How did you get hooked on Harry Potter?

[Asphodel]

This thread is so you can talk about how you got hooked on Harry Potter, hopefully this will clear out any uneeded threads.

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

In response to your locking statement in "6th Book Title" in the Books, you wrote that "These are pre HBP discussions so I'm going to lock it." You do know why they have the HBP sections, don't you? It's because some haven't read the book, and we don't want to give away spoilers.

So you really should have left those topics open, for the people that still want to discuss what will happen in HBP, and who the Half-blood Prince is!

[Asphodel]

Oh shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot! I forgot this wasn't a HBP section! Sorry.

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

Anyway on to your fantastic topic.

I first bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in a bookstore with the money I'd received for my birthday, along with the old classic story of Peter Pan. This was around 5 or 6 years ago.
I brought it along with me to a restaurant to read because I figured I might get bored there. I did, and I read it. I had to repeat it later on though because the noise was too loud.
I read it over the weekend, and got hooked. It was immediately the best book I'd ever read at that stage and although no HP book can say that for me anymore, they're still fantastic and a close second.
I got Chamber of Secrets two weeks later from my school library, and subsequently bought that as well. A year or so later I finally got around to buying Azkaban, and Goblet had just come out too, so I bought them together.
Order of the Phoenix was a late birthday present, three years later.
And Half-Blood Prince I put on request and bought on the first weekend of its release.

[Mint]

Phoenix - oh yeah, the experience from reading the first HPotter book can not be repeated. Its just everything is so new and so amazing!!

Well, my younger sister read first 4 books (in fact I was the one who bought Goblet of Fire for her b-day). And she kept asking me to read them, telling me that they are just amazing. But ... I didn't have time for it and didn't care to read a children's book.

Then, in college I got really tired of studying for my exams and decided to give HPotter book a try. I have to tell you I was in a perfect mood for that book too and I saw the trailer for the 1st HP movie so as soon as I started reading it I was "swallowed" by the book Read 2nd-4th right after it. Just couldn't stop myself. Oh it was soooo great!!!

And I agree she had a great 1st sentence.

[Asphodel]

Man, I didn't like the first book, which I read in first grade. The second book was okay, but I didn't get hooked until the third book.

[SunsetG|rl]

I never even heard of HP until I saw the movie. I went to see Lord of the Rings cause a friend said it was so great. And then I kept hearing on how HP is some kind of competition. (They were making all these comparisons in magazines)And since I liked LOTR, I said I should go for it... And then my cousin said it was after a book, and that she had the books. She gave me the first 3 books and...I got hooked.

[Nightcrawler]

I read the first three books out of order. I was given PoA for Christmas and I loved it. Then I read CoS (which I thought was alright) then PS (which I felt was a bit better than CoS). Then I read GoF (which was awesome), then I saw the first and second movies, then read OotP, then saw the third movie, then I read HBP and now I can't wait to see the fourth movie.

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

Goblet of Fire was at the time the biggest book I'd read. It held me in awe every single page, including (contrary to some's opinions) the first chapter. I feel the final sequence is the most exciting and my favourite of all, and I really, really hope they do it justice.
That book really summed up the entire series for me, and I enjoy the way that it's the connection between the Light 3 and the Dark 3, and the way it contains elements of both.

It was in that book that JK Rowling proved herself as a writer capable of many styles, and it was the transition between dark and light in that perfect way, that made me love it so much.

(Eg. Quidditch World Cup (Light) ----- Dark Mark in Sky (Dark))

[Asphodel]

Weird. I'm a slow reader (HBP took me a whole 14 hours to finish) but I just can't take my eyes of these books. I'm one of those people, I usually read a book in one sitting, but I'm amazed how much this was enforced when I read HP. You just can't take your eyes of the page!

[selene]

i started reading them in februari 2005
i was in the hospital that month and my boyfriend (-at-the-time) gave me the first three books because he figured that being in a hospital is depressing enough and i was reading some drama at the time, wich he found very depressing so ...

so i thought: i have them, i might as wel read them and i got hooked
and when i was home i bought the other books

[Scarlet Lioness]

Well, when I think I was 7, my teacher started reading this book to us in class...and I was hooked by the first chapter, but because she was reading it sooooo slow, I decided to go to the library and get it out...I read it 3 times and then wondered where the next one was so I went to a bookshop and I found CoS, I bought read it, and then had to wait for a while till the 3rd one came out, it was my favourite till the movie wrecked it...then GoF arrived I read it like 5 times, it's now my favourite book...then 3 years later OotP came out I got it on the day it came out and I read it in 10hours, GO ME!!! Then I got HBP when it came out on July 16th on July 16th and read it in 8 hours while I was stuck at a dancing competition for 8 hours doing nothing coz my next dance didnt start till 8pm and I finished at 11, went to go get lunch and the book and then I read it...and nearly missed my dance!!!

[Asphodel]

Yeah, that's what HP will do to you. I notice that all of us seem to agree that the third book got us hooked. Must have been a good book.

[draconeedsahug]

I was at a sleepover at my cousins and she had GoF by her bed. I read the first four chapters and that's when I got hooked. I stopped reading though just before the Quidditch World Cup started and went back to the first book. I had to read the first three books before I would allow myself to read number four. That got me hooked!

[Hagrid's girl]

I was at my mums work and had nothing to do, her boss decided to get rid of me and gave me HArry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and told me to read it, i ust got hooked from then on.