Look, I have a confession to make. Some of you know what I'm about to say (and your love and support means more than I can possibly ever put into words), but I also think there's a group of you out there who have no idea.
I, Hannah, am a Harry Potter virgin.
I know, I know! Calm down, and let me explain, OK?
By Harry Potter virgin I mean I have never read any of the books or seen any of the movies. None of it. For years I have lived with the shame of being totally lost in all Potter-related conversations.
I don't know what a Muggle is. I thought a Dumbledore was that smelly kid that lived down the street (seriously, I don't think he knew what soap was). I thought Hogwarts was an affliction pigs suffered from, like a milder swine-flu.
Any time I mentioned, even briefly, that I had never done anything HP-esque, I was frequently met by shock, horror, and sometimes disdain. I felt like a pariah of the YA blogging world. So I kept my dark secret hidden buried deep.
But recently, my secret has been pulled out of the closet and hurled into oncoming traffic thanks to a few people uncovering my secret. And if I'm being called out, I'm totally calling out all the people who called me out. Yeah.
I think it began when I was in a car with Jen and Miranda Kenneally. We were obviously talking about books and when the taboo subject of HP came up, I admitted to not reading it because you don't lie to the girl who holds the cupcakes and one of your favorite authors. The conversation went like this:
Hannah: I just never read Harry Potter. It's not my thing.
Jen: Good books aren't your thing?
Miranda: You need to let Harry Potter touch you.
Well, OK then. And I might have put that online, where Andye and Nicole found out. Those two put the pressure on like a pair of sumo wrestlers tackling Urkel. And there might have been this awkward conversation about Harry and his wand.
But I was still a bit resistant. Even when Nicole picked it as my Secret Readers book and got me a copy of the book herself, did I hesitate.
Then I attended a book launch with a bunch of #YADCers (our "local" group of bloggers, authors, and book addicted people). After dinner, I found myself in being ganged up on by not only Jen and Andye, but not Steph, Jenn, Christina, and Steph - we have a lot of Jen's and Steph's in our group.
I may have made a deal with Jenn that if she bought All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill that I would read book 1.
After that night, I knew I simply had to read Harry Potter. It was time. I'm an adult, I can handle a 12 year old magician ... right?
Enter today's lengthy twitter conversation about my HP read-a-thon with Steph and Christina. I decided I would tweet as I read. And thanks to the help of A.K. Anderson, I have my hashtag:
If you want to see my reactions to HP, check out: #FormerMuggle
