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First let me say this is the first topic I've started in probably at least 3 years after recently returning to Hatrack.
Being sucked into the Harry Potter threads and posting like mad in them started me wondering the when and how each other mad poster in those threads became addicted to the Harry Potter saga.
For me it was in spring 1999 when my daughter was in 4th grade and held second place in her grade for the number of "Accelerated Reading books" that she'd read. Unable to save up all her points to get a Game Boy because she needed more immediate gratification, she "bought" with her points the brand new hard cover edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
She read it over and over and over and over and then I decided to see what in the world she was so obssessed with - -- and immediately on finishing it I went to get us the hardcover editions of Sorcer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets.
We've been first class addicts ever since. We've been there at midnight to get our paws on Goblet of Fire; Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince. My daughter gets them first because she begins reading in the car on the way home from the bookstore and finishes them quickly. For Goblet of Fire, my mother made her go to sleep because we were visiting her house and my daughter got up early the next morning and had it finished by 5pm that day. The Phoenix she read straight through without sleeping at all. Now that she's sixteen she needs more sleep so with HPB she read from midnight til 5am, slept 3 hours, awoke at 8am and finished before noon.
I get the book right after she finishes (so by the time that people who've ordered it online can expect UPS to show up I've got my hands on it).
I don't read it as fast and purposely took 2 weeks on HBP b/c my daughter told me that if the ending of Phoenix was an 8 on the sadness scale of 1 - 10 (10 being the saddest) then this ending was an 11! So I kept postponing what I thought was going to happen as long as I could.
And of course we have both reread all the books at least 3 times - some more!
So how did your addiction begin .....????
Posts: 874 | Registered: Oct 1999
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I started reading them before my kids did. zI've always loved fantasy (and science fiction). My 9-year-old daughter is the most into the books in our family, I think. My 12-year-old daughter could take them or leave them.
I was astonished yesterday at work to hear three coworkers discussing the HP books/movies. These were 2 reporters and our company webmaster! Now, the webmaster, I kind of understood - he's got teenage daughters, and they sucked him into it. But the reporters - a single guy in his 20s and a single guy in his (30s? maybe early 40s?) - it was amazing. I had no idea they were into HP. Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I was in eighth grade, and my mother had mentioned the books to me a couple of times, but I wasn't really interested. My then-best friend forced me to borrow her copy of SS, which I grudgingly read. And of course I loved it, and I spent more money than I really had buying the second one, and then the third. I am always pleased about the fact that it was I who got my family reading them. I actually read the first one to my little sister--well, I started reading it, and then she was given one at school and couldn't resist reading the rest herself.
However, the family addiction wasn't absolutely full-swing until after the fourth book--we were on vacation in Maine when it came out, and for some reason I really can't fathom now, we only bought two copies of it. For the six of us! And there was much fighting and gnashing of teeth over a book when its owner set it down for five minutes.
(I'm Jenny, and I'm a HarryPotteroholic.)
Posts: 910 | Registered: May 2000
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Earlier this month. I went with a couple of friends to the release of Half-Blood Prince because one of our friends was supposed to meet someone there, and we came along for the ride.
Well, no one who's been to a Harry Potter release will need me to describe the scene, so no one will be at all surprised when our conversation turned to the topic of hype. I, who had neither read any of the books nor seen any of the movies, was absolutely flabbergasted and wanted to know what the big deal was. My friend, a big Harry Potter fan from years back, told me it wasn't something he could explain; I'd just have to read the books.
I said that I was curious about them, and would "probably read them someday". Well, my birthday is at the end of July, and he decided he'd give me a spare copy of Sorcerer's Stone as my gift. Of course that meant that now I was obligated to read it, so around the beginning of this month I did.
Now I'm midway through Goblet of Fire, and am promptly leaving this thread before any spoilers pop up.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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My neighbor bought my son the first three books for his 7th birthday. After he was done, he let me read them, the my husband did- now the whole family is hooked.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I like to say I was "Harry Potter Raped" because I was purposefully avoiding them due to all the hype. I didn't think that with everyone going so nuts that they might actually be good books (a mistake on my part). But then, on a family vacation, my dad bought Chamber of Secrets on CD and we listened to it in the car. Because there was nothing else to do driving across Wyoming, I listened. Needless to say, as soon as I got home from that vacation, I read the other three books (it was after the fourth had come out) in five days, rarely surfacing from my room, always in my pajamas. I have become the biggest HP addict of my family.
Oh, and Fyfe, we have gotten to the point where we buy three copies for the seven of us in my family. I buy my own, and my mom buys two to share with the rest of the family. Posts: 1635 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I wouldn't say that I am addicted, it's just that there are no other printers at my work place. We do have a Xerox that is really nice, but it is out of my way.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I patently dismissed the Potter books as another teen fluff series. I even mercelessly teased a young lady at a former work place for reading such immature fare. About the time Prisoner came out I was pulling a graveyard and saw a documentary on Rowling. It convinced me I was wrong. So went and read my sisters copy of Chamber right after that and was through the first and third within weeks.
Posts: 686 | Registered: Sep 2001
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They're fun to read, and definitely page-turners. I haven't been to a midnight book buying party, though. In fact, I'm just now reading HPB.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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I read the first book back when it first came out, back in '98. Since I've pushed the books on lots of folks since, in vampire-speak, I've Sired probably dozens of HP fans... Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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My mother decided to pick up the first book at Costco to see if she could entice my younger brother into reading it. I was a little averse because I'd heard the crappy "Are these books appropriate for our youth?" publicity, and then, only slightly. To be honest, I hadn't really heard much about them.
I can't remember who read them first, but I finally got through Sorcerer's Stone. By that time, my mother had already bought hardcover copies of the next three. I blasted through them in what I remember to be a hazy week of living in my pajamas and doing nothing but reading these books.
I also remember the accute sense of loss when I'd finished them. Luckily, she took so long to write the 5th book, that I was able to go on a mission, come back, and complete a year of school before OotP came out. I bought my own copy of that while I was in Estonia. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I finally gave them a shot sometime after the hype over book 3 died down. Book 5 was the only book I actually bought at midnight, but it had been possible I would have done the same for 4 and 6.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
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My fifth grade teacher read us the first book before I had any idea what Harry Potter was, so I believe this was before all the hype. I'm pretty sure he started reading it before the second was out, but it was out before he finished. I read three, four, five, and six all the weeks they came out. I'm pretty sure the only one I read the day it came out was five, because that came out early in the summer, I usually go away for the summer so I couldn't go to any parties for four or six, I don't remember reading the third for the first time at all. I can't believe it has been so long!
Posts: 46 | Registered: Jul 2003
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I saw the 1st movie on cable after it came out and thought it was pretty good. So when I saw the paperback CoS in the grocery store one day I picked it up.
I have been hooked ever since. I thought she was done writing them so I was ticked when I found out I would have to wait for book 5, then 6 and now 7. Of course the wait has made them better. It gives us all a chance to talk about them.
My brothers make fun of me. They think its funny I read kids books because I am now over a billion seconds old.
Posts: 555 | Registered: Jun 2005
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My story is pretty much the same as Fyfe's. I didn't want to read them because of the hype, and her then-best friend (my then-stepsister) convinced me to read them. After that I was hooked. I spread the addiction to my mother, who is now halfway through GoF, and my sisters (and their husbands, after much persuading), who are just as addicted as I am (and actually got their books BEFORE me this year - I had to work and couldn't get mine at midnight ).
Posts: 1225 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I was sick with mono in the fall of 2000 and my best friend decided to convert while I was too weak to protest (she claims it was a mission of mercy). Anyway, she loaned me all four of the HP books that were currently out as well as Ender's Game and it's sequels (since I'd never read Card before).
I think I had all the books back to her within the week and needless to say, I still read both HP and OSC.
Posts: 959 | Registered: Jan 2002
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For me, it was peer pressure. Several friends of mine kept saying I had to read them (only the first three were out then, and all of them had been at the top of the bestseller lists so long that they made a new bestseller list just for kid's books so the Harry Potter books didn't make other authors look bad. *snerk*
Bought the first one and that was the end of it, for me. I was lost.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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A friend of mine loaned me the first three shortly after the 3rd one had come out. The first one did very little for me, but the second one was a little more engaging. Still nothing special, but engaging enough that I picked up the third one. With that one I was hooked. I'm not a raving fan of the series, but I've enjoyed each book since the third one, and will happily get the 7th within a few days of its release.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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plaid your description "siring" other HP fans is absolutely classic! (I'm picturing Spike from the last few seasons of Buffy here)
Of course it sounds like many of you here were "sired" by some well meaning person. Or "caught" it from your children.
Jenny you hit it on the head with: (I'm Jenny, and I'm a HarryPotteroholic.)
Because later today I was thinking THAT is what I should have titled my big comeback thread!
