whole other two years for it!) I made my then-boyfriend read them, and that's how I lost my first set. I had to buy new books when I moved back to NH in the fall, hehe. Anyway, at school (meaning, at work) one afternoon, I was covering detention and was bored, so I started to google various things, and ended up googling Harry Potter, looking for when OoP was supposed to come out. I found the Lexicon, and after surfing that for a few days, there was a new icon for the Forum, and I popped in. The rest...well, I think you know. ::

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Eponine - Feb 14, 2004 5:34 pm (#29 of 42)

Freshwater, I do not believe I have heard of that school. My college was in Chattanooga, TN, where I grew up.

Once I got into the books, I did introduce quite a few of my friends to them as well. I am currently trying to get my husband to read them, and he's finally promised to start them.

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Choices - Feb 14, 2004 7:02 pm (#30 of 42)

*Completely Obsessed With Harry Potter*
Freshwater - When my Mom (who is 95 years old now) first started teaching, she taught at Blue Mountain. We are from Booneville, Miss. but live in Mobile, Al. now. Small world.

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Loopy Lupin - Feb 24, 2004 11:45 am (#31 of 42)

My story is similar to many I've heard here. Never, ever even heard of Potter until a story in U.S.A. today about kids going crazy waiting for Goblet of Fire to come out. I saw all the hype, etc., and bought a copy for my niece. Then, about a year went by when, I was visting my folks for thanksgiving. My mom had bought all four books in paperback to give to my niece and her brothers, but I reminded her that they had a copy of all of them; I had nothing much to do, so I picked up SS and spent the whole vacation plowing through all four books. Hooked ever since.

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coolbeans3131 - Feb 25, 2004 12:15 pm (#32 of 42)

I bought SS and COS for my daughter, who hates to read. I was forever buying her books that I thought were interesting. I hated to read as a child also, until my father bought me a Nancy Drew book, and I read it out of guilt. I was hooked. I figured, all it would take to get my daughter reading was one good book. So I bought the first two Harry Potter books. I had heard some of the hype.

After seeing them sit on her dresser for a few weeks, I figured I should read them, and if they were good, I wold be able to coax her into reading them. I thought they were good, and did get her to read them, over a period of time.

Sometime later I bought POA. The minute I was done with it, I had to have GOF. It was only out in hardcover, and me, being cheap, wouldn't pay that much for a book. (By the time OOP came out though, I wouldn't have thought twice about paying fifty dollars,lol) I went to the library and was put on the waiting list. When the person who had it didn't return it by their due date, I had the librarian calling them. I was very impatient. In the mean time, I also got my brother and mother reading the first three. I devoured the fourth book and passed it on. Were all big fans now, though I'm the only obsessed freak.

It wasn't until right before the OOP came out that I started searching for info on the Internet and found this sight, and others. Now I'm hooked on them.

BTW, my daughter, who loves the Harry Potter series, still doesn't read anything else. :-(

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Phoenix - Feb 27, 2004 1:16 pm (#33 of 42)

Nicola Mlynek
I first read the 'Philosopher's Stone' at school in English class and didn't pay much attention as we took it in turns to read. So initially I thought it was rather rubbish. But then I thought "what the hell, I can't just read half a book" so I got it out of the library and read it properly. I thought it was the best thing ever written. Since then I've been hooked.

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SarcasticGinny - Feb 29, 2004 11:11 am (#34 of 42)

My brother nicked GOF from a friend, and I peeked into it (looking back, I read the scene where Rita Skeeter publishes the article about Hermione betraying Harry romantically) but didn't really get it as I knew no characters. So I put starting at PS/SS on my "to-do" list.

Then, however, I took the kids I babysat to see the movie and I loved the story. On a side note, I'm terribly interested in the process of adaptations. I will read anything that's been made into a movie just because I relish noting differences. That said, once I saw the movie, reading the book became my obsession. I read all four within a month of seeing the film. Now I'm a total addict!

