Growing up with Harry
Mar. 29th, 2007 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
author_by_night(Yet again, non-Harry Potter people- forgive me.)
Many of us were children or in our early teens when we first picked up the book with that odd guy in front of a train (or on a broomstick, or somewhere else, depending on where you reside.)
So I'm conducting a survey of sorts, and want feedback from those of you who were in your teens or younger when you first read the books. In a short paragraph or sentence, tell me these things
- Your country of residence.
- The fandom/LJ name you want to be quoted as (in case I decide to quote yours), or if you'd rather not be quoted, but still want to answer.
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
- What it was like, growing up with the books.
If you know someone who grew up with the books (little brother/sister, younger friend, your own kid, etc.), you may also post about that.
Note: I will be quoting a number of these unless you request otherwise, but it is possible not all answers will be used. I will make an effort to link to this post when I complete the project, but if it is hard to fit the number I recieve in, I will not be able to. However, again, I will link to this.
Oh, and just FYI: I was fourteen when I first read the books. I'm now twenty two. Time flies!
ETA: Thanks to all of you who have replied so far! 41 comments! One of these days I will catch up on replying, but in the meantime, it's been cool hearing all of your stories, and look forward to more. :)
Many of us were children or in our early teens when we first picked up the book with that odd guy in front of a train (or on a broomstick, or somewhere else, depending on where you reside.)
So I'm conducting a survey of sorts, and want feedback from those of you who were in your teens or younger when you first read the books. In a short paragraph or sentence, tell me these things
- Your country of residence.
- The fandom/LJ name you want to be quoted as (in case I decide to quote yours), or if you'd rather not be quoted, but still want to answer.
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
- What it was like, growing up with the books.
If you know someone who grew up with the books (little brother/sister, younger friend, your own kid, etc.), you may also post about that.
Note: I will be quoting a number of these unless you request otherwise, but it is possible not all answers will be used. I will make an effort to link to this post when I complete the project, but if it is hard to fit the number I recieve in, I will not be able to. However, again, I will link to this.
Oh, and just FYI: I was fourteen when I first read the books. I'm now twenty two. Time flies!
ETA: Thanks to all of you who have replied so far! 41 comments! One of these days I will catch up on replying, but in the meantime, it's been cool hearing all of your stories, and look forward to more. :)
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 02:57 pm (UTC)- Your country of residence.
The Netherlands. ^^
- The fandom/LJ name you want to be quoted as (in case I decide to quote yours), or if you'd rather not be quoted, but still want to answer.
Just this name, Linda Lupos.
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
I'm 24 right now but I was 17 when I started reading it.
... SEVENTEEN?
*calculates* Yes! I started reading it in the summer of 2000! O_O
- What it was like, growing up with the books.
Wow. Euh. I guess I didn't really 'grow up' with them since 17 is a pretty grown-up age already. But it has shaped me in ways that I can't really imagine me without Harry Potter. I owe friends to it, and my writing, and most importantly so many good memories! I don't think I'd even have been as involved on the internet had it not been for Harry Potter!
I was discussing this with this woman at my sewing class the other day, and whether the books would keep up over time. I mentioned that it would be totally different for our children to read the books because they'd have all the books readily available: they don't have to wait three years for OotP! Maybe what happens in it will be a meme like "Darth Vader is Luke's father" - EVERYBODY knows Snape kills Dumbledore. HP is, it seems to me, to this generation what Star Wars was to kids in the 80's and LotR was in the 60's. Something people connected to, what became a part of their lives, and I think it'll be hard for other people, later generations, to understand!
*hums For Good* Because I knew you, I have been changed... for good...
Oh, and uhm. My brother was 12 when he first read HP (also summer of 2000) and HP has been among the handful of books he has actually finished to date. He's not a great reader (like me...) but HP held his attention. For the first time, it was actually my younger brother who asked if we could please stay home so he could read! That was pretty amazing and I think my parents were incredibly grateful to JK Rowling for actually writing a book that had my brother spellbound. :)
And then there was the 3-year wait for OotP and he lost interest (he still knows Snape kills Dumbledore but that was because I screamed about it XD) but there's still the memory of the summer when he read three long books (long for his standard) in three weeks. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 05:56 am (UTC)Sanjhiya Mayekar
I am 17 now (or rather, going to be 17 this August) and I was 12 then.
