Harry, A History Book Discussion

Our book of the month is Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon by Melissa Anelli. Anelli, webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron fan site, recounts her personal experiences with a variety of aspects of the Harry Potter fandom.

I thought this would be a great read for us. I've been savoring it in small pieces, rather than reading through the whole thing at once, but will be finished soon. Who else is reading it? What are your impressions?

I bought and read my copy from Amazon last year. I might have to reread it when I get home. Anyhow, I enjoyed the book.

I've also been reading it in pieces since I got it in the mail. So far I'm enjoying it, making comments to myself such as "I know how that is", or "Me too!"

Right now, I'm kinda bogged down in the fan fiction chapter -- probably because I don't read fanfic. There's a whole world there that I'm really not interested in exploring. Do any of you read Harry Potter fanfic?

Other than our own threads? No.

I actually don't even read our own threads. I don't remember if it was in the fanfic section, but I enjoyed the synopses and excerpts from the extra Chinese books they put out. If I remember correctly, one involved Gandalf...

4, foggi:
I used to read (and write) fanfic. When I was in middle school and early high school, between 2001 and 2005, between Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince. Now that Deathly Hallows has been released, I don't read or write it as much. I used to ship Harry and Hermione until JKR killed that ship with her "delusional" quote. I remember writing a book 5 fanfic titled "Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch" (back when that was rumored to be the title of book 5 or book 6) where Hermione confides in Harry that she's scared for her parents' lives becuase they're muggles (I got that part right, only 2 books early) and she and Harry have a relationship.

I find that reading Harry, A History brings back both the excitement of discovering the series and waiting for releases, and the sadness that it's "over" (that there won't be another book in the series). I do feel that we're lucky to have been around for all of the excitement.

I agree, foggi. That's definitely the feeling I got from it too.

#7 my middle school english HP club made a fan fic comic about Harry and Hermione having a relationship and Ron gettin jealous and joinin g the Dark Side but in that percy was cool and dumbledore danced to the 6 flags theme song so we were WAY WAY off

"dumbledore danced to the 6 flags theme song"

LOL! Just imagining that makes me laugh!

I'm not at the fanfic chapter yet, but I'm sure I'll feel like Foggi does.

The book definitely brings back so much of the emotions from waiting for books and all the wondering and plotting about what was coming next.

There was a paragraph when Melissa describes how she felt picking up PS after having nearly forgotten about HP for about a year -- the feeling of sinking into a comforter. Of reading the ho-hum Privet Drive beginning and knowing the adventures and friendships to come. It was a particularly wonderful paragraph. :)

It has been awhile since I read it, but I remember liking everything except the fanfiction and some of the wizard band parts. Oh, and I had a thing for the Artful Dodger from the movie Oliver! when I was a kid and was crushed when I read in this book that he was dead. Many parts did remind me of us. It did make me sad that I didn't find HE until right after reading DH. It would have been so fun to be here predicting and anticipating with all of you.

#13 -- I feel the same way! I joined LT several months before the DH release, but didn't find HE until right around the time of the release. Now I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to get over here.

I brought five books and two audiobooks with me on this trip, and none of them are Harry, A History . . . I still haven't read the last few pages. I will finish it soon. Really!

I read quite a bit today and it always makes me want to come check on everyone here. You guys are great. I always know that, but reading this book reminds me. :)

I found HE about six months after HBP so I was lucky enough to get in on the Snape discussions at least. Though at that point, I read posts much more often than I contributed. Can you believe I used to be shy around you guys?

And on topic: I'm not sure why there was so much detail about the band. Wizard Rock had totally escaped my notice, so I guess I am now informed, but the band chapter was long! I also was oblivious to the relationship debates. All my HP discussion was in RL with a friend and didn't turn online at all until LT.

One criticism that I've read is that Anelli's experience of the HP phenomenon is in no way typical. I don't see that as a problem, personally, but I do think that she saw a lot more different aspects of the fandom than most people did.

I wasn't aware of Wizard Rock until after DH was published, when the library I was at then had a couple of bands come play. I was underwhelmed by the whole experience: the concert I went to was two girls with a taped accompaniment -- they had written a new song on the way and sang it a cappella -- and another girl whose band couldn't come, so she performed solo with her guitar. It had a very school-talent-show feel to it, and the kids who came seemed to enjoy it, but I felt old and cynical. ;-) Maybe some of the more popular bands had a more professional tone, but it sounds like it was a by-kids-for-kids sort of thing all around.