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Chemyst - Mar 5, 2004 11:19 pm (#35 of 42)

"Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up." A.A. Milne
I first heard of Harry Potter when my son was given the P/SS paperback for his birthday. He was just learning his alphabet in those days, so I read the book to him. The next summer we read CS together. Actually, I did most of the reading and he was trying to follow along -- I'd stop every few paragraphs and ask what the next word was just to test if he was keeping up. Later, we read PA together. By now he could read, but so slowly he'd get frustrated. We solved that by having him read every page that was numbered divisible by 3 and I read the other two-thirds of the book. By the time the GF release was being promoted and I was hearing how long it was, I sighed with relief because he could read well by then. BUT... we had had such fun reading the first three together that we traded off reading odd/even pages and eventually did the same with OP! Well, I surely don't have any speed reading bragging rights because the fastest we ever covered any of the books took nearly two weeks, but we did have fun sharing the story.

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freshwater - Mar 6, 2004 5:27 pm (#36 of 42)

Connections, speculation, discussion: the best part of HP reading! Check out the on-going HP Lex Forum series re-read! Currently reading GoF...
Oh, Chemyst...as a teacher I must say that your post warmed my heart! So many parents are so eager for their children to practice reading on their own that they stop reading aloud to them. That is such a sad loss....not only of quality time, but of the modeling of reading with expression, reading the punctuation, and thinking and interacting with the text as you read. I loved reading the books on my own, but that was nothing compared to the fun and joy of reading them aloud with my son.

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Sconie Girl - Mar 11, 2004 3:58 pm (#37 of 42)

Devika, this is a great topic. I have read the Forum for quite some time, but finnally felt compelled to post after I saw and read this topic.

I was originally introduced to HP back in 1999. My mother, boyfriend, and Aunt came to visit my in London. My mom drug us all over London looking for this ridiculus kid's book...with no luck. She kept trying to get me to read the HP books, insisting I would like them, however, I was in college at the time and didn't want to be caught anywhere near a kid's book.

It was a pretty snowy depressing Minnesota evening (in 2001) when I stopped by the local Library to pick up SOMETHING, ANYTHING, to read. I figured, what the heck, I'd finally try Harry Potter, the movie was coming out and I wanted to at least read the book before I saw the movie! I was embarrassed to ask the Librarian for help finding it. I took it home and finished it that night! I went back and got the next 2 books and finished them right away. I tried to get GOF, but the Library was closed because of a BLIZZARD. So I drove across town to buy it in hardcover. I knew I was hooked!

Now I talk about Harry all the time. My officemate loves HP too and we have listened to the entire series while we work! We can hardly wait for June...we're taking the morning off to see POA!

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Iverson Godfrey - Mar 12, 2004 6:34 pm (#38 of 42)

Harry Potter fan since 2002
My step-mother, who is a rather strange person by most normal standards really liked Harry Potter. I remember seeing something on the news right after GOF had just come out and seeing all of those kids dressed up in their Harry costumes and thinking, "Of course she likes something like that. What a weird-o".

Then SS movie came out and they were planning to drive all the way up to the city just to see this movie. I thought she was crazy. We have very different tastes in almost everything and I just couldn't imagine that I would like something that she was that crazy about. We went out to the movies with them that night, and I thought it was cute, but didn't really give it another thought.

The next summer, after SS had come out on DVD, we were at their house for a visit. My little girl wanted to watch it, so we did. Then we looked at some of the bonus footage/interviews and the part where Chris Columbus and Steve Kloves were talking about trying to live up to in everyones expectations caught my attention. They felt like it was a challenge that they met quite well. My curiosity got the better of me.

So, I borrowed my step-mom's copies of the first three books and read them in about 5 days. I liked the first two, but I loved PoA. A few weeks later I borrowed a copy of GoF from the son of a friend at work. After the end of GOF I was completely hooked and I was semi obsessed. I felt like I'd just been left hanging and I just had to know what happened next. I was looking for information about book 5 on the web when I found the lexicon. A few months later the forum started up.

I got my own copies of the first four and re-read them at least 4 times. Then I left work a few hours early (I work a night shift) to get my copy of OP before we went out of town on a road trip the day it came out. My OoP fix has worn off quite a bit and I'm really starting to feel like I NEED book 6. As a result I've started to spend a lot of time reading up on the forum again.

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Leprechaun Jack - Mar 23, 2004 7:10 pm (#39 of 42)

The cow says...moo, the sheep says...baa, and the Bear says WOOF.


