You're so right - there are so many fans out there who came along for the ride for that near decade of literary magic. I remember my Mom telling me about SS after seeing a review of it on the Today Show. Well being 11 years old, I was too preoccupied with much more sophisticated reading such as Animorphs. I had read every one and refused to think something as silly as wizards would be of interest to me.
When my mom kept hearing rave reviews about it she bought it and started reading it to my then 8 year old brother. I kept hearing her read it to him every night and every morning they would tell me how fantastic it was. After they had finished it I would eye it warily and finally after about a week sitting on the shelf, I picked up myself - and thus never picked up another Animorphs "book".
Thus began my 9 year journey to the conclusion of the series and every second has been phenomenal. Like many fans who have been with the series since the beginning I grew to regard Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and the lot as friends, regardless of their actual existence. Harry has been such a wonderful jewel of literature and has inspired me to write my own stories as well (non-HP screenplays and a HP fan-fiction sequel I'm working on which is already 35 pages!) JK Rowling's series was one of the defining parts of my teenage years and Mugglenet's coverage a welcome bonus. Thanks Jo and thanks Mugglenet for years of fun!
I was 20 and had just moved from Canada to Northern Ireland by myself after graduating from university. My housemates were a couple of older guys, and one day one of their friends, a doctor named Steve, came round in the evening. He had with him the adult-cover copy of Harry Potter and the PhilosopherÕs Stone and started raving about this ÒchildrenÕs bookÓ that was this massive bestseller. I had never heard about it and forgot about it until a couple of years later.
I had returned to Canada and was having an unplanned, crisis pregnancy. I was at Chapters and was looking for a really great book to give me some sort of temporary escape from the emotional hell I was experiencing, so I picked up my first copy of the PhilosopherÕs Stone. I think by that time Chamber of Secrets had come out as well, and I devoured them over and over again. I think part of the reason I have become so invested in the HP series is because they provided a wonderful escape and a soothing balm for me during a really horrible time in my life.
When the Sorcerer's Stone first came out, I was only five, and in kindergarten. My aunt works at Barnes and Noble, and her and my grandmother sent me the first book probably a year or two after it was released. I had already been reading for a couple of years, but I found the books too advanced for me. My parents tried reading it to me, when I was 5 or 6, a couple of times, but it was too boring for me. In second grade, 8 years ago, I was 7. I picked up the Sorcerer's Stone and tried reading it again. I was hooked, and have only become increasingly more so since then. I finished up the first three books that had already come out rather quickly (my aunt and grandmother sent those all to me too), and spent a few months waiting until I received the fourth one, which I read right away.
Ever since reading the first book, the Harry Potter series has been my favorite. It's been about 8 years now, and if anything I am more obsessed than ever. Everyday, I wear my Hogwarts necklace, every wall in my room has at least one poster, and I've run out of room to display all of the Harry Potter stuff I have. Last year, when the last book came out, it was absolutetly wonderful, and all of the numbers added up. It was the seventh book, coming out seven years after I read the first book, when I was seven, and after seven years of being completely fanatical about the books, and despite the sadness I felt knowing that this amazing series was coming to an end, it felt completely magical.
Around ten years ago, I was flipping through the latest "A Common Reader" catalog of books. One of the titles and descriptions sounded interesting enough that I ordered "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". It arrived at home near October 1, 1998.
When I read the book, finishing April 18, 1999, (having other books in the queue), I was pleased but not blown away. It seemed a fun read, reasonable mystery with twist that was justified by the story (unlike the 10 twists at the end of "Murder by Death" which deliberately throw in clues never previously established). A good children's book.
It was enough that when "Chamber of Secrets" came out, I got a copy on June 21, 1999. I was pleased that the "Dreaded Sequel" was as good as the first, although it seemed somewhat parallel story.
Still good enough that I got "Prisoner of Azkaban" on September 15, 1999. And finished reading it on September 16. At this point I was hooked. It was not more of the same. It was about kids two years older than in HPPS. It had Time Travel Paradox. It made the series to date something special.
My name is Mariana. I live in Los Angeles, California, and my story is simple. Simple, and yet it changed my life. I was five years old. This was 1999, the year of changes for me. I started Kindergarten, and the millennium changed. And, in the late fall of 1999, my mom picked up a book from our local bookstore. She had no idea what it held, or what it would become. All she saw was an intriguing concept. There were already three books in this mysterious series, so she wanted me to be a part of it. She brought it home and read the first five chapters to me in one sitting, because I wouldn't let her stop. As I dozed off, right around Diagon Alley, she took the book into her room and read the entire thing that very same night. She just couldn't stop reading. In the spring, 2000, we bought the second book and I read the entire thing by myself.
