Hello MuggleNet fans! My name is Joshua Smith, I’m a 20 year old journalism student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an avid Harry Potter fan. I'm delighted to tell you all that I will be writing a weekly column over the summer, on a variety of subjects related to all the Harry Potter books. When I return to school, my column will become bi-weekly. I hope you all enjoy what I have to say, and I welcome feedback via email at Jssmith285@aol.com. Thanks!

The Best Time to be a Fan

Harry Potter fans of today have a unique opportunity that not many of them stop to think about. This generation of readers gets to enjoy Rowling’s works in an atmosphere which future generations of readers will never know. Aside from getting to enjoy the most basic pleasure, reading the books, today’s bookworms benefit from having message boards, chat rooms, and websites such as this act...to feed their addiction to the boy who lived. We get to discuss who we think will die in the fifth book, or whether or not anything will ever happen between Ron and Hermione. You know that great anxious/excited feeling you get right before you go to bed on Christmas Eve, wondering what is going to make its way under your tree? Today’s readers experience that anticipation dynamic in waiting for the release of each new book, something our grandchildren will never know.

Someone who picks up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s (or Philosophers for readers in the UK) Stone 20 years from now misses out on a chance to sit outside a bookstore at midnight, wearing a cape and waving a magic wand, knowing they are about to witness the culmination of 2 years of anticipation. They don’t get to talk excitedly in that bookstore line with a few hundred of the biggest Harry fans in their area. They miss out on, among other things, a truly magical (no pun intended) night that no true Potter fan could ever forget.

Readers who’ve been on the Harry Potter roller coaster from the beginning, or even ones that have just caught Harry fever recently (I’m a self-admitted late bloomer as far as HP goes) get to enjoy these wonderful Potter perks, and I urge them to do so. We are reading in a very interesting time (like when people were eagerly awaiting the next Tolkien book from the LOTR series, and writing “Frodo lives!” on New York subway walls when Return of the King came out) and that time carries a once in a life time opportunity. So, I have a simple request of all Harry Potter fans, young and old. Don’t waste this precious opportunity, embrace it. Cherish it. Take advantage of the chance people 20 years from now will only dream of having. You’ll regret it if you don’t

6/14/2003

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Joshua Smith is a 20-year-old journalism student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and an avid Harry Potter fan.

If you'd like to contact Josh, you may do so here.