HP meme: how & why did you become a fan?

[elanor_x]

A discussion on deathtocapslock made me think about the topic -how people become fans, in particular fans of HP. In PS it takes so much time just to reach the school & until that I found the book incredibly boring. As sistermagpie noted: "We know Harry's special from page 2, so there's no suspense waiting for him to catch up. I remember thinking that if he didn't just open one of those letters soon I was going to scream." But why did she, me & countless other people continued to read the book? I read the CoS first (after the first 4 books were already published) & it has been my favorite ever since, so I already liked very much the second book & wanted to like the first too. What about other people? Did they watch the movies first? Were the books recommended by friends? How much were they influenced by the advertising campaign? I am really curious.

Please, tell how & when you became fans. What exactly to you like in HP books? What is your favorite book & why?

My answers: one boy in my class read HP, so I decided to look at the books in the library. Luckily, the first book wasn't at that moment & I took the CoS instead (the beginning of the PS probably would make me not to read the books at all). Btw, the first movie I watched was the CoS too!

Fun fact (if somebody is interested): I usually don't go to the cinema [sometimes watch TV at home] & so far went there in Israel 3 times- each time for a HP movie.

My favorite book: the CoS.

Why? HP books attract me solely as adventure, coming of age story (that's why I can't feel the attractiveness of shipping, let alone of shipping wars!). In this book the pace is quick; Tom Riddle doesn't look like an idiot & is blessedly free from D's interpretation and JKR's 'development'; Harry is small, likable CAPSLOCK-FREE boy (who is yet so small that his mistakes are forgivable & don't make him look like an idiot unlike in the more advanced books) & there is no shipping (I even found the jealous Ron subplot tiring in GoF). Also, our heroes fortunately haven't grown up enough yet to inherit slaves, blackmail this hilariously falling apart Rita, hex people for fun or talk about SPEW. Do I really need more reasons?