I'm obviously SUCH a Potterholic that I THOUGHT I'd put this thread on the other side of the forum where it belongs and not on the OSC side - so all day I couldn't find it and finally checked on this side. I'd been so busy posting on the OSC reviews HP thread I didn't even know where I was starting the thread!
The descriptions of you guys only surfacing from your room in pjs during the initial phases of your addiction and the family fighting over the one copy of the book are also classic!
The reason I can post so many quotes from the books is that they are always at hand at our house. Of course all of our many books are easily accessible but the HP books are always right at hand to reread a section or check a fact, etc. I guess that might be one of the tests of a true addiction.
That and my daughter would have turned down her first trip to France (but it fell through) because she would not have been able to get HBP the night it came out!
Posts: 874 | Registered: Oct 1999
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quote:Originally posted by lem: I wouldn't say that I am addicted, it's just that there are no other printers at my work place. We do have a Xerox that is really nice, but it is out of my way.
posted
I... don't remember. Honestly. I remember going to the midnight release for the fourth book, and I remember devouring the second book when I was babysitting many moons ago... and I mean years - I've not babysat for these people since early years of high school, putting it about six or seven years ago.
It was a long time ago. And it's not stopping.
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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It was the spring of my freshman year (so 2001), we were about to leave on a bustrip with my orchestra to Myrtle Beach SC for three days, and blacwolve decided if I hadn't read this book that I'd probably never make something of my life. So I read SS on the way there, COS on the way home, and the next two within a week. Since then I've gone to Borders at midnight for 5 and 6, but only on book six did I stay up all night (it ended up being 39 hours in a row awake) to read it.
My mom started reading them after I finished the 4th one and loaned them to many friends after that, I can't wait to get HBP back to reread it.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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College. Senior or Junior year. I think Senior. Opera, earl grey tea and Harry Potter are a good combination.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Back in 7th grade my mom bought me CoS and PoA. I got SS for Christmas that same year, which is when I really started to get into the series.
Posts: 106 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I read the first two before anybody had heard of them. I was living in England at the time, so they had just come out, and nobody had had a chance to read them yet. My friend Sahar and I were talking one day at her house, and she produced this out of nowhere, off a shelf (The Philosopher's Stone, of course) and said "hey, have you heard of this? I think you'd really like it."
Of course, I hadn't heard of it... neither had anyone else. She had found it by randomly walking into a Blackwell's Bookstore and picking it off of a shelf. I borrowed it from her, and had it read by the next day. I loved it. I made both my parents read it, and they loved it too. I went to Blackwell's and bought both that one and CoS, (which I also read in one night), so that I could have them at home. I also thought it would be really cool to get them as gifts for friends in the US, since we were going to move back that summer. (It was 1998, or 1999, I think).
I did that, I bought some copies of the books to give to friends here, and then when my family arrived in the US, people had begun, a little bit, to hear of them. One friend, Cara, said "Oh... a friend of mine mentioned those. They're supposed to be really good, right?" That's the sort of reaction I was getting a lot. A few months later, there was a fully-fledged hype, and by the time PoA came out, the entire world was hooked.
But I have one of the original first edition British copies of HP and the Philosopher's Stone. They're supposed to be worth like >500 pounds now. I only buy the British copies, I don't read the American versions. So I have them all in British first edition.
Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Risuena, sounds like a good friend to me. I mean, if you had to have mono, might as well have some superb reading! I love luring my friends...I mean...introducing my friends to Harry Potter and Ender. Posts: 1635 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I guess it was around the time the first movie came out. I'd been hearing good things about the books, and was interested in seeing the movie but was determined to read the book first. I don't think it really grew into a full-fledged addiction until HBP came out, and I found myself starting to re-read book 5 and then saying, "wait, there are things I don't remember here" and then re-reading book 4 first. So reading 3 HP books in a row is pretty much an addiction, I think.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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kege, I didn't get to read it straight through, I was on about page 300 when I had to go to a cat show at 6 am (had to be there by eight and needed to do other stuff before that), then didn't start again until about two and had it finished by six.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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(I own all the books, in hardback, but I have yet to read any of them. I buy compulsively and read voraciously. I have a "To Be Read" stack which is basically my entire shelf over the clothes in my closet. I am saving the Potter books because I think I will enjoy them a great deal. And maybe I won't have to wait as long between installments as you guys have! )
(The downside is people have pretty much already spoiled some parts for me. :-\ )
Posts: 289 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Of course it sounds like many of you here were "sired" by some well meaning person. Or "caught" it from your children.
