It's my birthday tomorrow. So, this past weekend I went back home to spend some quality time with my parents and relax. I got to see one of my best friends, eat home-cooked meals, have a delicious birthday cake, and get presents!
It was a good haul this year. A penny-saving jar that counts each coin you put in. A book about Tibet written through interviews with the Dalai Lama. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which looks like just about the best book ever written (http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Zombies-Classic-Ultraviolent/dp/1594743347). A "VOTE" t-shirt. And another highlight: a book called Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts.
This is a good time to mention my intense love for all things Harry Potter. I started reading the books in 1999, in 3rd grade, not long after the first ones came out. My grandparents got me the first three books for Christmas a few months after that. In 4th grade, classmates and I worked on a script, intending to put on a play of the first book, though we never actually did (I was to play the narrator and a second minor role as the young Ginny Weasley). Also in 4th grade, my science lab partners and I named our hermit crabs Hagrid and Norbert.
Then the movies started coming out. I went to midnight releases for both the books and movies. In full costume. I followed HP-related news on Mugglenet. I started listening to MuggleCast. I bought extra HP reading material--guide books, theory books. I read fanfiction. I learned songs from the movies to play on piano. My friends and I held a "Happy Birthday Harry" party on July 31 one year. I became a fan of various wizard rock bands.
Now that I'm in college, I'm taking a one-credit Harry Potter roundtable discussion class. My English TAs reference the books in class. I make random new friends based solely on our shared love for the books.
I started reading the books when I was 9. I was 17 when the last book came out. I literally grew up right alongside Harry. I bawled whenever my favorite characters died, and cried like a baby when I got the 7th book in my hands at the bookstore.
I really feel lucky to have lived through this time. Though I'm sure our children will love the books when we introduce them, they will never get to experience the agony of waiting two years for the next book. The theorizing, the shipping, the scouring for clues. There will be no fervor, no constant news coverage (they'll scoff when we tell them the outing of a fictional character dominated the news for weeks). But it will live on, and for that I am glad.
Harry Potter fanatics unite!
Hi, my name's Kaitlyn, and I'm a Harry Potter addict. :)
ReplyDeleteI totally understand the obsession (since, you know...I have it too). I think I'll always consider Harry Potter to be a class of books all its own--it doesn't really feel fair to compare other books to it.
Thanks for describing how you started reading the books, I love how things like that stand out so clearly to the fans. I started reading them when I was ten. I honestly wasn't going to read them at first, just because my fourth grade teacher told me she thought I'd like them, only I really didn't like her, so I wasn't about to read her book suggestions. Then my grade five teacher started reading book one to us and I fell in love with it. I remember drawing Hogwarts while listening to her read. And it kind of just escalated from there.
I'm glad you had a good weekend, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, Leah! Also, I have to say... Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is pretty much the best book title I've ever heard.
Happy Birthday! Sorry I'm a bit late.
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and I'm so tempted to read it, but I kind of feel like I should read Pride and Prejudice first.
I don't remember how old I was when I first started reading Harry Potter, but I know I was fairly young because my mom read the first one to me and my brother. We used to say Hermione as "Her-me-own" We've learned how to say it since then. My brother and I used to race through reading the books. I remember sitting by the pool on vacation and we were both re-reading different books and we were seeing who could get through them the fastest. I also may or may not own a ton of Harry Potter trading cards.
I wonder if there will ever be a book, or series of books with this level of popularity for the next generation. Part of me hopes they will get to experience the excitement, but the other part of me feels like nothing will reach the level of Harry Potter.