Why did you decide to continue reading HP books?

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 177891

> Alla:
> What I am wondering is what made you stick with the books. Was there 
> any event, character, just the world in general that made you decide -
>  oh yes, those are books I am going to wait for, read and reread and 
> reread :)

zgirnius:
I decided *not* to continue reading the books twice. First after 
reading PS/SS (which I finally decided to try on the theory that I 
would have liked it as a kid), and then after reading CoS (on the 
theory that maybe it just got off to a bad start). I liked some of the 
characters, some of the humor, and thought the idea of the world was 
pretty cool, but it did not really grip me.

I went ahead and read PoA after hearing good things about the movie, 
and *that* was when I decided I needed to go hunt down a copy of GoF. 
The prophecy at the end, and then Peter running away, made me suspect 
that, rather than being seven cute little episodes of Harry neatly 
foiling a plan inside of a school year like the first two, this was 
actually going to be a series of books in which sweeping, large-scale, 
interesting things were going to happen and Harry would just happen to 
be at the center of them. 

I also loved the book as a standalone far more than the first two. The 
Snape and Marauder backstory, the fabulous Peter is Scabbers twist, and 
the extended time-travel sequence were just huge amounts of fun, in my 
opinion.

GoF (already available then) confirmed this suspicion, and I was 
hooked.