Harry Potter has been an extremely intense experience for me as I have literally grown up with the books. They have given me pleasure and a whole universe to retire into when I am tired of this big bad world. Harry and his friends are very normal people (if you leave out an extremely evil wizard and unimaginable adventures), so me and, I think, all people of my age, are able to relate to them. As for me, when I first read the first book, I completely enjoyed myself as it perfectly complemented my wild imagination (which I still have) and my innocence (which i have lost). I've even had my first crush, more or less the same time as Harry's had had. I think Jo has captured the torment of the teenage years perfectly, and I had more fun thinking that 'Ha! Harry's so reasonable' or 'That's exactly what I would've done' or 'Harry's temper matches mine perfectly'! So basically, Harry and I've been through all the stages of the teenage life together and we wait and gear up for the final meeting of Voldemort, and the end of a fascinating series together, at the same age. But one thing's certain, how much ever I grow up, Harry will always remain in my heart as the same angsty teenage boy we all fell in love with... and so will I - remain the same angsty teenage girl, I mean.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 06:53 pm (UTC)This is for a special project I'm doing that I'm keeping under tight wraps right now.In other words, you'll know in the next while. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 04:35 pm (UTC)- JK Ashavah
- 21. I was 14 at the time.
- HP provided a really pivotal phase of my growing up, actually. The people I met through online fandom helped me get through some really tough times, because they helped me realise that, despite what my peers in real life might think, I really was OK and that being interested in fantasy and intellectualism and stuff was all right.
And having Hermione as a role model was very important for me too. It was so wonderful to see a character in mainstream pop culture who, like me, loved reading, enjoyed studying for its own sake, and thought her marks were one of the most important things in her life. Having someone like that to look up to helped my self-esteem more than I can really say. Because if she could be cool and awesome while still doing all that stuff, so could I.
In addition to all that, HP reawakened my creativity, and gave me many, many fun times and a great deal of relaxation theorising, writing fanfic, and participating in discussion boards, not to mention organising various fandom projects, like the SQ birthday tributes. And all that helped me develop creative and organisational and analytical skills that will be with me for the rest of my life.
:-) Hope this is something like what you were looking for.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 05:18 pm (UTC)I was 12 1/2 when I first read SS. My family had gone to Denver for Christmas and New Year's to visit relatives. One gift for my entire family was the first three HP books. I had been very dubious about them before when librarians and friends told me how great they were. A few days into my vacation, I'd already read all the books I'd brought with me, so I started SS. I've been hooked ever since.
I discovered fandom when I was 16. I was so impatient for OotP, and a friend of mine told me about fanfiction. Within a year, I joined lj, and discovered a whole new realm of fandom.
HP has been this part of my life, this common ground between me and a chunk of the world. I love meeting new friends, either in rl or online, who share my passion. I remember reading HBP and immediately going online and checking out theories. As soon as my little brother finished, we discussed the plot and characters in detail. Then my mom finished, and all three of us debated Snape's guilt or innocence. HP is just this way of connecting people, all people. I love it.
I'll be 20 in June.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 08:53 pm (UTC)was forcibly inductedalso grew up with the books, but didn't get into them to the same exent that I did, although we do discuss them together.no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 09:00 pm (UTC)Now, my brother (I think he was six or seven at the time) doesn't like to read books that I recommend, so he absolutely refused to read it. Eventually, I chased him down, sat on him on the living room floor (I'm not kidding), and started reading it to him. After a little bit he quieted down, and we took turns reading pages. Then I was just doing the dialogue. Then he was just reading it. A sweet victory.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 10:08 pm (UTC)Australia
- The fandom/LJ name you want to be quoted as (in case I decide to quote yours), or if you'd rather not be quoted, but still want to answer.
Arieskalexander
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
I was 7 - Now almost 14. I started reading just before GoF
- What it was like, growing up with the books.
It is fantastic - There's lots of hope in it, the hope that you or someone you know will recieve The Letter (or was that just me). Or there's lots of excitement when the sellout time arrives - either for book or movie. The HP books gave me something to look forward to every year. Now it's vanishing...
