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[hpraremod]

To keep you occupied until prompting starts again, we'll start the discussion questions again! If you want have something you want discussed or just have some ideas, please PM us to let us know. :)

Discussion Question #11
Where were you when the first Harry Potter book came out? Did you read the books first or did you watch the movies before the books?

Comments

[theshadowpanther]

Honestly, I have no idea where I was (I was in fourth grade, you expect me to remember all that way back???). I picked the series up when the second book came out and by then it was already crazily popular. I started reading the books before the movies (I think I was up to GoF before the movies started coming out) and I was right on top of everything that they were doing with the movies - including thinking that Dan Radcliffe was my age! So weird.

Dunno if I'll be in the majority or not, but I prefer to read the books first before the movies. Yeah, reading the books first makes it wildly obvious how much they're leaving out in the movies, but watching the movies ruins the books because then you have all these images in your head that someone else put there, and half the fun of reading books is imagining your version of what's happening (yay imagination!). Watching the movies first ruins that. Plus, you find out what all the movies have left out and that's depressing more than exciting, since for me I think "oh man if they had including this or that in the movie, it would have been so different!" Books often have a different tone from the movies that are made off of them, and while the HP movies were faithful to the tone of the books, they left out a looooot of stuff that the limitation of 2 hours (or 3 hours and two movies, facepalm) wouldn't allow.

January is very far away!

[drarryxlover.livejournal.com]

I was about 10. And I hated reading, my mum worked at a primary school (I think grade school) and she got the first two out for my sister and I was forced to read them and I mean forced, until I got to meet Hagrid.

It was the first book that I enjoyed reading and now, I read the entire series every year around Christmas time.

[xpectopatronads.livejournal.com]

I was 15 when the first book came out but I don't think I even heard about the series till PoA came out. I was obsessed with Sailor Moon at the time anyhow and finding out all sorts of things from fandom that I hope my daughters don't discover till they are 35.

I only remember that I read the books first because I had a long rant and rave about how Rupert Grint does NOT look like Ron, and Hermione's teeth are too small, and they should really make Daniel Radcliffe wear green contacts. Now, years down the track, I'm over it - I think they cast pretty well, really.

I did not really get into the series until GoF. It was probably my favourite book in the series, when there is still adventure and intrigue and homo eroticness if you read between the lines (and I choose to) - but before Harry gets all angsty teenager and angry at everyone and all shouty.

I went off on a bit of a tangent, sorry!

[tryslora]

I didn't know about the series until shortly before GoF came out. Friends who I gamed with told me I had to read it, so I went out and bought books 1-3 and my husband and I both started reading them immediately. I was hooked. I remember being at a gaming convention and reading past where my husband was and finishing before he did. But then we were at the store the weekend that GoF came out, and we didn't realize QUITE how hugely popular it was. We went looking for copies, but they were out, so we kept on with our shopping. Well, when they announced that new copies had just been put out, my husband turned around without a word and started heading that way, with me yelling after him to let the kids get first dibs on any copies!

But yeah, we were hooked. It was the spring/summer of 2000. I was 32. I had a 2 year old daughter. My husband had just turned 30. And we were totally hooked. My daughter read them in second grade, just before DH came out. My son read them when he was in third grade. Out of my family, my son is the only one close to as hooked as I am.

[ashiiblack.livejournal.com]

I was in the 4th grade and I believe PoA was ABOUT to come out (1998 I think???). I used to read Nickelodeon magazine religiously and I kept seeing articles about some wizard in glasses. He looked weird and I thought the book sounded stupid. I preferred to read horror stories; I was already reading Anne Rice.

My teacher purchased a copy of the Sorcerer's Stone and I was curious. The book cover looked ridiculous. This weirdo kid was on a broomstick looking up at a piece of metal with wings. What the fuck? I should also mention that back then I was identical to Hermione (especially at the start of the books): smart, obsessed with hw and rules, no friends, and made fun of for being different. I had a bit of self-loathing going on at that point.

I did then what I've done many times since then: despite my apprehensions, I decided to try it (Twilight was a less successful endeavor...).

I was amazed with what I was reading. This was the best thing I ever read. I literally COULDN'T put the book down until I finished it that evening. Once I finished it, I went right back to the beginning and re-read it.

I picked up CoS at the library the very next day and blew through that too (I tricked my family with the "Tom Marvolo Riddle" anagram for weeks). PoA came out shortly after and I gobbled that up as well. I was so obsessed that I actually won a Harry Potter trivia contest at Borders. The prize was a hardcover set of the first three books and the pre-order of GoF. Yay me!

Harry Potter helped me grow up and make friends. He was with me through my hardest times and my best times. He was there when I met my boyfriend and he was there when I tried to kill myself. Harry Potter is my security blanket. (I know that sounds creepy)

I'll proclaim it wherever: I am a Potterhead!

[pauraque]

I was introduced to the series by my younger brother, who was about 9 when the first book came out. I was surprised to see him voraciously reading fairly long books since he wasn't much of a reader until then. I didn't actually read any of the books until after I saw the first movie, though. I had questions about some of the characters' motivations (particularly Snape) and my brother's advice was to just read the books because they went more in-depth about the characters. I guess I was 19 by then.

[nevrafire.livejournal.com]

I was like, 8-9? when the book first came out, and I didn't like reading much back then.

I got interested after watching the movies because like, Hermione was so like me and I felt like her cause I was teased a lot for having really big front teeth.

I end up loving the movies and started reading the books, even if they took me, like a month to finish, like each cause i was a slow reader then.

I loved both books and movies since then.

[scarletladyy.livejournal.com]

It was 1997 and I was 8. My dad bought me the Philosopher's Stone and for about a week I was like "Magic? Meh", but he kept going on and saying how good it was and how big it would be so I gave in and read it... and was hooked from the first page! :D

By the time the films came out I'd read PS, CoS, PoA and GoF and was eagerly waiting for OOtP! I remember being ecstatic that they were making films out of them :D

I'm very proud to be one of the very first to read the books! :D So grateful to my dad :)

[stormypups.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a tough one. I think they came out before I started university, but I didn't actually read them until GoF came out. I got them all at the library and read them all one weekend and fell in love. Once I finished, I read them all over again the next weekend. When all the other books came out, I was there at Midnight to get my copy. So I'd finished all the books that were out by the time the movies came out and I'm so glad I read them first because they were so full of details the movies just couldn't capture in the time frame. I'm getting up there in age now and I don't think any fandom will ever replace it as number one.