Since The Sorcerers Stone, my life has been dramatically changed. It may sound odd, but Harry was there for me at times when no one else was. Starting elementary school, I felt like an outsider, and Harry was the only one that told me that everyone feels like an outsider sometimes. When I finally realized that my family wasn't like others, and that my parents living in different houses wasn't something everyone went through, Harry was there to tell me that all families are different, and it doesn't matter where you're from. When I was almost 10 and I realized that my family was a middle class family living in an upper class world, Harry told me it didn't matter where I was from, but who I surrounded myself with. The last thing he told me, was that anyone can be extraordinary. Anyone can excel, regardless of power or wealth. Anyone can be a hero, and anyone can triumph, no matter how young. And as a kindergartner, that was the best lesson anyone could have ever taught me. 
This is about the debt I owe to the Ban Potter lunatics and why I don't have to repay it. One day during a conversation with my then 9-year old niece, I discovered that she was enjoying the newly released Chamber of Secrets. Rumors I'd heard of the book's unholy influence on children caused me immediate concern. The media was full of accusations that the Harry Potter books lured kids into witchcraft! Most alarming was that my niece's parents were completely oblivious to the danger. I wouldn't ordinarily choose to read a children's book, but I felt my duty as an uncle was to investigate any threat to my innocent young niece.
In order to nail down the facts, I walked into a store and purchased The Sorcerer's Stone. I knew that I couldn't possibly enjoy reading it, but to discover improper influences would enable me to alert my niece's parents. I only got as far as the part where Harry was kept under the stairs before I was hooked. It would not have mattered if the book promoted serial killing, I could not put it down. Upon finishing Sorcerer's Stone, I felt so smug at not having to wait for the sequel. After reading CoS, I realized that the books did contain a real danger. The withdrawal pangs began, which could only be satisfied by the next book. The Ban Potter loonies were right after all about being lured in. While I credit them for introducing me to the world of Harry Potter, they are pinheads for getting it wrong.
99 cents. That is how much I paid for a new, paperback copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I will never forget spotting the sale in a bright yellow Scholastic newsprint advertisement that my fifth grade teacher gave to all the student each month. The brief description of the book seemed appealing and I took secret pride in knowing I could pay for it myself. But as I returned the completed order form and poured a handful of dimes and pennies onto my teacher's desk on that random day in 1999, I never thought for a second that this book would forever change my life.
I remember this event clearly, like you remember where exactly you were when you turned the page to read that Quirell was the bad guy, or when Cedric Diggory was murdered. I don't remember how long it took me to read that first book, or when exactly I realized that it was unlike any other book I had ever picked up. But by Christmas of that year, I was begging my parents to buy me Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. For the next nine years, I read, re-read, waited, and paid a bit more than 99 cents to obtain the next volumes of the captivating epic just to stay up all night gasping, shouting, giggling, bawling, and (mostly in Deathly Hallows) simply staring in stunned shock at the grave events on each page.
Since becoming captivated by Harry Potter, I have met many others who are as passionate as I am, and with whom I will forever share happy memories. In another decade, I know I will still feel a connection to the thousands of millions of other now-adults who shared Harry's adolescent years closely with their own, a "Harry Potter Generation." To say we grew up with Harry is an understatement indeed. To hear Harry's thoughts, witness his struggles, and simultaneously celebrate in his triumphs through each chapter of each book only drew me closer to his world; a world of potions and patroni, but also of courage and friends and love. He, Ron, Hermione, and every single other character (dead, alive, magical, muggle, or animal) seems to me a real entity, and not unlike a friend who goes to college very far away. I am in awe to feel that a fictional character has inspired me in such a powerful way. JK Rowling deserves every praise; even when on sale, her work is priceless.
Hi, I am a (almost) 48 year old Library Assistant who loves Harry Potter. I first heard about Harry Potter through the "grapevine". The Children's Librarian (Cindy) had purchased the first two volumes shortly before the third was released in 1999.