Well I don't know what rock I lived under....? But I had never heard any of the hype surrounding the books or even the movies.

I was home one night watching TV and started flipping thru the channels and saw the last 2/3rds of SS on HBO. I thought it was kinda'' cute. Being that HBO shows the same movies 30-40 times in the month that its programed I figured I'd catch the beginning sometime in the near future. After seeing it from the beginning I really got a kick out of it. I then watched the movie 10 more times. Being a book snob I figured if the movie was good, the book had to be better.

So my other half got me the book for Christmas. After I finished SS I went out to buy the second, half way thru COS, I got POA after reading the first chapter, I ran to the book store to get GOF. I was planning to get my copy of OOP by Amazon when I found out we had to be in Albany,NY on the night it was released. So I called a Barns and Nobles in Albany had a book reserved and waited on line (with about 250 adults and maybe 30 who had kids, all who confessed that they were buying the books for themselves and a copy for their kid)I got my copy at 1 am and stayed up until 6 am reading(I had to be up at 7:30 am for a function).

I found the Lexicon Forum just before we began the great migration to the EZ Boards. What a time that was!!! At that point If you didn't guess I was hooked. I went onto EBAY and ordered the British versions of the Books and if that wasn't enough I decided to get the Jim Dale and the Stephen Fry versions of the Audio books.

I'm a Polysomnographist (sleep study tech) so while my patients are asleep I listen to the books Over and Over and Over again.

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Padfoot - Mar 24, 2004 1:42 pm (#40 of 42)

I first heard on the news about how the Harry Potter books were best sellers and kids were reading them like crazy. I thought the description of the books sounded exactly like what I would have read when I was 10. I pretty much forgot about them though until the first movie came out. I went to see it and really enjoyed it, so I bought the book. I enjoyed it but didn't feel the need to read any more, as they were probably all the same anyway. So a year goes by and I decide to read the second one. That's when it hit me, this crazed obsession. I went out and bought all the books and read them one after the other. I started telling everyone I knew about them. Most people told me that their kids were reading them, but they had no interest in reading them. My brother, who is 25, is the only other adult I have met who admits to liking the books. He likes them but isn't obsessed. Maybe he thinks it isn't manly to admit liking them so much? Since I am a girl, I have no problem admitting how much fun these books are. I should tell him that there are lots of guys on this forum who like the Potter world. And I am very impatient for the 6th book to come out. JKR, write faster!

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SHEla WOLFsbane - Apr 16, 2004 12:02 am (#41 of 42)

I heard about the books via the news a couple of times. I think it was when GoF and,or when OotP came out. I never really gave them much thought. The movies were already out on DVD before I saw them at my cousins house. I thought that they were okay but I still wasn't going to read the books. They were kids books after all, AND they had magic in them. Even when a few of my friends- even older than me- told me I should read them. That I'd like them, and that they were good. It wasn't until I was looking for something to do at a place I work relief at sometimes that I found SS, and started to read it. I got about half way through it that night. Unfortunately it was about six more months before I worked there again. By that time I forgot about the book, until another long night there, about three months after that. That brings us up to about July or August of this last year. One of the clients where I work had the series. So I asked if I could read the books during the slow part of the nights. Cos was finished by the end of the next night. She was reading PoA at the time, and I really didn't want to wait to read it, so on my way home I stopped off, and picked up my own copy. I went through PoA, GoF, and OotP before the end of the week. I had NO idea how many books were out there, or when the next one was coming out. So I ended up hitting the Internet to see what I could find out, and that's how I found Lexicon. It really helps to feed my HP cravings!

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draco all the way - Apr 17, 2004 3:43 am (#42 of 42)

My friend recommended HP after PoA came out, so I got on this enormous waiting list for SS (I was in the states then) when I was in the 6th grade. It took so much time,but just when I was considering taking my name off the list it was my turn. I started the book but the first chapter made no sense to me at all. Who was this Dumbledore and what is everyone talking about. At that point I had no idea it was book about magic so the paranormal stuff kinda freaked me out as well! Finally I finished the book and I was hooked and I have been ever since. 4 years later and I still love everything about HP especially Draco!
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