I was also unaware of the online side of things until about the time HBP came out. Espy and I discovered JKR's website at that point, and I think I clicked through to Mugglenet and the Leaky at that point, read some of the discussion boards, and was too intimidated to comment or ever come back because of the way they blasted newbies (at least, that was my perception at the time).

I started spending time browsing Mugglenet sometime between OotP and HBP, but never really got into Leaky. While I'd been online for years by that point, I wasn't much of a surfer (I'm still not, really) so I often felt overwhelmed by the content. I never posted.

I see Anelli's book as a unique combination of global and personal experience. There are parts of the book where she could be describing the experiences of just about any of us...the first time we experienced Harry, waiting for a midnight release, the all-day read-a-thon the next day...and experiences that are a part of her unique story, but which are still an integral part of the Harry Potter community. No, I've never listened to Wizard Rock, but I enjoyed reading about it because it was still a part of the fan experience and it was part of Anelli's experience. And I wouldn't have missed the descriptions of her meetings with JKR for anything!

I'm not a surfer either, Bib, which is probably why I never got into the online stuff too.

Good point about the global-personal mix that is this book.

I never read much about Rowling before and I was surprised by how much I loved reading about her. I had no idea she never really knew how big her books were becoming until later. She seems like a lovely girl.

I'm the same way -- have been using email, for example, since 1993, but I'm not one to just surf the web. It's kind of like shopping: some people like to browse around, even if they're not looking for anything in particular, while others are of the mindset of "get in, get out, get done." I lean towards the latter attitude towards web surfing: if I'm looking for something specific, I can usually find it pretty quickly, but I don't just wander from site to site without some sort of objective in mind.

And, like lefty, I think your comment about the global/personal mix is right on-target.

16 foggi, I do feel that Anelli's experience is not a typical fan experience. How many of us will get to meet JK Rowling and go to her house? I did like reading about her experiences though, and lived vicariously through her while reading the book.

15 lefty, I completely dismissed the relationship chapter. It never crossed my mind until this book that Harry would end up with Hermione, but I never had a lot of HP fans around to discuss it with.

I finally finished it! I feel like such a slacker. ;-) Especially since I initiated this discussion thread! But I really did have to take it in small doses, as I said early on. I also think I was dreading reading about the end, the DH aftermath, the no-more-books-coming part, but it wasn't as much of a downer as I had feared.

No, I thought ending it with a less formal chat with JKR was wonderful!

One thing reading the book has done, is it's made me think about my own experience of "discovering" Harry Potter. I know a lot of us have told our stories here and there, about when we read the first book, or whether we resisted it because of its popularity, but I'm thinking I will make a thread for everyone to tell their own stories. It will have to be some time when I have a chunk of time to devote to telling my own, though, so maybe not until this evening or later this weekend.

Update: Thread is here! Please post your stories there!

I kind of wish Melissa had told the crazy religious woman that she'd had a message from God telling her to read the HP books. It probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere, but the lady should understand that her feelings aren't enough to go on.

I liked reading the bits about the actors. I've never been big on reading about them, but these little bits from Melissa meeting them is fun to read. Especially Matthew Lewis (Neville).

Melissa's inability to talk to Jo is endearing. I'm good at those awkward pauses too, so I can sympathize, poor girl.

#24 -- I though Melissa's handling of the crazy religious lady (both her discussion with her, and her retelling of that discussion) was really well-done. They both knew they weren't going to change the other person's mind. (I'm not disagreeing with you, it's just that I don't think I had mentioned that part of the book yet so I thought I'd throw in my comment here.)

I also loved her descriptions of meeting with Matthew Lewis. I have a lot more respect for him now (I didn't really know anything about him before this) knowing how seriously he takes his character.

Gosh, I would be completely dumbstruck if I ever met JKR. Either that, or I would turn into a blabbering idiot: "Omigosh-I-LOVE-your books . . ." and so on.

Oh, she definitely handled the crazy religious lady very well! But Melissa said she didn't say that she'd had a vision out of respect for the woman's belief, which I thought undeserved just because the lady was over the line. It drives me nuts when people try to force others to comply with their personal preferences under the name of God. But you're right -- Melissa handled the whole thing impressively.

lol -- I'd be in the dumbstruck category I think. I'm sure words wouldn't even come close to forming. A stupid grin I might manage, but that's about it. I laughed out loud when Melissa vowed to say a coherent sentence to JKR because I know I would be telling myself the same things after an embarrassing encounter.