What was your first Potter experience?

[Rudolf]

A secretary in our office gave me the 1st book somewhere in the 90s. When I read it I thought it was a Charles Dicken's story playing in19th century England until Dudley's birthday presents were enumerated.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Rudolf

[bryan]

With a teaser trailer of the first film when it came in front of Jurassic Park 3After that I read the books, though I never finished them

[Lumos]

Well I remember in third grade (2000) there were a few kids in my class who were reading the books but me and my "acquaintances" at the time thought we were way too cool for the series. I think I tried giving the first book a shot in fourth grade when the hype for Sorcerer's Stone was near fever pitch, but I never really got into it. Finally in 5th grade, my friend Leah got me interested in the series when she kept talking about how excited she was for Chamber of Secrets to come out. I got the first 4 books for Christmas in 2002 and was literally OBSESSED for a good 4 years. It was about the only thing I was interested in which didn't really do much for my social life. Finally around 2007 (age 14) I got a grip on myself and became less fanatical....although it has been a huge part of my life for almost the last decade.....

Edited May 11, 2012 by Mr Potter

[Plain Old Tele]

I had generally heard a bunch of hype about how the books were selling like crazy and the first movie was being made. Sometime shortly before the first movie's release, I glanced at the first couple of pages of the book while I was at a bookstore. Didn't think it was anything super special, but it had a nice sort of mysterious and promising feel to it, like other children's classics I've enjoyed.Went and saw the movie and hated it. Aside from the casting (which seemed fine, but honestly none of the kids were particularly good actors then; any enjoyment came from the upper-crust grown-up actors), I thought Columbus did a dismal job of making everything too cluttered, too un-magical, too on-the-nose.... of course, I only had those first few pages to go on.So I grabbed the first couple of books to read to see if ( a ) the movie had just missed what made the books so good or ( b ) the books turned out to be over-rated.I felt the answer ended up being somewhere in between. There's a lightness and cleverness and whimsy to the books that -- for the most part -- the movies completely missed or failed to incorporate; and Rowling's Harry is a more interesting (and flawed) character than the movie version. So, my trip through the whole book and movie saga has been hit-and-miss.... but I do think those few first pages are pretty nifty.

[Cedarpoint1111]

I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I first heard of Harry Potter. My class went down to the library once a week for one hour where we would sit with the librarian and he would tell us about good books... One day, he was really excited he said the library finally stocked up on Harry Potter books and I remember half the class was ecstatic. I didn't have a clue what the big deal was, so naturally I acted excited until we went back to class. I asked my friend and she told me its a series of books about magic and the first movie is coming out soon...So after class, I went down to the library and asked if the first Harry Potter book was available and they said no. There was only one copy left of Goblet of Fire so I took that. I was instantly hooked. I read the first 3 in order, and then Goblet of Fire again. I begged my parents to take me to see Sorcerer's Stone in theaters. It was the greatest thing ever. I haven't been the same since.

Edited May 24, 2012 by CEDAR

[lab276]

I went to see the first film as school function thing (we did it with Dinosaur the year before). And I've loved it since.

[Kalo]

well, My Family Hates Harry Potter and thinks it's super evil, but I do remember when the books first came out and I was around 9. in fact I just watched the whole series about a week ago and really enjoyed it. not sure it's the best for little kids to fill there minds with, but I wouldn't call it "real Witchcraft" either.

[Michael Gary Scott]

My brother was big into the books so i was going to take him to the second movie so i decided to watch the first movie and i became hooked.

[ChD]

Summer 2011, two weeks before Deathly Hallows Part 2 came out, I was bored to hell and thought about watching some movies. Even though my friends, and I pretty much agreed back then, not having seen the movies nor read the books, said that Harry Potter was a stupid thing and that Lord Of The Rings ruled everything. 

Anyways, being so bored as I was I downloaded the movies and watched them. Then it struck me - mid Chamber of Secrets, the scene where they escape with the car driving backwards in the forest. The first time I had actually seen Harry Potter was a few good years before, on TV. I remember it was Chamber of Secrets (but I also saw Sorcerer's Stone somewhere because I remember Fluffy) because I can remember shitting myself when that basilisk turned up (And also when the spiders were following them).

 

I loved the movies a lot, and that's when my crush on Emma/Hermione started, too...

 

Only If I knew back then what I was watching...

[RobinHood26]

-

Edited August 17, 2018 by Jay Hollywood

[Kvikk Lunsj]

i was in 5th grade when the first movie came out. Then I moved on to the book afterwards.

[DAR]

I think by the time I read the first book Goblet of Fire had just come out. So the hype was really starting to ramp up. I figured I'd get SS see what the hype was about. Finished it in about two days and the next day bought the next three books. Finished those over a two week period then was pissed I needed to wait so long until the next one.

[DAR]

Btw it's depressing to read how some of you were in grade school when these books were coming out

[Dilusha Bandara]

Chamber of Secrets was my first HP movie experience. I was then 8 years old. Actually I watched it at home. Also I began to read HP books after that.

[Fanboy]

I saw the first movie in theatres when I was like 4 or 5 and I had no idea what I was actually watching, but I became obsessed with the whole magic idea and watched the movie on VHS about 50 times over. I don't think I'd ever appreciate film so much if it wasn't for Harry Potter, since I started checking reviews on Rotten Tomatoes for Half-Blood Prince and discovered box office just before it was released.  

[23IsEverywhere]

I was in 4th grade when my teacher decided to read the first harry potter book to us well I started to read the book on my own and was hooked. This was right around the time the 3rd book had come out.

[Spidey Freak]

1999 or 2000 (don't remember exactly) when Goblet of Fire, the book, had just been published and then soon after this photo was printed in newspapers everywhere: