I Finally Read Harry Potter

My first, and what I expected to be my last, experience with the renowned Harry Potter series consisted of my head looking into my half full medium popcorn bag and my Nonna holding my hand as “terrifying images” of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets played out on the screen. I have vivid memories of that day, mostly coming home and curling up in a ball on my couch with a stomachache from the excessive amounts of popcorn and the anxiety I had watching Harry Potter take on one of the most frightening creatures I had ever seen in my young life. I had nightmares for a week and refused to sleep in my own room.

This was not the first attempt my family had made at getting me to like the Harry Potter series. Since I had established myself already as an avid reader, and the phenomenon of Harry Potter was just beginning, my family members attacked from all angles to get me interested. My Nonna and aunt, who both already had all of the books written up to that point, read them aloud to me when I showed little to no interest in reading them myself. That did not work. Then when the movies began to come out they thought I would take better to those, since I had established myself as a movie lover as well. Well, after that fateful evening in Regal Cinemas I think my family finally retired all of their efforts.

Fast forward fourteen years. A lot of time has passed. There are now seven Harry Potter books, a movie complementing each one, and I have still not tried to get into the series after my traumatic incident in 2002. Anyway, as I said in a previous post I help run a reading program at my job, so I have several books lying around in my car that I have borrowed from the library. One of them happened to be Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. I am driving with my boyfriend to a destination about an hour away when he picks up the book and starts reading it to me. With nowhere to run and no popcorn bag to hide my face in this time, I am stuck. The fourteen year old torch has been passed from Nonna to him, and now I have nothing left to do but drive and listen.

Just a few side thoughts before I keep going with this story. The Harry Potter series has been a topic of discussion for my entire adolescence, so I do know the names of the main characters and some of the major events that occur. There have been trips to midnight premieres, references to Snape, Dumbledore and Ron Weasley, comparisons of myself to Hermione Granger, and of course the occasional (but rare) attempt at getting me interested in the series. What I’m trying to say is that I have not been completely oblivious over the last decade and a half. Don’t get me wrong there were points in my life as I got older that the thought crossed my mind of picking up The Sorcerers Stone and giving it another go. But as a thirteen year old and beyond I figured that my time had passed, that the books weren’t relevant anymore and there was no point to reading them since I was probably the last person in my age in the entire universe who hadn’t done so yet.

How wrong I was.

Fast forward to today. I just finished reading The Prisoner of Azkaban. (Yes, the third book). And I am not ashamed to say that I am hooked. I tore through the first two books within a week and a half and I could not put them down. I brought them to dinner, to work, to bed. Everywhere I went I was always concerned with when I would be able to continue reading and finding out what happened next.

J.K. Rowling is the best storyteller of our time. I say that statement with great confidence as I am someone who values creativity and the ability to come up with vivid characters and a captivating plot line all from imagination and tell it to an audience of all ages using such brilliant language and imagery. Every time I read a chapter, my final thought is always the same: This came from somebody’s brain. As an amateur writer at best, I am astounded by the intricate details Rowling includes in every sentence, every chapter, and every book. Every sentence is written so well and  as though it is the last sentence, which is the reason why readers remain engaged.

Something else I realized is that these books are timeless. I wish I understood this as a thirteen year old, because I have been depriving myself all these years of a great series simply because I thought I outgrew them. As many who have read the series can attest, that is false. You can’t outgrow Harry Potter because it is timeless. As a twenty-one year old I am getting to experience the excitement, joy and brilliance of these books the same as a nine year old might have back in the early 2000’s or even at this very moment. It is incredibly difficult to write and appeal to such a wide age range of readers but Rowling does it and does it almost unbelievably well.

I no longer feel like I missed out on perhaps one of the most important contributions in literary history. Instead I feel like I am on an adventure with these characters and that, in a way, I’m getting to be a kid again. Also, I should add that I am now in possession of the entire Harry Potter series and plan on finishing it before I return to school in the fall.

I think Nonna would be proud.