Confession of a Potterhead

Blog It July Day #2
What do you geek? (As in, what do you nerd out on?)

In September 1999, I was 9 years old and my family had just moved to St. Paul. I started fourth grade at a new school, only to discover that everyone (EVERYONE) in my class was obsessed with some book series I had never heard of, about a scrawny kid with glasses named Harry Potter. Not wanting to be the only student in the class who wasn't in the know, I decided I had better start reading.

This is how I started on the path to being a total geek about Harry Potter. To be fair, a lot of people around my age are at least a little geeky about the series. Consider this: When I started reading it in 1999, the third book had just been released in the US. I was ten, the same age as Harry at the start of The Sorcerer's Stone. When the final book was released, I was 17 (again, the same age as the protagonoist), and about to start my senior year of high school. The idea of the "Harry Potter generation" is pretty accurate - me and my peers literally grew up with the Boy Who Lived.

Since so many of my friends also love these books, I've had many great conversations about them. I have a theory that someone is having a conversation about Harry Potter at all times - day and night - on every college campus in the United States. I certainly contributed my fair share of discussions to that scenario. My college roommates and I explored Pottermore when it first came out, while procrastinating on studying for finals. (It's not the best thing ever, but it's a lot more fun than geology at 2:15 AM). I also geek out a little bit on Harry Potter fanfiction. Some of it is surprisingly good, while some is hillariously bad.

As far as the movies go, I like them. They're not perfect - Harry and Ron look like their hair was cut by a woodchipper in the 4th one - but as movie adaptations of books go, they're decent. That said, I am not a fan of the movies in the same way that I'm a fan of the books.

So, there it is. You caught me. I'm a total Potterhead.

Mischief managed,
Renee