[HPFGU-OTChatter] Harry A History

[Sheryll Townsend]

Alla:

> I finished it. I mean, it got better eventually. However, I
> still 
> find the writing style to be well, I don't know if
> choppy is the good 
> word, but it definitely did not flow well with me, not all
> the time.
> 
Sheryll:

Agreed, the writing didn't always flow well, something I find very distracting when I read.

Alla:
> I am most likely keeping the book as a piece of history,
> but would I 
> recommend buying it for somebody else? Right now, probably
> not. I did 
> not enjoy it nearly as much as I expected to enjoy it and
> that is 
> despite the fact that I find the subject matter to be
> fascinating.
> 
> I also probably expected the focus of the book to be a bit
> more on 
> fandom in general and a little less on Mellissa's life.
> I mean, I 
> know, I know that her life in fandom is connected with many
> 
> significant events, but somehow I expected something, I am
> not even 
> sure what.
> 
Sheryll:

Another agreement. The story was more "My Life in HP Fandom" than it was a history of the fandom. There were significant things left out of the book simply, I'm sure, because they didn't touch on the author's experience.

For example, she talked about how crowded bookstores started to get for JKR's appearances as the books became more popular. While she mentions statistics for some bookstores she completely omits the biggest of all JKR's readings. Her appearance at SkyDome in Toronto post-GoF still holds the record for largest public reading in history with 22,000+ attendees.

She mentions Nimbus and I think one other HP conference, despite the fact that there have been numerous events both in the US and elsewhere (Patronus, Accio, etc).

Alla:
> Regardless though, no matter what I expected, I was not
> moved enough 
> by the story I was reading. I mean, in some places I was,
> but it 
> definitely was not the book I could not put down before I
> finish. I 
> had been reading four other books with it and when I feel
> like 
> switching a book it tells me something.
> 
Sheryll:

I did read it right through, but I made numerous notes in my copy. :)

It was obviously poorly edited if no one caught the mistranslation of the title of the first book in French. It translates 'Harry Potter a l'ecole des sorciers' as 'Harry Potter and the School of Magic'.

Her references to HPFGU go no further than talking about the shipping wars and she consistently refers to us as Harry Potter for Grownups, which is another group completely, instead of HPforGrownups. I noticed that she also included the URLs to specific Main list posts in her Notes section. She joined Main in October of last year but never posted, so I would gather she joined only to find the necessary information for her book.

The book is heavy on Leaky Cauldron, a fair bit of history of Sugar Quill, a bit on Fiction Alley, a lot of wizard rock history (with a main focus on Harry and the Potters - a few other bands are mentioned, but with nowhere near as much detail). 

There's little in the book that's outside her own experiences, so I wouldn't call it a true or complete history of the HP fandom. A good history of the author in fandom would be more accurate.

I think the book is a decent enough addition to my shelves of HP literature, it's just not what I expected it to be - a good accounting of the HP fandom as a whole.

How many others here have read this one? I'd love to hear other opinions of the book!

Sheryll


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