I first read the books when i worked in a book shop when i was 16/17. i did out back in the store room and read the first 3!

Pixie

dah! I pressed enter too soon!

I found a copy of the first book at my beloved used book store and figured I'd see what all the fuss was about (this was right as GoF came out). That was a really rough time in my life, I was in the midst of a nasty divorce. Anyway, I got sucked in, bought a copy of CoS from the regular bookstore, and read the library copies of PoA and GoF before getting my own. I was already writing fanfic by the time the buzz for the first movie started.

I've seen all the movies at the same theater, the "artsy" one that serves a full menu and even offers wine, beer, and hard cider (although I can't drink with the medications I'm on). I saw SS with my then-BF, who went with me even though he wasn't a fan, saw CoS alone on Thanksgiving (which is the anniversary of a death in my family so it's a hard day for me) right after we'd broken up, and saw PoA with a few LJ acquaintances; it was from delaying taking a medication that made me sleepy in order to be more alert for PoA that I realized just how badly it was clouding my thinking.

Woo, I went off on a tangent there!

Atalanta Pendragonne, Slytherin

I saw a lot of discussion about HP on some fanfic boards, especially with the Animorph folks at fanfiction.net. So when I saw it cheap in some grocery store one day, I bought it. And fell so much in love! I've never looked back. *grin*

- Becker, Slytherin.

I refused to have anything to do with Harry Potter originally, but my parents brought home the first movie one day. They were watching it in the living room, and I just thought the whole thing was so stupid.

But. Then I looked over... I saw Hagrid and thought, "Huh. That's a neat costume." Then I saw Diagon Alley and thought, "Huh. That's a neat set." Then I broke down and watched the movie... and I've been hooked ever since. I read the books, watched the movies, surfed the sites, etc.

Hello. My name is Paula and I'm a Harry Potter addict.

Paula, Slytherin

i suppose i should answer the question myself, huh? *facepalm*

i had heard a good deal about the books, but had never gotten around to reading one. so, a friend of mine was home visiting after our 1st year of college. her roommates got her completely hooked and she rec'd the books to me... over and over again. since i wasn't going to summer session and had no required reading, i picked up SS and read it in a day and a half. i LOVED it! then, i immediately went out and bought Books 2, 3 & 4 and read those in the following six days! this was back in 2000, i think. and here i am now. :D

cj//hufflepuff

I had been sick and was flipping through the channels on tv trying not to lose my mind when my brother Stan, put the SS in the dvd player and told me to stop flipping the channels and watch. I asked him what he had put in, but he didn't tell me, all he said was the music was by John Williams (my all time favorite composer) and that I should watch it. I did, and since then I've been hooked.

*~Lori~*
*~Gryffindor~*

Hee. I love John Williams' scores too. Shame he's not doing Goblet.

I'd heard about the books, but in my eliteish 11-ish yearold way, I figured they were trash. Yannow, 'cause /everyone/ was reading them. My nearly friend Katie, who almost never read, got the third and first ones for her birthday, and during a sleep over I picked one up. I... was hooked. I spent most of the spring and June in a tent in her backyard, the two of us reading 'em. Well, a month later we, my family, moved from B.C. to Texas. Well, the hotel we stayed in while looking for a house was next to a Barnes and Noble that was hosting a midnight HP party for GOF. In I went, and I've never come out of my obsession. I stood in line with my dad for 6 hours. Now that? Is dedication. *grin* Went for OOtP, but I had friends (and costumes!) to wait with then. Ahh.. obsession..

Tori, Slytherin

I hadn't even heard of Harry Potter until the first three were already out, and #4 was on it's way.

I was babysitting this boy named Chris one evening, and he handed me Sorceror's Stone, and asked me to read some of it to him when he went to bed. I got through the first chapter before he fell asleep, and stayed up until his parents came home and read the rest.

Been hooked ever since. :)

Eleanore // Gryffindor

Hmm... I was a sophomore in high school. My sister had gotten the first book for her birthday, and someone else gave her a second copy. So she gave it to me. It looked too silly at first... but I read it and loved it. Then I went and bought 2 and 3, and I rented 4 from the library. I found 4 at a store for 10 bucks and bought it... and then I was a full fledged die hard fan by the time OotP came out. And I still am.

Amber//Ravenclaw

A friend and me decided to rent PS/SS. just because it seemed so popular and didnt look too bad. I knew within the first lik 10 minutes i was going to LOVE this movie. i watched it and it was amazing. then i saw the second movie when it came out. i was so thrilled. before i got to reading the books i was already hooked. Then i knew i had to read the books and found out rhe movies were only half the wonderfulness.

I started reading them in 5th grade, prior to the 'craze', with my class. Needless to say, my teacher hooked most of our class, but I was the most OCD reader ever, and I think I'm the only one who is still really into them. I bought the 2nd and read it, got the 3rd and read it. I got GOF the day it came out and read it in hours, and got OotP as soon as I could (I was on an Indian Reservation doing mission work the week it came out) and read it in hours, too.

-Megan, Gryffindor

actually it's my sisters fault. she used to watch SS like constantly and that made me angry towards it. ahahhahahahaha then instead of watching that movie, i ordered all the books off ebay and went crazy reading them one after another. yeah, i'm just hardcore like that XD then i hearted it like woah and started watching the movies with her. i was a late bloomer but it's all good. hurray for obsessions!

rebecca * gryffindor

My friends kept telling me how good the Harry Potter books were, but I never got the motivation up to buy them for myself... then my best friend just decided to up and buy them for me for my birthday one year, and after reading the first couple chapters, I was hooked for life. That was five or six years ago now.