My older sister grew up with it as well. She was 10 (we started reading together) now she's 17. She was just as obsessed as I was over the books, though the hope that she'd get a letter must have been less, seeming as she was 11 by the time GoF came out. SHe's sort of started to lose interest in the books (bad thing to do. Bad!).
Hope we helped.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 02:09 am (UTC)Country of residence: United States
I was 11 when I read the first book, and I'm almost 19 now.
Growing up with Harry Potter was great. I read Sorcerer's Stone three times the first night I had it, I loved it so much. I devoured the next two books and had my sister and mother read them. We discussed it, which was cool. I remember trying to read them to my little brother who hated reading (he fell asleep, the loser). It was a bonding thing not only for family, but for friends, too. My best friend at the time and I talked about them all the time. I think we even played Harry Potter, too, in her cupboard under the stairs. When four and five came out, I read them as soon as I discovered they'd been released. Predicting with people I knew was really fun.
I made my brother go through and read all the books now (I think he's finishing the sixth one), and that's a big deal. He and I used to fight all the time, so it's really cool to be able to share something like that with him. And when I'm talking to people and there's nothing else to discuss, I'll bring up Harry Potter, because almost everyone has read them, and everyone has different opinions.
More recently I found the fandom online. Writing fanfiction helped me through a bad period in my life, not to mention that I met my best friend through fanfiction, even though she lives on another continent.
Yeah, pretty much one of the best things ever to happen to me was Harry Potter. w00t.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 11:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 02:16 am (UTC)Canada
- The fandom/LJ name you want to be quoted as
Jacqueline
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
I'm 16 now, and I started reading HP when I was 7 or 8.
- What it was like, growing up with the books.
It's been amazing. As the craze began to grow, I found myself bonding with everyone around me over this one series that seemed to draw every kid in. The Monday after release dates, we would all come in to school comparing how far we were in the book and teasing each other with spoilers. I loved the characters so much and thought I was just like Hermione. When I turned 11, I waited and waited, hoping that I might get a mysterious letter in the mail, that I might be able to join this tight-knit wizarding world and belong there (I was always more of an outsider from the other kids when I was younger). And then, when I was 12, I discovered fandom, and it was almost like getting a letter - I was plunged into this wonderful new community of people who loved HP. I read and wrote fanfic like there was no tomorrow, and joined FictionAlley Park (where I met people who remain my close friends). I've definitely become more cynical about HP since the early days, especially since I've read fanfic that was better than canon, but having this in my life was something I'm really happy about.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 11:55 am (UTC)Oh, that's so sweet. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 02:41 am (UTC)USA
- The fandom/LJ name you want to be quoted as (in case I decide to quote yours), or if you'd rather not be quoted, but still want to answer.
Arya
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
- What it was like, growing up with the books.
I started reading the series in fifth grade. I'm now a freshman in college. When I started reading the books, they were just becoming popular in the US. The third one hadn't been released yet, and I distinctly remember going to the store with my mom to get it. I read the books and loved them instantly. As for growing up with them...I'll just say it's hard to remember not having a HP book to wait for. It's so strange and sad that it's all ending. I'm not quite sure what I'll do, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 03:08 am (UTC)Name: Adel Sial
Country of Residence: USA
Age: Now, 19, then 13
How was it like growing up with the books?:
These books changed the way I grew up, met and interacted with friends, the way found interests, and even what my passions and dreams are for my life. I started to read the books from a recommendation from my oldest friend, when we weren't that close anymore. It was right before I went to a new school, where I knew close to nobody. This was in 1999, and in my school Potter was just getting to be popular. I made and connected with friends who I am still close with through reading the books and theories about the next one. We still plan and plot today. Through Harry Potter, my friends and I began sharing and discussing hundreds of other books with each other.
Through these friends, I also found fandom, where I learned that kids my age could and were writing. It was mind-opening to know that I could write too. I learned my passion for story telling, which today impacts my career and future choices.
When I was 14, I started to read the books to my younger brother, then 8. In the years it has taken us to get through the series, my brother has gone from having little interest in reading to loving fantasy books such as Eragon and Lord of the Rings. Harry Potter connects my brother and I like very little does, considering our personalities and the age gap between us. We laugh, joke, and read together, now.
