In the year 2000, when I was nine years old, my mother read the first Harry Potter book for me and my younger sister over the course of several nights.
After she had finished, I was still so entranced by the world which had been presented to me that I reread it several times on my own.
While I did not understand it at the time, what I love about ‘Harry Potter’ is that they are mystery-novels disguised as fantasy.
Reading ‘Harry Potter’ often feels more like reading ‘Sherlock Holmes’ than reading ‘The Lord of the Rings’.
My mother must have noticed my entrancement, because later that year, during my tenth winter, I got the newly Norwegian-translated second and third Harry Potter book for Christmas.
I would go on to reread the three books I had, again and again, for almost an entire year.
When the fourth book arrived in 2001 I just added that to my rereading of the other books, until I did the same with the fifth one when the Norwegian version arrived in 2003.
By the time the seventh and last book arrived in 2007, I had started slowing my rereading down a bit, and had started expanding my reading list.
To this day, I have only read the last book once, despite the fact that I love it as much as the rest of them.
While I at the time was annoyed by how many of the cool small details that I liked had been removed from the movies, I have later realised just how lucky we were to get a film-series which were that closely modeled on the source material.
And I always enjoyed the fact that I was always exactly in the target demographic for each movie as it came out. Almost exactly the same age as the main characters, as I grew up alongside Harry Potter and his friends.
At the closest we were exactly the same age, and at the furthest away I was a little over three years older than Harry, as the last film came out.
But while I eventually aged quicker than the character, I never outgrew Harry Potter.
It looks like those books are timeless.My eldest daughter was too young when they were first out and then they kind of faded their fame a little and so they never really entered our house untill this year.She is nearly 12,started her first one on March and now she had nearly finished the seventh one.She literally can’t take her eyes away from them.Daughter number two is starting first book now.🤓
The books takes place between 1991 and 1998, and it never feels like the past at all, so timeless is a good word for it 🙂
The ages of the main characters start at 11 and goes up by one year each book, and the writing matures with the characters, so 12 is a perfect starting place for the series.
She is really enjoying it in fact ,the sister is still too young ,you can see that🤓
My younger sister never got as in to Harry Potter as I did, probably due to her age when she was first exposed to it.
While I never read a single one, alas I’ve bought more than I can count. As a therapist and former Child Protection Worker, I am grateful to the author. She inspired so many children to read. Many are children who might never have been interested in reading.
Good choice for that! 😀
The books are filled with many types of both functional and disfunctional families, adopted and otherwise.
I imagine those books would be good to help kids deal with different adults, and to know what a good vs a bad parent/child relationship looks like.
I hope you read them sometime, I’m sure that is an angle you could use in your work 🙂
It’s nice to see you didn’t outgrow Harry Potter! I think I was the same age as Harry when the films came out, so that was nice. It felt like I was right there with him.
I think that is part of why the series became as big as it did, that so many people felt like that 🙂
Such a wonderful series, feel lucky to have grown up with it too 🙂
They are so great!
I need to get around to reading Rowling’s more recent books, she is such a good writer 🙂
Yeah, I’ve not really read anything else by her either but should probably change that!
Harry Potter was also the book that turned me into a total bookaholic.
Those books are so great, you can’t help loving books after reading them! 😀
This is so relatable!
Do you have a book or series of books that are as important to you as these are for me? 🙂
Oh yes. Harry Potter did the same for me. Also, the Percy Jackson, Hunger Games and Artemis Fowl series. These basically made my childhood and affected me so much that half a decade later I’m running a book blog dedicated to them, and writing a book of my own!
Never tried Percy Jackson or Hunger Games, but I loved Artemis Fowl!
Not as much as Harry Potter, and I can’t remember much about AF, so i should probably revisit them soon.
I have a plan for a book myself, but I need to get the comic I’m writing up and running before I can begin thinking about writing any other big projects.
But I should have it up this fall.
Oh wow, that’s great. You’re into art as well, I presume, if you’re working on a comic?
I’m into it, but I’m not good at it 😛
So I have hired an artist, and he’s great.
But since I can’t afford to pay for all that art in one big slump, it is going to take some time before the comic is done.
After we release the first few pages, there will only be one new page per month, unless we get some help from Patreon, then we can speed it up a bit.
That’s great. All the best for your venture! I’d love to read your comics once they’re out!
Thanks 🙂
Keep your eyes on my site, the comic will probably start to come out in a month or two.
I have some cool Halloweeny posts lined up for October anyway, so check back then 😉
Will do!