This is a collaborative post
It’s Wednesday which means it’s a #BringBackPaper day here! If you missed last week’s, do pop and take a look as it includes this year’s activities and details of the Read Write Create challenge, along with this month’s Happy Mail project.
Today I’m asking, have you read the Harry Potter books, or have you given them a wide berth due to all of the hype and popularity? Well, Sian from The Adventures of a Potty Mouthed Mummy avoided them for some years, and she shares her story with us here…..
For years, I was completely dismissive of the entire Harry Potter book collection (and the movies and all it entailed).
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone came out in 1997, when I was a wee dot of 14. All around me everyone at school had the book, was talking about the book. I had a mild fascination but soon I felt a revolsion towards becoming a sheep. I have never been comfortable jumping on a band wagon simply because everyone else does. By the time the first movie was released, it seemed Harry Potter had taken over the world and I was firm in my stance that I would never read the novels.
Let us then fast forward to 2014. The year that I picked up and read not just the first Harry Potter book, but all seven of them in quite quick succession.
What changed in my mind?
Well the thought of my little H one day wanting to read the books, of having an interest in the books and me not liking them for no reason other than the fact they were too popular. So I decided to give it a go. To try and see what so many people were in love with.
I didn’t have much hope when I picked up the first book. I was a 30 year old mother of one. Harry Potter is an 11 year old wizard. There didn’t seem much likelihood that our lives would in anyway hold similarities or anything I would enjoy.
So there I was, picking up the first novel without much expectation that I would make it to book number two. I am a fast reader, much to my husband’s amusement. When I enjoy a book, I can’t put it down. When I love a book I do things like: walking along the train platform when reading, staying up far too late to finish “just one more chapter” and trying to find any spare moment to read more. I finished the first book within one day. I read the entire collection within the space of 18 days. And after reading the final book, I wept. Both because of the ending but because it was over, I would never be able to experience Harry Potter for the very first time ever again.
For Christmas, my husband bought me the entire collection. I had borrowed copies when reading the first time round and when I love a novel, I have to own it. I am now leisurely re-reading my way through the seven novels again. I have to admit that I have become somewhat obsessed with the world of Mr Potter.
There’s a scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
“Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.
“After all this time?”
“Always,” said Snape.”
? J.K. Rowling
And this is how I will feel forever about the Harry Potter books. They have taken a firm place in my heart, just as the scar on Harry Potter’s forehead left a lasting mark on his destiny. Some people have laughed at me and will most assuredly laugh at this. Most of these people are probably people who cannot appreciate the true beauty in reading and that is fine. But Harry Potter will forever be one of my greatest loves. It has captured me. That is the power of a good book (or seven good books)! If you’re not a reader, you won’t know that feeling and there is no way for me to explain it. But the feeling from reading books that take over your heart; well there simply aren’t many feelings like that in the world.
Reading Harry Potter has given me a new love and it will forever teach me never to be put off anything simply because everyone else loves it.
I will hope patiently that my little guy one day reads them and loves them as much as I. But if he doesn’t then that is also fine. Maybe one day he will wake up as a 30 year old man and suddenly want to read them, just like his mummy did.
Thank you, Sian. This definitely resonates with me, as I do know what it is to carry a little piece of a book with you. It draws you in and it changes you in some small way. I am the opposite, though, with popular books, as I want to know what all of the fuss is about so I have to read them. Which means that I read Harry Potter many years ago now, and thoroughly enjoyed them, and it also means I read 50 Shades of Grey – now there I can tell you that you are not missing anything!
What about you? Are you a Potter fan? Or have you had a similar experience with other books?
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post
I love this post, I’m exactly the same. I bought the first Harry potter book for myself at Christmas time , I’m on the second one now and I absolutely love them. Once I’ve read them
All I will watch the movies.
They are great books, enjoy!