Harry Potter, through both direct and indirect means, has made, changed and strengthened bonds between friends and family for me and helped me figure out my passions in life. For a "kids book," these books have done an aweful lot of things for me as a "grown up," if I can be called that yet. I grew up with Harry, found friends with Harry, and laughed and cried with him. A world with out him to look forward to will be a new one indeed.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 03:43 am (UTC)It's been eight long years since that fateful spring. I read so, so many books the spring of fifth grade that have become major tenets of my life; So You Want to Be a Wizard, the Hobbit, Harry Potter, the Bridge to Terabithia, and many more. But Harry, oh Harry. In sixth grade, in a effort to punish me, my mother took all my Harry Potter books away. Well, she missed the second one, but I was only halfway though the third one! The travesty! So the first time I was home alone, I swtiched the book jackets of the two books and went on my merry way.
Harry and I, we've had good times together. When I went off to college last summer, I debated for almost a week whether or not to bring Harry with me. I didn't, but only beacuse I assured myself beforehand that there were several copies in the library for just in case. I've loved, obsessed, read the second one a number of times which is in the triple digits. I've even had people show up at midnight release parties to see me because they knew I would be there.
I don't know whether to be excited or sad. On the one hand, I really really really want to know what happens. REALLY (like the time I stalked the book delivery man through the mall when he was delivering the 5th HP book). But, I don't want it to be over. I want the anticipation, the eagerness, the Absolute Certianty that I KNOW what will happen next (I've called it at least once every book!). In many ways, i'm willing to deal with not knowing because there will be more. Not anymore!
But I've always love Snape. He had me at "bottle glory". To my little fifth grade mind, he was the perfect character. To have that kind of speech to make! And then I discovered Alan Rickman, and my Snape obsession got better and better.
Sorry, I think this is a lot longer than you wanted, I'm feeling a bit verbose tonight. Quote me as
I was 10, I am 18.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 04:30 am (UTC)What it was like, growing up with the books? Oh god what was it like. What was it NOT like is the better question, really. Even though that makes very little sense grammatically. I didn't grow up with the books- I grew up. And Harry Potter was that. Growing up and those books, those characters, those quotes and feelings and plots and worries and happiness and closeness - all that was twisted up into ME and who I was, and my happiness and fears and friends and life.
I didn't read before Harry Potter. I hated it. I didn't want to learn. All I can say when I think back on that now is WOW. I can't imagine what I would be like if HP was never written. Sure, I would learn to read like all the other kids. But not in the same way or for the same reasons. I got Sorcerer's Stone for Christmas from my aunt and a few days later I was board and my mom suggested reading my new book. Angry, I scoffed and stormed into my room, flopped on my bed and (I still don't know why I did it) grabbed HP and started to read. I struggled, at first. I knew knew how to read but I just hated it. but as the first page went by and then the second and the third I started going a bit faster and it was like my frustration melted away. I finished the book that night. I stayed up WAY past midnight and I'm sure there were many words that I didn't get quite right... but I read it. I read it all. And that was the first night I dreamed of it. I dreamed of everything.
The next morning I felt different. I knew, even at age seven, that this was something big. This was something that I would never give up and would always stay with me. I knew that this was Harry Potter.
From that day on I worked. I convinced and, in some cases, bribed my friends to read the books. I introduced it to my whole circle of friends. We were all affected by it.
I started HP roleplay way back when I was still so young I referred to it as "playing Harry Potter". Childhood arguments about who should play Ron abounded. I was Harry.
Then the internet came. And with it, Fandom. Communities and fanfiction and shipping oh my. And a few years later there was SLASH.
It's really hard to even think about separating me from Harry Potter. I saw the world not only from my eyes but from his. Brown and green fused together.
There have been so many discussions had and friends made because of Harry Potter. I've been to club meetings and midnight book releases and worn Harry Potter costumes downtown and walked around with huge 'Snarry is my OTP' picket signs. I've thrown birthday parties for the characters and spent hours fangirling and flailing and my family is so used to it all by now that they rarely notice. I do fanart and that has helped me immensely to develop my artistic skills. Harry Potter has made me bolder, more free to be myself. It gives me something with which I can use to bond with people from all over the world. It's stirred my passions and my fears. I has made me debate and wonder and theorize and organise and so many more verbs.
