Potter Questions
I've decided to get into these daily Potter questions that some on my f-list have been doing, starting from the beginning.
1. Discuss how you got into Harry Potter
It was the summer of 2001. I was fifteen. My mum, my best friend and I went on a short break to Centre Parcs, a holiday park in Longlete Forest, Wiltshire. The accommodation was self catering so the first thing we did after recovering from the journey was go to the onsite Parc Market to stock up on breakfast supplies and other bits and pieces (other meals would be in the various restaurants). As you can imagine, I was in a very good mood, not only to be on holiday but to have my friend there too. While Mum was at the checkout I started browsing the books and things by the door and I saw that they had Harry Potter books. I think I remember Mum first pointing them out to me a while before, saying that I should read them because they were bestsellers, and prospective authors like myself should read what’s selling. I hadn’t really been interested before though. But since I was in such a good mood, and good moods often mean spending moods for me, I had a look in the front to see which was the first one and asked Mum if we could get it. She said yes so we did. Until I read the blurb on the back I had no idea what the series was about. I didn’t really pay much attention to the news.
I didn’t actually start reading it until after I got home, because I’d brought another book away with me that I’d already started, but despite liking the other books in that series it got boring and I never finished it. So then I started reading The Philosopher’s Stone. I think I read a few chapters and then put it aside for a while, which is my habit with books, but when I picked it up again I got into it and finished it. I have a rather vivid memory of lying at the bottom end of my bed reading the words, “It was Quirrell,” and being completely gobsmacked. It hadn’t even occurred to me to question whether Snape was the villain or not, and when Quirrell explained all the clues that had been there all along I just thought it was brilliant.
I quickly got hold of the second one, and then the third. Years later I found an old diary I’d briefly kept (I never keep diaries for long) which had an entry about finding the third book in Mum’s room which she’d bought but not yet given to me. And I remember quite clearly the day that I bought the fourth book, which was the last one that was out at the time. I went into town with my mum, and remember being in the bank with it. I didn’t start reading until I got home and, like others, I was confused at the beginning. Harry wasn’t in it. But I loved the rest. And then I came to the end… Voldemort was back. They’d failed to stop it happening. There was no happy resolution. Naïve and sheltered as I was I had never read or watched a children’s story (other than Watership Down, which I hated) that didn’t have a happy ending. From that moment on I was more than in love with the series - I was a fanatic! So much so that I even drifted away from my previous obsession, which was The Lion King. That had been the movie that occupied most of my daydreams until that point, but no longer. Now my head was just Potter, Potter, Potter, Potter, Potter... Weasley, Weasley. ;)
These days I’m not quite as... hyper, shall we say, about it. And thankfully I’ve grown out of needing to buy absolutely anything Harry Potter that I see. My ottoman that houses all my Potter stuff just wouldn’t accommodate it. But my daydreams are still probably 80% Potter. 78% Harry and Ron. :D My goodness, if they had died! *shudders*
1. Discuss how you got into Harry Potter
It was the summer of 2001. I was fifteen. My mum, my best friend and I went on a short break to Centre Parcs, a holiday park in Longlete Forest, Wiltshire. The accommodation was self catering so the first thing we did after recovering from the journey was go to the onsite Parc Market to stock up on breakfast supplies and other bits and pieces (other meals would be in the various restaurants). As you can imagine, I was in a very good mood, not only to be on holiday but to have my friend there too. While Mum was at the checkout I started browsing the books and things by the door and I saw that they had Harry Potter books. I think I remember Mum first pointing them out to me a while before, saying that I should read them because they were bestsellers, and prospective authors like myself should read what’s selling. I hadn’t really been interested before though. But since I was in such a good mood, and good moods often mean spending moods for me, I had a look in the front to see which was the first one and asked Mum if we could get it. She said yes so we did. Until I read the blurb on the back I had no idea what the series was about. I didn’t really pay much attention to the news.
I didn’t actually start reading it until after I got home, because I’d brought another book away with me that I’d already started, but despite liking the other books in that series it got boring and I never finished it. So then I started reading The Philosopher’s Stone. I think I read a few chapters and then put it aside for a while, which is my habit with books, but when I picked it up again I got into it and finished it. I have a rather vivid memory of lying at the bottom end of my bed reading the words, “It was Quirrell,” and being completely gobsmacked. It hadn’t even occurred to me to question whether Snape was the villain or not, and when Quirrell explained all the clues that had been there all along I just thought it was brilliant.
I quickly got hold of the second one, and then the third. Years later I found an old diary I’d briefly kept (I never keep diaries for long) which had an entry about finding the third book in Mum’s room which she’d bought but not yet given to me. And I remember quite clearly the day that I bought the fourth book, which was the last one that was out at the time. I went into town with my mum, and remember being in the bank with it. I didn’t start reading until I got home and, like others, I was confused at the beginning. Harry wasn’t in it. But I loved the rest. And then I came to the end… Voldemort was back. They’d failed to stop it happening. There was no happy resolution. Naïve and sheltered as I was I had never read or watched a children’s story (other than Watership Down, which I hated) that didn’t have a happy ending. From that moment on I was more than in love with the series - I was a fanatic! So much so that I even drifted away from my previous obsession, which was The Lion King. That had been the movie that occupied most of my daydreams until that point, but no longer. Now my head was just Potter, Potter, Potter, Potter, Potter... Weasley, Weasley. ;)
These days I’m not quite as... hyper, shall we say, about it. And thankfully I’ve grown out of needing to buy absolutely anything Harry Potter that I see. My ottoman that houses all my Potter stuff just wouldn’t accommodate it. But my daydreams are still probably 80% Potter. 78% Harry and Ron. :D My goodness, if they had died! *shudders*