Hooked on HP. Can you beat that?

[Jen Reese]

> Hans:
> I have downloaded several hundred pictures and there's an option 
on 
> our computer to have a continuous slide show of my pictures as a 
> screen saver. Hence the computer is showing lovely pictures 
whenever 
> we're having dinner or whatever. Pictures include book covers in 
all 
> languages, stills from the films, posters, and even stamps from 
> around the world showing HP. I have copied them all and put them 
on 
> my computer at work, and I've given them to several colleagues. 
> Talking about colleagues, don't ask me how many people I've 
> converted to Potterism. It must be well over a hundred by now. We 
> always have a HP calendar of course, and I have about 20 text 
books 
> discussing various aspects of HP. We drink from HP mugs and my 
wife 
> wears HP socks. Whenever we have visitors the conversation 
> inevitably turns to HP. My wife always says, "I wondered when 
you'd 
> get on to that." And we're in our late fiftees! Can anyone beat 
that?

Jen: What a nice story, Hans--can I live at your house? Harry Potter 
24/7 sounds fun to me! My own family is lovingly indulgent with my 
HP obsession, but no one has joined me so far.

I found HP in a very simple way. Sitting in Barnes & Noble 
bookstore, watching my son play with the Thomas the Tank Engine 
train set for the hundreth time, my eyes wandered over to a huge 
stack of books. This was a few weeks before the GOF release, and the 
three previous books were on display. Out of pure boredom, I grabbed 
the Sorcerer's Stone and ended up buying it and COS that very night. 
I quickly read all four books in succession and read the series four 
times in a row, total--I just couldn't put it down and still can't!