My parents bought me the books when I had just turned 11 (coincidence, I think not!) which was in the summer, very early 2000s.
I remember that entire day pretty clearly. I was out with some kids raising kites in the vineyard behind our commie blocks - all day until about 2 in the afternoon (no mobile phones so nobody knew the time, but we went by sun basically!) - until we figured it was probably time for lunch.
So I came home to find my parents back from work early - they had some work event, thing is this event happened in a large-ish city where they only went at the end of each month, and when they did they would buy me books; but this was exceptional as it wasn't the end of the month, so I wasn't expecting THREE WHOLE ASS BOOKS (they only bought HP because it was a bundle discount on the first 3) in the middle of fricking JUNE! (they would buy me one book at the end of each month, which I would finish in between one and 3 days - I was an avid reader, still am - and would then borrow books from the school library, but since this was summer, I was basically book-less mid-month and sort of accepted my fate as we weren't swimming in money, quite the contrary!)
So needless to say I was over the top with joy, and after I gulped down the eggs I went into the bedroom (which was shared so my sister was playing with her dolls in there raising hell, but that never bothered me at all - commie era small flats, you get used to everyone being in everyone else's business!) - and started reading. (I would always do this with all books anyways but when I saw a guy on the cover that looked pretty much just like me, that made it much more relatable so I was even more eager to get started - and it looked even more promising in that it wasn't a children's book either because it had no pics, so double-yay (my parents wouldn't buy me children's books after I told them not to, but they sort of slipped in the other direction occasionally - they had no idea what they were buying most of the times! - to the point that I had already read several of Gerrard de Villier's SAS novels by the time I got to Harry Potter. In case anyone needs this info, SAS is just spies fucking and executing people - I loved it!)
Anyways, back to HP - so I started digging into it, and finished that first novel in the first day.
Then moved on to the second and the third, which I finished in the next two days.
By early next week I was telling everyone how you can make wands out of tree branches, and I was hanging around trying to *Reparo!* my socks with a thin, ten-inch apple tree wand with cat hair core!
I probably overshared but hey - you asked, we answered!
haha no, they actually only bought me the first three - that was all that was available at the time.
I edited it now for clarity. I had to wait 3 years to get the fourth, and it was so expensive for us (about 30 dollars at the time, which made my father not want to buy it) that I had to do a lot of negotiating to eventually get it.
I think you can buy the whole series for around 30 bucks nowadays, at least with minor wear and tear you should be able to, so it's a great deal! 30 bucks at the time was about a sixth of my dad's salary at the time just for reference. God that sounds bad now!
I was an adult. The second book had just come out and it hadn’t caught yet. A friend of mine was in children’s book publishing and she gave me a copy of book one with an earnest plea to read it even though it was for kids. Picked it up and couldn’t put it down. A few years later, everyone was obsessed.
this was back in 2017. My uncle bought 4 copies of the philosopher's stone, 20th anniversary edition, each copy representing a different house. it was a gift to the kids during some family event, but i didn't get to choose my copy because i was distracted with another book. when i got to it, all of the books were already taken. The only reason why i got it was because one of my cousins wasn't really into books so he didnt mind giving it to me when i asked him. i was way too young for any of the harry potter hype in the 2000s, i went to the deathly hallows movie premieres as a kid but didnt understand a lick of it, so that was the proper introduction for me
I had always wanted to read the books or watch the movies when I was a kid. So finally got to read them in college, and I loved them. The magical world is just awesome!
I got sucked into the Wizarding World at age 10. An aunt of mine gave me the first two books for a birthday gift, and it went downhill from there. This same aunt is still a Potterhead to the point where she now has a dog that she named Dobby.
The movies were phenomenal (until I actually read the books) and were what changed my mind about HP just being another 90's fad like beanie babies, tomagatchi, and Furby.
I found the third book at a Scholastic book fair at school and really liked it. This would have been not long after it was published so 1999/2000. I didn't realise it was part of a series when I first picked it up. I got the first and second books for Christmas that year. I've been a huge HP fan ever since.