I love fantasy and still read childrens books (this summer I read the Septimus Heap and Percy Jackson series and listened to the Gemma Doyle trilogy), so when they were available I checked the Harry Potter books out and read them and fell in love with Neville, oops Harry. Cindy had also ordered the audio cassette tape and I made my husband listen to the beginning of the first book with me. After Hagrid rescues Harry from the horrible Dursleys, the magic began for my husband Rick (age 53) also. We have taken the audios on 3 trips to the East Coast and to the Grand Canyon/Las Vegas and back. We still have the seventh to listen to and that is for the Yellowstone Trip next summer.
In 1999-2002 I was driving the bookmobile (no longer running and at the local museum) and had many children ask to reserve Harry when there wasn't a copy on the shelf. One child told me she knew what would happen because she had read the chapter titles. I stopped reading the chapter titles after that.
My father-in-law was in Sam's Club the first day that the fourth book was released. Everyone was buying it so he picked it up also, he knew somebody in the family would read it. I also have a box that they were shipped in to the store. My own father asked if I knew anything about Harry because he had read the first chapter in his news magazine and thought it sounded good. (These gentlemen were 70 at the time). I lent him my copies of 1, 2 and 4, but told him to go to his library for the third. For the 5th, 6th and 7th, he was the first to read the Large Print copies I ordered for the library I work at. (I order fiction and Large Print books, we are one of the smaller libraries to have all 7 Harry Potter's in adult Large Print.)
When the Large Print information (on the internet at the Thorndike website) for the sixth and seventh books came out, I emailed as many websites as I could figure out (about six for the sixth and a few for the seventh). The info for the sixth made over 100 sites, but for the seventh I was able to e-mail back and forth from a staffer at a competing web site and give him the web verification that it was valid information. That felt so cool. To be able to let the people know when the Large Prints that they needed were available. My personal copies of Harry Potter are now the Large Print paperbacks, so that we will be able to reread them over and over in retirement in 10+ years. I will (hopefully) be getting the seventh (probably) after the Yellowstone trip next year. The American Large Print publishers (Thorndike Press is a part of Gale Cengage Learning) are very nice people, but I'm not sure they realize (Muggle-like?) the power of the fan generated
website.
I told someone this week to talk to me after they finish so people are still checking Harry Potter out.
I'm 26 now, and I've been with Harry since the beginning. I was on a trip to the bookstore with my parents while on vacation, and whenever we go to the bookstore as a family we end up with STACKS of books. I had been in the store for a good 30 minutes already, and already found 4 or 5 books to read. I had never even heard of Harry Potter, but I stumbled across a copy and was intrigued by the cover art (thank you Mary Grandpre). I picked it up, but saw it filed under a "kids book" so I was going to put it back, but my dad told me to go ahead and get it. I took it home, and finished it the next day. I've been hooked ever since, went to 3 midnight parties after I turned 20, and have spent hours sitting in my car with the door open, ready to get out and go wherever I'm going but not being able to stop turning the pages! J.K. Rowling has given a great gift to literature with the series, and I'm so excited to be able to tell my children that "Mommy was there" when it all began!
I am only 14, but I've been a fan of Harry Potter since almost the beginning. When I was only 3 or 4 or 5, my parents read the first book to me. Some of their friends had read the book to their kids, and recommended it. I don't remember my first reactions because I was pretty small, but I remember loving it. By the time the fourth book came out I was started reading them on my own, and then when the fifth came along my brothers and I all had to get separate copies because we couldn't share anymore. Harry Potter is a really big part of my life now. I am a long time listener of MuggleCast, and a huge wizard rock fan. I can't imagine life without Harry Potter, because it has been a part of my life for so long. I only have a few memories of times that came before the first book came out, when I was really little. I really grew up with Harry, and that makes it very special to me. I have many cherished memories that Harry has brought me. I have already collected many memories since Deathly Hallows came out too, and I know that will continue because Harry Potter fans will never quit loving it.
I first discovered Harry Potter while I was in Cincinnati at Children's Hospital, recovering from spinal surgery. I was twelve years old, and The Sorcerer's Stone was given to me as part of a care package from my mother's work friends. Everyone who knows me knows how much I read, and I was going to be in the hospital for several more days, and then confined to my house for weeks after my release. Books and magazines seemed to make up all of the gifts that people were giving me. As I'm sure you can imagine, sitting in a hospital bed, covered in tubes and surrounded by medical personnel may not seem like the best environment for diving into a new book. For that reason, I hadn't started reading any of the other books I'd been given.