Thanks for featuring me! I too have read 50 shades ha ha. Terrible but I quite like them weirdly! xx
Thanks for featuring! I know what you mean, awful, and yet I still read all three!x
Lovely post, Sian. I too love Harry Potter, and was also dubious at first. My OH bought me a book (no 3, randomly!) For my birthday in 2000 I think, the book had just come out and he was stumped for what to get me…. I started reading anyway and was hooked, read the first two books then continued in the proper order. At the time I was living in London and there were several occasions I nearly missed my Tube stop because I was so engrossed. I’ve got copies at home of all but no 6, it came out when I was living in New Zealand and was too heavy to bring home…xx
You need no 6!
I LOVED this post Sian 🙂 I am a HUGE, HUGE, MAHOOSIVE HP fan myself and must have read the books at least 15 times each over the years. When the last one came out my sister, being a faster reader than I, read it before me and left me a note tucked into a page near the end saying ‘don’t worry, it will all be ok’ because she knew how emotionally invested I was! I still have that note 🙂 You’ve made me want to read them again now! Which I definitely will before the year is out 🙂 Lexie X
So sweet of your sister! x
Oh, Harry! I feel like I grew up alongside him – I read the first book when I was twelve – and the books (and then the films, to a lesser extent) were a huge part of my teenage years. I cried when they were finished, too. I couldn’t bear to close the book knowing that there was no more of the wizarding world still to come.
Almost a decade later, I’m still listening to the audiobooks while I do the housework 🙂
Lovely post, Sian! x
Love that you listen to the audiobooks while doing your housework, makes it so much more interesting!
OMG I so get you, I love, love, love Harry Potter, it bought every book on pre order. The story is incredible, and will forever be my favourite book. I ma going to visit Harry Potter land at Universal this year and I am beside myself with excitement x
Oh now that will be fabulous! Enjoy 🙂
I’m so so so happy that Sian decided to read harry potter! When it first came out I was 7, and my brother’s year 5 teacher gave it to me as a present, and I have that copy still with all the pages falling out as I read (past and present tense) it over and over and over – it was my first book love, and I cried when it finished, and I cried when the films finished too because when the films came out I was the actor’s age and we grew up together, and the books helped me grow up and harry potter has a special place in my life 🙂 I’m so glad that she decided to read them – just wait til she reads them to her little one, still plenty of first times ahead! so glad you shared this 🙂 jenny xx
It’ll be wonderful to introduce them to our little ones, as it’s like reading them afresh again, through the children’s eyes. Will be magical 🙂
I was late to the Harry Potter series too….I only started reading them when I was pregnant with my youngest…..I had the first couple….Read them and bought the rest as soon as I could….I prefer the books to the films.
Yes, me, too, Kim. Though I do think that as film versions of books go, they are good.
I was exactly the same. I was working at Woolworths when the first movie was released on DVD and we all dressed up as characters from the films yet I had zero interest, avoided the books, avoided the movies and it wasn’t until a couple of years ago when Hubby bought me the box set of books for Christmas that I read them, and finished the entire series in 6 weeks. I just couldn’t put them down! x
They are that good, I totally agree x
Oh I love the Harry Potter books! I took them on holiday one year and wasn’t sure what to expect and like you just couldn’t put them down. I have read them at least 3 times 🙂
They’re addictive!
I saw most of the Potter films before I read any books. As a rule, although I love books, I don’t take to big, long books, which all of these are. Having thoroughly enjoyed reading all of them though, I love that they’re thick and sturdy because this seems to add to the experience (particularly if you’re collecting them). For me, Harry’s world is so very clever, so thought-provoking and so emotional. Like everyone, I didn’t want it to end. I so wish I had thought of them. Not for the fortune (though I wouldn’t say no, of course!) but for the recognition of a work of genius in every way…
I know just what you mean, and always the sign of a great series when you desperately don’t want it to end.
I’m a total Harry Potter nut so this post makes me SO happy! I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read the books and watched the films, I play the games and sometimes Pottermore to read more of HK Rowlings tales within the story. I love it and I love when others love it too! Yeah ok I’m done geeking now! Great post xx
I thought you might like this one, Hannah! x
I’m very similar I never like to read books that are hyped up because they can be disappointing, I avoided the hunger games until the second film came out then finally read them and was hooked from the very start
Sometimes books do actually live up to the hype!