Bel, Gryffindor

LOVE the icon!!

Lori/Gryffindor

I had seen the first two films and was itching to read the books. A friend of mine (after MUCH groveling) lent me the first two and I thought WTF! I already saw the movies! But I read them and was BLOWN AWAY at the detail the books had. I gave the books back and went out to buy the third, fourth, and fifth one. It took me less than three days to read them all. I have since purchased the first two and was one of the many (proud) nerds out there who wore a costume to go see PoA.

Susan~Slytherin

There were a few kids in my grade 5 class were into it and I remember first thinking that it looked like the stupidest thing ever and I wasn't even thinking about reading the first book. Ever. But eventually I found a spare copy just laying on the book return trolley in my school library and I couldn't help but feel curious. So I picked it up, checked it out, took it home and read for hours. I think I finished that first book in about three days. Ever since that day I was hooked.

Alex//Gryffindor

Originally I didn't want anything to do with HP because I thought it would just be some childish thing. But when the first movie came out on video it piqued my curiousity so I watched it. I was completely enchanted. Shortly after that I mentioned to my aunt that I liked the movie and she told me that my cousins had the first three books in paperback and that I could borrow them. I read all three in one week. A couple weeks after that GoF came out in paperback so I bought that for myself. The following Christmas I got the boxed set and have been hooked ever since.

Michele • Gryffindor

My first encounter with the HP-verse was during a trip around America (I live in Australia) and we were in San Diego for a night and several of us pounced on a Boarders bookshop and neighbouring Starbucks and on a table, they had all the HP books - well, up to PoA, which I think might just have been released. They looked intriguing, but I didn't buy a copy, because, well, I didn't. I would have ahd to have lugged it around, and I already had my book for the trip. I've always regretted not buying that first copy. Then again, it would have been the Sorcerer's Stone, and not the Philosophers Stone (which I have). Man, I can't remember the first time actually bought a book - perhaps when the fourth book came out?

-Caity, 'Puff

My grandparents bought me a copy of SS early on (when Harry Potter was just a regular phenomenon not an uber phenomenon) when I was around 11. They were always buying me books, and they knew what I liked, so I figured I'd give it a read. I'd heard good things about it from my younger cousin. I didn't really know what I was getting into, but I ended up falling in love. I got the second book not too long afterwards, and got the third one that Christmas. Who knew my obsession would still be going strong 5 years later ^_^

Nona
Huff-tastic-puff

When I was in 7th grade (1999) my english teacher recommended it to me. She saw that I read alot of fantasy for "SSR" and told me I would enjoy it. She was right! I feel totally in love with it, finished the first book in one night. Then (a couple of weeks later) my mum bought me CoS and my fandom grew from there.

Jillian//Gryffindor

Silent Sustained Reading!! i haven't heard that term since elementary school (say, late 80s/early 90s). ^_^

[/random nostalgia]

cj//puff

I was in grade 10 or 11, and mum told me I should read this book. I didn't want to because a) I used to have a thing about not reading books my mum recommended, and b) it was a kid's book. But then I gave in because I had nothing else to read, and no license to drive to the bookstore, so I decided to put up with the kid's book. I am so glad I listened to my mother those 6 or 7 years ago.

Thinking more, I think it was about 1999ish. So grade 11ish.

Heather, Hufflepuff

I don't think I started them until about when GOF was released. My kids wanted to read them but I had heard so many conflicting things about the HP series that I told the kids I had to read them first. They got over it. I didn't.

cantatrix05/slytherin

I had always thought that the harry Potter novels sounded stupid and I had never wanted to read them. One day my grandmother gave me the first three books (I think I was in fifth or sixth grade). I was less than thrilled, but I was an avid reader even then, so I figure "hey, I have them--might as well read them, right?" So I read the first one and I could not put it down. That was when I knew I had been wrong all along.

-Kathryn, Ravenclaw

Originally I wasn't very big into Harry Potter. I had decided to go with one of my friends to the first movie...because we're both huge Alan Rickman fans. I decided it wasn't really a bad movie...so I bought the DVD. Later I ended up getting the second DVD when that came out. After that I told an online friend that I was planning on doing fanfiction. She refused to talk to me again until I had at least read the first book...and I can see why. After reading the first book I ended up getting the other three for the holidays. It took me about a week to read all of them. I was hooked after that...and I realized that the movies have NOTHING on the books at all...but it was a nice lead way into a great fandom.

Juppy

Erm... I was browsing Amazon.com for books to read, and I kept on seeing "Harry Potter and the..." as one of the most popular items. For the longest time, I though that it was some self help series, but then I finally gave in, and decided to see what it was about. I was extremely surprised when it wasn't a self help book. So I ended up ordering it. I think I read that first book about 11 times, before I could order the next two books (It sucks living overseas, where book stores are not easily assessable).

mine actually came when OotP came out. up until that ppoint i had thought HP was just for younger kids like my 11 year old cousin, but when the hype about OotP was all over all of the media, i was intrigued and wanted to read it, but i knew i was going to have to read the others and from the first page of SS i was hooked!

Jill/Hufflepuff