Why did we start reading the books? Harry Potter saved me!

[Rachelle Elliott]

No: HPFGUIDX 22444

I have a really neat story about how Harry Potter saved me.

I was 26 year old teacher and had never read a book for enjoyment.  Yes, I
read books for my classroom but, never one just to read it.  I was at the
end of my Masters of Reading (yah, that right Reading) program and one of my
students diagnosed with a learning disability figured out my secret.  He
stated that he knew I hated to read.  He was not going to respect me as a
teacher or a person if I did not read this one book for him.  He even had
checked the book out from the library and he was expecting 2 reports a week
about how the book was going.  My thought was "How dare he!" I tried to get
out of it by saying that I did not have enough time.  That did not work.  I
even tried to skim the first and last paragraph of each chapter and tried to
get a cheat sheet.  None of that worked so,  I took the bait.  A 7th grader
was blackmailing me.  The book of course Harry Potter and the SS.  The first
book took 2 weeks.  Cos took 1 week to read.  2 days for PoA.  On July 8th,
2001 I found myself standing outside of a bookstore.  GoF took me 11 1/2
hours.  (The phone was turned off and all meals had been precooked and ready
to eat.  I then kept reading the HP books over and over.  After I got bored
with that, I decided to try new novels.  And guess what!  Those books were
awesome as well.  As of today, I have read 152 novels.  Harry Potter started
my down the road of reading for enjoyment.  I now have a HP book club for
kids and next year we are expanding and forming other book clubs to reach
more students.  How did I function for 26 years without the enjoyment of
reading?