A Little Harry Potter Fan Girling

Don't yell at me... but before this Thanksgiving break I had never read Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone...

To answer your question... Yes I have read all of the other books... and seen all of the movies.

Stop looking at me like that!!! Let me explain:

Harry Potter came out when I was what nine?! (pause while I look up the actual year) 1998... ok So I was 8. I've never been one to read the "hip trendy book" that everyone is currently raving about. I didn't read Twilight until Nic practically tied me down and told me that If I didn't read it she'd never untie me. I didn't read Hunger Games until just before the movie came out... and I didn't read Harry Potter either.

UNTIL....
I saw the first movie. I loved to read as a kid, I did, I read all of the time... And I tried reading the first HP about 3-4 times but I never could get passed the Hagrid coming and getting Harry out of the shack part. When I saw the movie... I fell in love. I loved the characters, I loved how fast paced it was, I loved Hogwarts but the reason I wanted to read the series was because of the end scene (spoiler) when Quirrel is explaining everything. How he was the one trying to make Harry fall off his broom, how HE let the troll into the castle on Halloween. I loved how J.K. Rowling tricked me into thinking Snape was the bad guy. I would also like to add that from that moment on I always trusted Professor Snape, never doubted him once. After I saw the first movie in theatres, I rushed home and momentarily questioned if I should read the first one or go right into the second... I decided that I'm sure the movie was very much like the book and I can just skip it. I'm pretty sure Harry Potter three is the first book that I read cover to cover without stopping.

Now... bounce up about 15 years and you come to present time. My boyfriend Jared is THE biggest Harry Potter fan I know... which is SAYING something because I myself am obsessed. He found out that I had never read the first book and basically flipped out. He told me that he was going to buy me the first Harry Potter for every Christmas, Birthday, Valentines and Anniversary present until I finished it. So when we went home for Thanksgiving, I grabbed it off my shelf and read it. I had always planned on going back to finish it, I didn't feel like I could really say that I'd read Harry Potter without having to add "except the first one." But Thanksgiving break was as good a time as any. Not gonna lie inner child Del was totally proud of me when I got passed the Hagrid part. :)

I read the Chronicles of Narnia years and years and years ago. It's another one of my favorites. A few years back they decided to reorganize the series in chronological order... I won't really go into how disappointed this made me, but what I will say is that it ruins the excitement of The Magician's Nephew. The reason that book is so interesting when it was book 6, instead of 1, is because you already know about the lamp post, you already know about the wardrobe so it's exciting learning how that all came to be. You find out how the white witch became the White Witch... with that being the first book... it ruins so much of the "oh wow... thaaaat's how it happened" moments. It completely ruins that book... which is why i'm glad they are doing the movies in the correct order. How is this relevant at all you might ask??? After finishing the 2nd through the 7th books I know all the characters and plot conclusions, I know who Sirius Black is. I know why Hagrid get's expelled. BUT... it was really cool to pick up on little foreshadowing moments in the first book that I never would have picked up if I'd had read that book first. I'm not saying skip all the first books in series... that would be silly. I'm just saying it was a nice little treat now and then when I'd see Sirius Black's name two books before anyone knows who he is.

I felt like OFFICIALLY completing the series from sort of beginning... to end... to beginning again deserved some sort of celebration. In this case, a rather lengthy blog post. Kudos by the way if you've made it this far. I am just soooo glad that I'm part of the Harry Potter generation. :)

Side note: Sorry to all of our followers about how few blog posts we have been able to publish lately. It's a really hard time of year for both of us. With Winter break coming in only a few short weeks Nic and I will be together again and produce lots of new posts. Thanks again for being such good followers!!