Harry Potter Taught Me to Read

3 Facts of My Life.

1. I love reading.
2. I love Harry Potter.
3. I used to hate reading and refused to read Harry Potter for a very long time. 

This is at Universal Studios Florida

 I was surfing the net the other day and came across this article about Harry Potter books.  There were a few points which made me fall in love with in the article.

1. "Initially, I was determined not to read them, convinced that something so popular couldn't possibly be good."
2. "...there was something about growing up with the series that will forever define my generation. We are a group of people who believe in the impossible, in the power of love’s ability to protect and create, in silly things like jelly beans that taste like dirt and earwax, in bravery wrought through friendship and the need for a few basic spells to ease our way through daily life."
3. "Every controversy Potter created made it stronger, particularly because no one could refute one incredible truth; it was getting children to read."

Can I just say: I've had a theory for the past few years, which was: knowing a person has read Harry Potter, tells you a lot about that person. I'm always terrible at explaining it, and have offended a few people when explaining it. I think point two sums it up perfectly.

At the end of the article, she starts talking about how intense the Harry Potter fandom world became, creating midnight *book* releases, theme parks, movies, etc. It got me really excited. I think the last point rang most true to me. I went searching to see if there was any proof to back up that statement. I came across this article in my Googling. Really, I don't think there is a study or anything to back up whether or not Harry Potter "created a generation of readers", but I can say....it taught me how to read. Well....to clarify...it taught me to love to read.

Let me tell you my story of how Harry Potter taught me to enjoy reading again. When I was little, I liked to read. I read Madeline books, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Amelia Bedelia, The Boxcar Children, etc. In the 4th grade, I attempted to read the all the books on the Texas Bluebonnet Award List. I do not recall if I accomplished this goal or not, but I did enjoy reading. Then I went into middle school. This began my period of not reading. I attribute this literary dark period of my life to required school reading. I think I forgot that reading could be fun. Middle School had us reading really boring books, like The Old Man and The Sea. I remember having to read this diary of a girl living in the conflict of Yugoslavia, which had been compared to The Diary of Anne Frank in regards to the idea that it's a young girl's diary during a time of war in the area. Goodness, for a 12 year old, who wants to read that kind of stuff? I stopped reading. Or maybe I stopped reading in 5th grade, when popularity was a concept that became important to me. (side note: it's sad that 10 and 11 year olds care about being "popular", is it not?)

My siblings loved to read. Everyone in my family reads. I did not. Maybe that also contributed to it. Everyone did it, and I wanted to be different. Who knows? Harry Potter was first introduced into my life in 1999. I remember walking past the Scholastic book fair in the library of Middle School with girls in my class, and someone mentioned that the 3rd Harry Potter book was out, and they wanted to buy it. Ok. Whatever. Later that year, Saryah got the first 2 Harry Potter books for her birthday. This is how Harry Potter first entered our house. No one had read it in the family yet, as far as I know. Who was the girl inadvertently change my life forever? I have no idea. In 2000, I remember a girl at church, Brette, talking about it. I didn't understand how someone could like a book so much. I thought it was weird. To be honest, I was a little judgmental. Now sometime between Book 4's release date, July 8th 2000, and the release date for Quidditch Through The Ages March 1st 2001, I read the first Harry Potter book. 

Saryah had been the first in the family to read Harry Potter. My parents read Harry Potter. Everyone in my family read Harry Potter. Everyone tried to get me to read Harry Potter. I refused. #stubborn This had been an on-going process. To be honest, I probably should have wrote in my journal the day I read the first Harry Potter book, because it was life changing. I didn't. I was a tween and didn't do stuff like that. #regret

Hogwarts at Universal Studios in Florida

Needless to say, I read it and loved it. I caught up on all the HP books. Reading became fun. It wasn't a teacher in school telling me what to read, when to read, and how to read. It was a story that you could get lost in. I went to midnight book releases and midnight movie releases. I will never forget the nights having drinks and snacks next to my bed in preparation to lock myself in my room and read Harry Potter after leaving the Barnes & Noble midnight release. I will forever remember the exhaustion that came from going to a midnight movie showing after standing in line for hours to get a good seat, and still having to wake up early to go to work or school the next day. 

The moral of the story is I hated reading...but because of Harry Potter, I'm obsessed. Like this buzzfeed, especially #1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 15, 17, 19. Okay, So I wanted to just choose a few, but all of them are 100% true. So I only chose a few. This was an accomplishment in and of itself. Congratulations me!

My name is Natasha, and I am a reader.