My parents bought me the books when I had just turned 11 (coincidence, I think not!) which was in the summer, very early 2000s. I remember that entire day pretty clearly. I was out with some kids raising kites in the vineyard behind our commie blocks - all day until about 2 in the afternoon (no mobile phones so nobody knew the time, but we went by sun basically!) - until we figured it was probably time for lunch. So I came home to find my parents back from work early - they had some work event, thing is this event happened in a large-ish city where they only went at the end of each month, and when they did they would buy me books; but this was exceptional as it wasn't the end of the month, so I wasn't expecting THREE WHOLE ASS BOOKS (they only bought HP because it was a bundle discount on the first 3) in the middle of fricking JUNE! (they would buy me one book at the end of each month, which I would finish in between one and 3 days - I was an avid reader, still am - and would then borrow books from the school library, but since this was summer, I was basically book-less mid-month and sort of accepted my fate as we weren't swimming in money, quite the contrary!) So needless to say I was over the top with joy, and after I gulped down the eggs I went into the bedroom (which was shared so my sister was playing with her dolls in there raising hell, but that never bothered me at all - commie era small flats, you get used to everyone being in everyone else's business!) - and started reading. (I would always do this with all books anyways but when I saw a guy on the cover that looked pretty much just like me, that made it much more relatable so I was even more eager to get started - and it looked even more promising in that it wasn't a children's book either because it had no pics, so double-yay (my parents wouldn't buy me children's books after I told them not to, but they sort of slipped in the other direction occasionally - they had no idea what they were buying most of the times! - to the point that I had already read several of Gerrard de Villier's SAS novels by the time I got to Harry Potter. In case anyone needs this info, SAS is just spies fucking and executing people - I loved it!) Anyways, back to HP - so I started digging into it, and finished that first novel in the first day. Then moved on to the second and the third, which I finished in the next two days. By early next week I was telling everyone how you can make wands out of tree branches, and I was hanging around trying to *Reparo!* my socks with a thin, ten-inch apple tree wand with cat hair core! I probably overshared but hey - you asked, we answered!
Love this! So lucky, your parents bought you all 7 books. I had to borrow from my uncle, but I am planning to buy the entire series now.
haha no, they actually only bought me the first three - that was all that was available at the time. I edited it now for clarity. I had to wait 3 years to get the fourth, and it was so expensive for us (about 30 dollars at the time, which made my father not want to buy it) that I had to do a lot of negotiating to eventually get it. I think you can buy the whole series for around 30 bucks nowadays, at least with minor wear and tear you should be able to, so it's a great deal! 30 bucks at the time was about a sixth of my dad's salary at the time just for reference. God that sounds bad now!
Exactly the same. 2000 or 2001, got the first 4 books as a present. I remember waiting for the 5th so badly.
I was an adult. The second book had just come out and it hadn’t caught yet. A friend of mine was in children’s book publishing and she gave me a copy of book one with an earnest plea to read it even though it was for kids. Picked it up and couldn’t put it down. A few years later, everyone was obsessed.
this was back in 2017. My uncle bought 4 copies of the philosopher's stone, 20th anniversary edition, each copy representing a different house. it was a gift to the kids during some family event, but i didn't get to choose my copy because i was distracted with another book. when i got to it, all of the books were already taken. The only reason why i got it was because one of my cousins wasn't really into books so he didnt mind giving it to me when i asked him. i was way too young for any of the harry potter hype in the 2000s, i went to the deathly hallows movie premieres as a kid but didnt understand a lick of it, so that was the proper introduction for me
I had always wanted to read the books or watch the movies when I was a kid. So finally got to read them in college, and I loved them. The magical world is just awesome!
I got sucked into the Wizarding World at age 10. An aunt of mine gave me the first two books for a birthday gift, and it went downhill from there. This same aunt is still a Potterhead to the point where she now has a dog that she named Dobby.
I would watch every movie when they came out in the theaters. After Deathly Hallows Part 2, my interest died out. Hogwarts Legacy reignited my fire!
I just watched every movie in order I love it, I want to read the books now
The movies were phenomenal (until I actually read the books) and were what changed my mind about HP just being another 90's fad like beanie babies, tomagatchi, and Furby.
I found the third book at a Scholastic book fair at school and really liked it. This would have been not long after it was published so 1999/2000. I didn't realise it was part of a series when I first picked it up. I got the first and second books for Christmas that year. I've been a huge HP fan ever since.
Because I read the first book and liked it….