My Favourite Book and other ramblings...

[Scott]

No: HPFGUIDX 10110

This is the Story of my favourite book, the possibly not so 
interesting way I found HP, and other ramblings...

There's not a lot of competition when it comes to my favourite book- 
it's PoA. No, siriusly it is! (Sorry I couldn't resist.) 

You see I had asked for the HP for Christmas (1999) and had gotten 
CoS. Apparently my mother hadn't thought to get book one. I realised 
her mistake and used my B&N gift certificates to buy both SS and PoA- 
before I ever read a page of any of the books. Looking back I've 
always liked to buy books but I'm not sure why I got all three Harry 
books before reading them. Luckily I loved them.

I thought the stories were great. But I saw A LOT of similarities b/w 
SS/PS and CoS. They both seemed rather run-of-the-mill children's 
fantasy books (YES Penny I KNOW that they aren't just for children). 
Looking back I'd have to say that it was PoA that really made the HP 
series something more, at least IMO.

BTW, I think, though I can't be sure, that I first heard of the Harry 
Potter books from Rosie O'Donell. See she IS good for something.

Anyways PoA wasn't just about Harry facing his enemy (V) but it was 
about his facing the demons in his own life. The dementor's embodied 
his fears. The whole ordeal with SB forced him to face his past. 
Harry dicovered a lot about himself and WE, as readers, discover a 
lot about Harry in the book. It's also about his parents (mostly 
James) and the part with the Patronus is SO touching. 

Not to mention Hermione is crucial to the plot and I LOVE Hermione...

The other books are all great and just b/c CoS is my least favourite 
(I recall it is one of Jo's favourite's though) doesn't mean it isn't 
still loads better than many other things I've read.

No matter how WONDERFUL the HP books are I would be highly unlikely 
to be so obsessed with them (especially by the time book V comes out) 
if it hadn't been for this group and the internet fandom. In fact I 
hadn't even discovered adult, and semi-adult fandom, when GoF came 
out. I was a B&N at midnight to buy the book but I was eagerly making 
excuses "I KNOW I'm too old but I can't help it..." I would never say 
any such thing now b/c the books ARE NOT just for kids.


On a side note-
I remember talking to a man at the GoF party who was 50ish or 60ish 
and he told me all about how he made up stories to tell his grankids 
but he'd never actually read the books. He actually wanted to know 
what they were about! (Somehow I don't believe that he had never read 
them. I mean why ELSE would he have been at the bookstore at midnight 
on July 7th/8th????)

Ahhh well now that I've bored you guys to death....

Scott