Back in 2008 was when I first read the books. I always had the books on my list to read and in high school was when my dad first started reading them. He always said how I should read them, but between graduating high school, starting college, moving out of the house... etc., reading Harry Potter was not on my list of priorities. ;)In summer 2008 I was looking for something good to read and I thought I would give the series a try. I headed over to my parents house, put all 7 of my dad's HP books in a paper bag and headed home. In the span of about 2 months I had my nose in a Harry Potter book and it was all I could think about. It kept me up at night reading, I spent countless hours at the pool reading and I was constantly calling my dad to discuss the books with him (I think he enjoyed it as much as I did!).
By book 7, I was sad to finish because I knew J.K. Rowling was done. My dad kept reminding me that she wasn't writing more and that I should take my time. I didn't listen. I plowed through the books and was crying by the end of the 7th. Between that ending that everyone holds so dear and the fact that it was over, I was a mess!
In the 7th movie I was most looking forward to seeing the end. I think we all were. I don't want to give anything away, but the fact that it was there (even if it was a little cheesy on screen) made my Harry Potter movie experience complete. I'm so glad it was there!
Loving these books might make me a nerd, but I don't care. I will always recommend these books to kids and adults alike. For kids I think it is wonderful, because it is a TON of pages that they can add to their list of pages read. For a child the number of pages is HUGE. If they can say they have read even one of the books, it adds a lot to their total for the year/quarter/grade level/whatever. For children it also helps them with their reading skills (obviously), but taking it a step further, it helps with how the English language is put together. If they can decipher these crazy words that Rowling has made up, they can decipher just about anything.
For adults I suggest these books because all adults need to escape from the real world and dive into a make believe fantasy world like this. It is so easy to get lost in this story and I think it would be good for almost anyone's mental health to get lost in something like this for a little while.
Now that it is over I am most looking forward to the Pottermore website. It launches on July 31st for the first one million people that register. After that it is open in October for everyone. Of course I'm going to try and be one of the first one million! There will be e-books for sale of material that J.K. Rowling has been hoarding for years. Apparently, she has stories, spells, all kinds of stuff that have to do with Hogwarts and these characters kept under lock and key. I am so excited that she is releasing them and I cannot wait to get my hands on them!
My sister and I have held the tradition of seeing the movie at midnight (since 2008) and we always go see the movie again with our dad the weekend after. We are going next week with him and I hope we can see it in 3D! Thursday night we didn't see it in 3D, but we did score some Harry Potter 3D glasses. Here we are with our glass on (we just popped out the lenses).
Harry Potter is definitely not over! It is a classic series that I know will be around for years. I will definitely continue to suggest reading them and encourage kids to finish the series.
Are you a fan of the books, the movies or both? If you're not a Harry Potter fan, why not? What deters you away from them?
5 comments:
Gah I need to see it this weekend! I feel so left out! I too powered through the 7th book within 24 hours of getting my hands on it. Then proceeded to reread it about 4 times in the following two weeks
I just didn't want to admit it was over!
Huge fan!! I started reading them backwards actually and read the fourth book FIRST. For this reason I've never been a huge fan of the first 3 books. After the fourth book I read them as they came out and had that awful two year wait for the Order of the Phoenix! These books will ALWAYS remind me of the beach since they would come out in July I would read them on my families yearly beach vacation every year. I've read every book in the series at least twice, some of them 3-4 times.
I LOVED the last movie but it was definitely bittersweet. I think we are going to see it again in the next couple of weeks too.
I reluctantly read these books and totally fell in love!! I was on a trip in Europe and ran out of reading material and the only book in English that I hadn't read at the train station book store was the 1st HP book. I bought it and by the time we got to our next destination, I had to buy another! Loved them. And I am not a make believe or fantasy person by any means, so I was very surprised that I liked them so much.
That said, I haven't seen any of the movies and I don't know that I ever will... I just fear they won't live up to my expectations. And honestly, I am not good at super long movies, so I don't know if I coudl sit for 3 hours!!
It is so bitter sweet to see the HP saga come to an end.
♥ Cat brideblu
Loved seeing it at midnight!! I'm so sad it's over though!!
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