This is my generation. We were all so deeply affected by these books, this phenomenon.
Harry Potter is millions of children and adults. Harry Potter is US.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 06:58 am (UTC)The UK.
- The fandom/LJ name you want to be quoted as (in case I decide to quote yours), or if you'd rather not be quoted, but still want to answer.
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
I'm 17 now, and first discovered Harry Potter when I was 7.
- What it was like, growing up with the books.
Obsessive in the extreme! Like with all the books you love as a child, it informs your games, your dreams, all that sort of thing. An essential part of school, and acquiring the book each year was so exciting. For book 3 I had to wait until after school, book 4 I could get first thing in the morning, by book 5 I could go to the midnight sale. And now Harry's finishing the year I leave school, and it all rounds off rather wonderfully!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 09:04 am (UTC)I hope that helps.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 10:19 am (UTC)So yeah. I was aware of HP for about a year before I finally read it. I remember buying PS and CoS at the same time, although I don't remember my reaction (beyond loving them, of course...) I didn't queue up at midnight for PoA but I did get it that day and read it very quickly; I did queue for GoF with my friend KP. I remember having huge discussions at school about who was going to die in the fourth book (nothing much has changed there, then!), and developing theories about the significance of Harry having Lily's eyes. It was at that time that a friend suggested that maybe Snape loved Lily...
Growing up with the books meant that I grew up as Harry did. Whereas PS seems quite childish now, looking back on it, OotP and HBP are very grown up, both in themes and in style, and I kept pace with that. It was very satisfying, actually. I think the real difference, though, between growing up with the books and coming to them as an adult is that my perception of the earlier books was very childish. People were shipping Remus and Sirius from the moment they appeared in PoA, but I was unaware of that. As I said, the first ship I really thought about was Snape liking Lily. In fact, right up until I was sixteen I assumed Harry would end up with Hermione, "because that's what always happens". My friend KP was an ardent Harry/Ginny shipper from about GoF, and we had long, circular arguments about the issue - my first shipping wank, awww... And then, nearly two years ago now, I fell, quite by accident, into fandom. And that changed everything. I didn't really like Sirius in OotP, but becoming a Remus/Sirius shipper I fell in love with him (or my version of young him); I shipped Harry/Ginny, I realised that the twins are far crueller than I ever thought they were, and so on. Fandom marked the resurgence of my interest in HP - it had remained fairly constant, but after that it grew hugely, to the point where it's something I think about every day.
I don't know if that helps at all...
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 09:09 pm (UTC)Netherlands
- The fandom/LJ name you want to be quoted as (in case I decide to quote yours), or if you'd rather not be quoted, but still want to answer.
Mene
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
Now: 20. Then: around 12 (may be 11 or 13)
- What it was like, growing up with the books.
I've always read a lot and I've reread HP a lot of times too :)
It was nice that those books were there while I was in high school - one year (2001/2002) I had a Harry Potter school diary to which I added lots of information and I changed all my subjects into Hogwarts subjects... as I continued to do the years after. Much more fun :)
Hermione was a character I could really relate too - something nice was that my Japanese English teacher said I looked like Hermione (but the word used for 'to look like' was also a word you can use for 'to be like, so actually the translation should involve both meanings). A while ago I found an image of Emma Watson where she looked exactly like me when I was a bit younger [see icon]. I was like "That's me in the car with Harry and Ron (o.o)" I have the full image saved on my computer if you're interested XD
I spend a lot of time reading and analyzing the HP books and all the little details and comparing different language versions XD . Especially the names and the spells and info on the magical world, since those things could come in handy sometime. When I read the Japanese version, I knew the English sentences the Japanese sentences corresponded to. On my 19th birthday I got the Ancient Greek HP1 book (since I had Ancient Greek at high school). I started comparing again XD . In high school 5th grade I also joined HOL.org.uk and I was sorted in Ravenclaw too [as always XD] .
The movies are nice too but I just view them as another parallel world since they differ from the books. Then I don't get them confused and it doesn't matter that the characters look different.
