Curse me silly and call me Harry!

I am bewitched! I succumbed to Harry Potter. I don’t know if I should ask ‘What took me so long!’ or ‘What was I thinking?!’

You see, I’ve read many Potter lovers and haters comments alike and nothing can be as opposite. Huh? W.T.F does that mean? Love, hate, duh….!

Let me explain. I used to not really care what both group say. How and why they love or hate Potter.

So what if they love Potter. So Rowling is a good writer. So I love the movie. That ain’t enough for me to pick up the book and start reading. Besides, there are six books out now. Which will I start with, having watched all three movies already?

So what if it’s child fantasy? So Harry is a teenage boy. So the adults reading Potter are somewhat childish. So the fan base is huge and all they say is how they love Potter. That ain’t the reason to hate. Besides, it’s a free world. We are all different and I have no right to judge.

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Then, Half Blood Prince was released. And Goblet of Fire is being shot. One good friend tells me he got hooked on potter since last year. Another friend says she fell victim last summer. And another,.. and another. The point is, they are adults close to me. We are friends and therefore we bear compatible rationales. I do love all three movies. It doesn’t hurt to get a complete picture of the upcoming one. In fact, I anticipate a delightful experience knowing the story and discovering how brilliant the movie adapted to the book. I know that the book caters for children as well as adults so the read should be easy, however slow the start may be.

I don’t know how it happened but one day a friend lent me Goblet of Fire and it took me months to get a smooth sailing. Work and other interesting stuff, or so I thought, deprived me of a decent reading session. Months gone by and I still have many chapters to read. I don’t want to read as an obligation but my friend knows the book has been with me for so long. “What is he doing with it? Keeping it as a decorative ornament?”

So last Friday I made it a point to finally get on with it. One chapter went by a tad too slow. Then the next got better until I finally caught steam. I put down the book at around 4 am Saturday. Woke up on Saturday afternoon, went to Ikea and got back to reading at 11pm. I kept on reading till 7 am Sunday, had breakfast and dropped dead to devour some sleep, several more chapters to go. Woke up after noon on Sunday again and went to Ikea/Ikano again to get the fifth book, Order of the Phoenix, 20% discount I saw the day before. I rushed home to finish the remaining chapter in Goblet of Fire. I read with excitement as I know what is waiting for me as soon as I finished. The next book! A reward 20% less. Such a sweet deal. Done with Goblet of Fire, I immediately started the Order of the Phoenix. I reached the chapter where the children were explained about the Order of the Phoenix when Mrs. Weasley exclaimed “That’s enough!”
“I want you in bed now. All of you!” she added.

The clock says 3am and that’s my cue too. As if she knew I needed to sleep immediately or I’ll be a zombie at work on Monday!

So now I’m on the fifth book. I reckon I’ll need this weekend to finish the book. Nope, I’m not a die hard fan to get it done this few days but it will be good, like they say it would. I can’t imagine how I’m supposed to survive after finishing the fifth book. The sixth is still in hardcover and it costs 99 bucks! Will I buy it anyway? That depends on how badly cursed I am by then. Any news on the release of paperback version, people, anyone?

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I guess by now you would have guessed that I’m no reader. I’m not the person who goes to the bookstore looking for the next big thing in bookworm world. But I’m not the person who doesn’t wake up and smell the coffee either, for I am still in this planet. It’s just that I know when I start to pick up a book, a good book, I will never put it down till it’s done. I know I will lose sleep and miss out on other thing I love to do when not reading, which is most of the time. I desperately have to achieve more but time stays the same. And I’m only getting older.

You would also reckon that I am now officially a Potter book fan. I now understand the intensity of love and adoration toward the character and the admiration for Rowling. Many times during my adventure in the Goblet of Fire I thought to myself, did she thought this all by herself? This looks like so much work! The never ending events, the intriguing characters and the brilliant buildup! Such brainwork!

I also understand the obsession hoards of people show when they lined up and camped outside stores days before every book release, enduring the mad rush and cold.

I understand the flip side as well. How people are tired of watching the avid fans’ behavior. How everything they hear seem to be related to Harry Potter, months after every book release, especially the sixth one. How the hype never seemed to end and they had to scream ‘get a life people!’ Most of all, I understand why some people just don’t get it. They haven’t read it yet.