I was "sired" by Stephen King LOL. Seriously, he did an interview with someone (Katie Couric, perhaps?) at some point after his accident in 1999, and when asked what he did during his recovery, said "a lot of reading" and then went on to gush over Harry Potter. He also did a review of Goblet for one of the magazines (Entertainment Weekly?) that was not only submitted in longhand because he wasn't capable of sitting at his desk yet to have typed it but was even printed in the magazine as images of his longhand submission!
Prior to this, I'd never heard of J.K. Rowling or Harry Potter. But I figured that if King liked it, I could at least give it a try. His cover blurbs haven't steered me wrong yet, at least. We ended up buying 1-4 at Costco not long afterwards and my older daughter was reading them pretty much as soon as I finished each one. (She had some class friends who'd already read them and told her she'd like them.)
We've since had to replace Book #1 because we've read them so many times that the binding was falling apart. And I think we'll have to replace #3 before long, probably after the next read-through when 7 comes out.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Goody that's another sign of a true addict - already having had to replace one of your HP books!
We haven't actually had to replace one yet, but only because we read them so often, the loose pages haven't had the chance to get lost somewhere, yet.
A true, true, truly addicted HP addict is a 15 year old family friend who has had to replace ALL her HP books at least once because she has a some point dropped each one into the bathtub repeatedly until the words were no longer legible - AND almost every night for the past 3 or 4 years she has gone to sleep listening to one of the HP books on CD - which is set to repeat so that it goes on all night until she gets up in the morning. She truthfully can answer ANY question about HP because she's obviously sleep learned all the books!
Posts: 874 | Registered: Oct 1999
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I started off disliking it, I don't remember why. I thought it was stupid, and I tend to shy away from things that are that hyped up (with the exception of Star Wars).
I sat down to read the first book, got about 10 pages in and put it down, not liking it at all. Two years later I picked up the first one again and read it, and the four that followed it, in a two day marathon session. After that, it was hard not to be hooked.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I, like many others, avoided HP because of the hype.
But my dad, who teaches grade seven, got curious one day, because the grade six teacher was getting hassled for using Harry Potter in her reading class. Satanism and witchcraft and all that. So my mom bought him the first book for Christmas so he could see for himself. I decided to read it, what the hey, why not?
Then I borrowed the other three from a friend, and read them all in the weekend. This must have been right after the fourth one came out, because it was nearly three years after that that the fourth book came out.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I never bothered to read the books until last November. For some reason I had a free day, so I borrowed the first 3 books from my mom and read them in less than 12 hours. (I am a fast reader.) When I returned the books the next day, my step-dad asked why I borrowed them if I wasn't going to read them and was suprised when I had already read them all once and the first one twice.
I've also addicted my 5 year old brother. The first book (other than Dr. Seuss) that I read to him was the SS. Since then, he's talked my dad into buying all the movies and me into carving a wand for him. (He is now demanding I get a wand for myself so we can have a wizard's duel like in the CoS movie.)
Posts: 175 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I got sucked into them while working in a classroom with students. I was working with Special Education Students and they could not read but wanted to be a part of the Harry Potter craze the rest of the school was in so I read them the first book and I have been hooked ever since.
Posts: 224 | Registered: Jan 2001
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OSTY - did your special ed students get hooked on the books also? I'm curious as to how they liked the book you read to them.
Posts: 874 | Registered: Oct 1999
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My younger brother recieved the paperback Sorcerer's Stone as a gift; I think for Christmas (He's notoriously hard to shop for so he always gets things like books that he'll never read as gifts.) Since I read just about everything that I can get my hands on, I borrowed it and enjoyed. I was about 13 when I first read it, hard to believe it was so many years ago. I read it several times before the second book came out, and started a tradition of re-reading the entire series the week before the new one came out. When Half-Blood Prince came out I ended up having to take two weeks so I would have some time to sleep. Now when I read the first book, it's more like remembering the plot than actually reading. At least parts of it I could probably not even look at the words just turn the pages without forgetting any of the text.
Posts: 349 | Registered: May 2003
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Audeo - we do that too. Reread the whole series before the next book comes out. Except for HBP it seemed we'd waited so long and during the interim had reread Books 1 - 5 already. So I just reread Order right before HPB.
I think that definitely for the last book - I will do the whole series - needing at least 2 weeks!
Posts: 874 | Registered: Oct 1999
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I have become the biggest HP addict of my family.![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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Several friends of mine kept saying I had to read them (only the first three were out then, and all of them had been at the top of the bestseller lists so long that they made a new bestseller list just for kid's books so the Harry Potter books didn't make other authors look bad. *snerk*![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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