There's also a wizarding school for the Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg which I am writing a story of :) I've written another HP story, but the most things I've typed up are information documents... The HP books have inspired me a lot for writing my other stories, for example the writing style. Sometimes when I read HP, I got a lot of inspiration for story-writing. Then I noticed I kinda continued writing in J.K. Rowling's style... ^^;
Also, I believe that every world you read about in a book [for example HP] is real in another parallel universe. The only hard thing is to find a way to go into another parallel world when you're not dreaming...
Ps. Questions welcome since I may not have typed everything (o.o) I could talk lots more about HP (>>)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 10:03 pm (UTC)- Meep, please.
- I am 18 now and I was ... 9 or 10 then.
- I remember being super, super, super excited when they first announced there were plans for a movie. I mean, I remember where I was, what I was doing, and I remember jumping up and down, I was so excited. (I was so, so disappointed when the movies sucked. My inner fangirl died a little.) I remember going to the midnight party for Book 4 with Davis dressed up like I witch. (I got my book at 12:47:36. I checked my watch. I still remember the exact time!)
I remember that the Trio were my imaginary friends for the longest time. (Seriously, I remember talking to them in my head at fourteen or something.) I remember the excitement that came each time a book was released. I remember anxiously awaiting the next one, going through and looking at all of the different covers. (There was a folder on my old computer full of just different Harry Potter covers.)
Backtracking, I remember writing a report on JK Rowling in the sixth grade. (I remember trying to print a page that was dark blue with a white font. I remember asking why the background didn't print. Ah, the good old days.)
I remember crying and throwing my book across the room when Sirius died.
I remember where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard that some people wouldn't read Harry Potter because of the witchcraft. (I got in a HUGE fight with my friend about it. I mean, it was pretty intense wank for a fifth grader.)
I remember playing "Quidditch" outside with a friend of mine and breaking my mother's broom after not asking if we could use it. Mom was not happy at all.
I remember helping my friend put together a Moaning Myrtle costume for the Book 6 release.
(Which reminds me, I remember being in the fandom before we knew the titles for Books 4-7. I remember how exciting it was to find out the GoF title, and all of the jokes about the lenghth of the book. I remember the old, old, old story about the last word of the series being "scar." I even remember someone made a scam that was supposed to be "the last chapter." I read it and was so exitied, not realizing it was a fake.)
Sorry these are all disjointed.
Long story short ... it was amazing. It was like a complete alternate universe for me to grow up in. Harry Potter is to me what The Beatles are to my mother (a Baby Boomer).
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 12:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:does this even answer the question?
Date: 2007-03-30 10:44 pm (UTC)Growing up with the books. I distinctly remember being in a car with my mom and she told me about this book that was very popular over there and I sure would like it. I disagreed even though I had no clue what it was about, but what my mom recommends Can't Be Good. That was 99. My best friend in grade school got the book for Christmas and loved it. Somehow, I got it pretty soon then. My mom read it to me - my parents read LOTS of books to me - but then it was too exciting, so I continued on my own. I got CoS immediately afterwards and then catched up with my friend. That's when the great times of Harry Potter theories started. We had many and we would walk around on the school yard and talk about them, our personal mini-fandom. :)
I distinctly remember reading PoA insanely often. Around that time, more of my friends started reading HP. In 2000, I started secondary school and that's when HP really started shaping my life.
But before I went there, I went to London with my dad. It was exciting not only because I saw my first living statue, bought toe socks and was incidentally at the Buckingham Palace at Queen Mum's 100th birthday, but also because I specifically went to King's Cross to go to Platform 9 3/4. It felt very important.
GoF came out in German in October and the months before were spent finding out who at my school liked HP, too, and who had older siblings/parents who'd read the book already and making promises to go see the movie together.
I had my first encounter with real fandom at the release party which took place at a hotel that was wonderfully decorated, complete with framed golden pages from the Harry Potter books and bats and pumpkin juice.
I also had my first real English classes, which was exciting, but I was pretty bad. And then in 6th grade my aunt gave me PS in English for Christmas, despite the fact that I barely knew any English yet.
I was really determined to read the original though, and after quick introduction into the different tenses in the English language I actually read the whole thing. [my dad: You don't know what "did" means? What are they doing in your English class? That's do in past tense. Those words with -ed at the end are past tense, too.]
