Harry Potter readalong - IT BEGINS

Alice's Harry Potter readalong is here you guys! Are you excited? OF COURSE YOU ARE.

Since I'm not too sure what we're supposed to be saying for this first post, I'm going to go on about my intro to Harry Potter. I know I've talked about this here before, but I'm going to do it again. That's what happens when the blog is mine.

So Harry Potter came out when I was in middle school which SHOULD have put me right in the prime audience. Except I was switching back and forth between reading Victor Hugo (and not understanding any of it) and reading Stephen King and apparently couldn't be bothered with something like a boy wizard. That's only sort of true because even though this was a PHENOMENON I don't remember hearing too much about it other than, there's a book series that is "bringing reading back" or whatever language used.

So it was several years after the books first came out that I started them. I was studying in Italy and brought a couple books with me that were laying around the house. My brother had a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (never read by him) so I threw that in my suitcase and when I was out of other English language books, I gave it a try. And I liked it. When I was in Rome I found an English language copy of the second book and decided to read that as well. And then I stopped reading the books for a couple more years, because why would I stick with anything?*

The final book came out the summer after I graduated college and a friend of mine was SUPER excited** for it. Not only that, but she wanted to spread the HP love with me when she realized I read the first two books and no more. So one day she, Boyfriend+, and I went to the beach. She was reading her brand new copy of the 7th book and she lent me a copy of the 3rd book so I could catch up and get to the 7th book and then we could talk about it. Good news was I got super into the 3rd book (SIRIUS!). The bad news is I am very pale and 70+SPF sunscreen reapplied twice is not enough to keep me from setting on fire. The kind of good news (though doesn't make up for the massive sunburn) is that I didn't do much while recovering from this burn other than lay on my stomach and silently weep.
But it gave me plenty of time to finish the 3rd book and start on the 4th one (my brother's other HP book, again never read by him).

At the end of the summer my beach friend, Boyfriend+, and I moved in together which meant I now had access to the rest of the books and it didn't take me too much longer to finish the series. And that is my HP journey. I've re-read the first couple book since but never made it past the fourth one. Not for any reason other than I'm easily distracted. I have listened to the audiobooks a couple times so I've semi-re-read them. But I am EXTRA SUPER EXCITED for this readalong so we can all read them and talk about them and pick sides and the gifs. THE GIFS.
And now because I heart Cracked and over-analyzing pop culture (which is what this HP readalong is about right? That and the GIFs?) so here are a bunch of articles about HP that I will probably quote a few times during this readalong. Warning for those who haven't read the books yet (Megs...) there are spoilers.

6 Horrifying Implications of the Harry Potter Universe
The 5 Most Depraved Sex Scenes Implied by Harry Potter
Why The Harry Potter Universe Is Secretly Terrifying (video)
5 Ways People Are Taking Harry Potter Waaay Too Seriously
A Harry Potter Protest (aka Quidditch is Bullshit)

*Addtional HP story I want to add. When I was in high school a friend of mine who was/is a fantasy fan and REALLY did not like HP for reasons that I think fantasy fans understand but couldn't explain to me worked at a bookstore. This bookstore was doing a midnight release of one of the books. My friend somehow already knew the ending and threatened the unruly nerd crowd that if they didn't calm down she was going to tell everyone what happens.

**She would have been one of the people threatened with spoilers, I'm sure.