The Fateful December of 1999

As a very goal-oriented person, I'd been looking for something to motivate me to get back into reading - I remember devouring books as a child, but as an adult I find myself having less and less time for one of my great passions.

The decision to re-read the whole Harry Potter Series was very spur of the moment. I think I was browsing Mugglenet late one evening and the thought just hit me! What better way to get back into reading than by re-reading my favorite book series?

Lucia's HP Story

Funnily enough, I also started reading Harry Potter in December of 1999. I'd heard of it before (how could I not have?) but for whatever reason I stubbornly refused to read it - despite loving books about magic and the supernatural. It wasn't until Christmas of '99, when I was on holiday with my parents and some family friends in Norway, that I first fell in love with the books. They were a Christmas present from said family friends, who lived in London at the time, and they gave me the first 3 books of the series. I begrudgingly started reading...and have never looked back.

Wow - looking at Corrie's post, one might be temped to think I'm just copying her story, but I swear that's not the case! As it turns out, in April of 2000 my family also abruptly moved countries as we returned to my native Slovakia, which at the time didn't really sell English books. How was I going to keep feeding my addiction for fiction (I should probably mention that at this point in my life, I only read books in English)? And more importantly, how would I get my hands on the new Harry Potter book once it came out? There was no way I would wait for over a year to buy the translated version!

My beautiful collection!

To make a long story short, I needn't have worried. Through a combination of understanding friends and parents, I got the following two books within days of them being released and by the time Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows came out, I was living in Belgium and queuing at my local Waterstones for the midnight release parties.

It's been 8 years since the last book of the series was released (perfectly coinciding with my graduation from high school) but my love of the books has not lessened. I've watched and re-watched the movies, collected memorabilia, visited real locations where the movies were filmed as well as the Harry Potter Studios in Leavesden (more on that some other time) and been a member of Pottermore since its conception.

I am really looking forward to this challenge and am really happy to be embarking on this journey with a fellow HP-lover. I'm curious to see what the next few months will bring!

The book that started it all

Until next time,

Lucia