I suddenly was good (sixth-grade-good) in English. This would come in handy when I discovered there were whole websites on Harry Potter and some of them were in English and so interesting that I just had to read their theories. I think I read the RedHen articles pretty early on, but understood virtually nothing. I've never really read articles or books with a dictionary in my hand, but me and an internet friend of mine did when we tried to understand what the changeling hypothesis was all about. Apparently my English was not good enough, as I still don't know.
Anyway, I read more and more HP-related articles and fanfiction in English, which later would enable me to have conversations with real English-speaking people who are now my friends. They aren't necessarily HP fans, but I very much doubt I'd know them that well otherwise. I visited one in Ireland last summer. Next week, I'm going to meet a French girl in Toulouse who only can speak English because of HP, too.
I started reading about a ten-year old Harry when I was ten, and I'll finish the series when we both are 17. Inbetween I stuffed my brain with loads of ridiculous knowledge about HP, reread the books lots of times and learnt a new language. Pretty cool.
Re: does this even answer the question?
Date: 2007-03-30 10:51 pm (UTC)When HBP came out, there were actually other people waiting for the shop to open.
An internet friend of mine visited me and we read 9 hours non stop, eating cold pizza from the day before.
I'm also still convinced a saw an Interview with Jo in early 2000 in some train in which she implicitly stated that Ron would die in book 7. Sadly, my memory is beyond fogged, but I remember being very upset about it and discussing it with my grade school friend.
oh, the memories...
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 11:29 pm (UTC)USA
- The fandom/LJ name.
LupinTonks85
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
I started reading at the age of 16, I am now 22.
- What it was like, growing up with the books.
This question is hard to answer, because I am not sure what it's like to grow-up without the books. My life would be so different with out the books. I have meet many, many friends through Harry Potter, actually my best friends. I got into fandom really quickly after reading the books in 2001. I still remember my first fanfiction. The name escapes me at this time but the pairing was Minerva/Hermione (timeturner involved). I wasn't scared for life, instead I was addicted from then on.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 11:35 pm (UTC)Mostly, HP has been a consistent pass-time for me. I read and write a lot of fic, though my own stuff is rarely finished and even more rarely posted. I've made a really good friend through fandom, whom I've met IRL four times now, including staying at her home twice. Mostly, I just lurk in fandom, but the books have been fascinating to me from the start. I tend to think about them or about fic when I'm in a boring lecture. It's given me a lot to think about as a creative writing major and has definitely had its influences. I definitely understand a lot of details a lot better now than I did when I was 15, some of it in regards to the nuts and bolts of the writing itself, and some of it in regards to how/why characters do what they do. I also have a bad habit of putting classic lit. into HP terms; I see a theme or a plot twist and I think "Oh, JKR employs much the same thing when she..." which I guess is good 'cause I'm seeing the influences that would eventually lead to fiction like JKR's, but I probably shouldn't think of classic English lit. in those terms. Doesn't make it any less fun.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 12:26 am (UTC)America - Lavinia Lavender - I am eighteen, and was eleven.
It's interesting, a lot of my friends (who are the same age as me...most in the same country, one in New Zealand) seem to have gotten the first three books the same occasion I did: Christmas 1999. (So almost 2000, yes.) I was immediately hooked from the first page, the third book stole my heart, and I did v. mad things (as an eleven-year-old) when the fourth book came out (July 8th, 2000. Heh, I remember all the dates). Didn't find fandom until about February 2002, though, when I was thirteen, but I have been in it ever since.
Harry Potter is not my favorite book, but I think even if you put all the others together (and there's a lot, trust me), I will have still spent more time on Harry Potter than the rest. Personally, I think one of the chief brilliances of the book isn't the plot or setting - it's the characters, the huge range of characters. Everyone has a favorite, one they adore and identify with, and yeah.
Oh, what else...one of the most valuable things about it to me is this wonderful group of friends I've made through it (and by that I mean its fandom). They're real friends, they've been there for me through times when everything else was crazy, and we've done all sorts of crazy meet-ups and other things because of it. That's powerful.
But the BOOKS, okay. Like I mentioned, it was seven months after I first found them that the next came out - due to external circumstances and probably my age, I didn't go to a midnight release (did they even have that for the fourth?), but my mom had it for me the v. next day, and I read it desperately every second I could - stayed up way late, given me at the time, heh.
For the fifth - ah, this is a nice story. My parents (mom and step-father) were married June 21st (2003). So at midnight the night before, they took me to the bookstore for the book. I stayed up until four a.m. reading, got a few hours of sleep before we had to get up to drive to the beach house where the wedding took place. I read before and after the ceremony - we have pictures of me dressed up. They also gave up plastic Harry glasses at the bookstore - my parents got some, and posed with them too for some pictures. Hee, they're cool.
Then, for the sixth...again, I went to the bookstore at midnight, my parents slept in the car while I waited for my number, and interestingly enough we left the next day for the same beach house where we had the wedding a few years before, so I got to finish the sixth book in the same place as the fifth.
Another cool fact is that I actually read part of the fourth and all of the fifth and sixth books to my parents, out loud - no mean feat when you have a speech impediment which particularly comes out when you're excited and reading dialogue, heh. But they listened and just asked me to repeat things whenever I wasn't clear, and it was great fun.
Okay, I'll end now. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to reminesce!
NO WAIT, I lied, last fact: the seventh book is coming out on my NINETEENTH BIRTHDAY. HOW COOL IS THAT. *preens*
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 02:30 am (UTC)United States
- The fandom/LJ name you want to be quoted as (in case I decide to quote yours), or if you'd rather not be quoted, but still want to answer.
bloopfish
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
I am 19, I was 11.
- What it was like, growing up with the books
Well, I had almost given up on reading for entertainment when I first met Harry. Before that point everything I had ever read was completely dull and pointless, like they were just adult books with smaller words, but with Harry it was exciting! I couldn't wait to get home from school so I could learn what happens next. Since I put off reading it for awhile (because everyone else was doing it and I didn't want to be a sheep) I was actually the same age as Harry when I read the first book. Looking back on it, it's amazing how well JKR portrayed that age. Even with all the magic it was so believable. It's a bit strange that I've grown older than Harry. I think a lot of my discontent with Ootp and HBP is that it no longer mirrors my own experiences. It's no longer what I would do in those events, but what Harry the Chosen One would do.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 03:34 pm (UTC)Sweden
- The fandom/LJ name you want to be quoted as (in case I decide to quote yours), or if you'd rather not be quoted, but still want to answer.
I'm not in the fandom and I don't use LiveJournal, but feel free to qoute me anyway :)
- How old you are now, and how old you were then.
I was 11 when I first read Philosopher's Stone, and am 18 now.
- What it was like, growing up with the books
I remember thinking it was really weird when Prisoner of Azkaban came out, and I was younger than Harry! :) Then I realized, I will outgrow Harry with many years when the series are finished. Also I remember feeling with Harry in Order of the Phoenix, simply because I lost my own grandmother right before I read it and man, it sucked. (Not to mention I also found and used my own Capslock of Rage. Good God, were we ever obnoxious when we were fifteen, Harry and I both.) I've always read a lot so the Harry Potter books aren't the only series I've grown up with, but since it's not finished it's been with me for several years now (unlike other series, which I usually just devour in one go :)
I remember being a big fan of the books when I was eleven and twelve, then finding them a bit childish at fourteen and fifteen, and then returning to them, rereading and realizing they weren't 'kiddies' books', but complex and layered. Just because there were silly jokes and broomsticks didn't mean I couldn't find more 'mature' things in them as well. I'm happy to have gone back and done that. :) Also, to reread meant to find how much I changed from eleven to eighteen. What I found horrible and weird at twelve (Harry/Ginny *laughs*)
suddenly made sense when I had some experience of my own.
Another good thing about growing up with these books is that I could get older in between. Had the series been finished when I was eleven, I would have read them all at once. And putting Half-Blood Prince into the hands of a shy eleven-year-old is perhaps a bit... much. (Though I wouldn't have minded when I was eleven!)
Put together, it has been an interesting series to follow, and the characters have certainly been good childhood friends! :)
oh, and sorry for the long answer, it's just such an interesting subject - once I start, I can't stop :)