So this is about a book series so I don't really know if this actually belongs here

So on the week of US Thanksgiving my mother was driving me home from work and we heard a news story about the Harry Potter movie reunion. And my mother asked me “How come I was never into Harry Potter” My response: You should be happy that I wasn’t. I mean would she have wanted to attend midnight screenings of the movie or stand in line at chapters or McNally Robinson for a Midnight book release? The series started up just as I was finishing 2nd grade (and that was when people were still into Goosebumps) and it ended a month after I finished High School (and ten days after Order of the Phoenix was released in theaters. And the only thing that took that down was the Simpsons) And throughout that Harry Potter decade I managed to avoid the young wizards charms, oh sure I did own a copy of Sorcerer’s stone but I never really read it, I mean I think my mom had it because she was curious or something, so even though I live in a world when a book series can take the world by storm I’ve never managed to follow those trends, hell I didn’t even care for Twilight, though I did see the first film but I was seeing it with a group of friends, still wasn’t charmed by it. For some reason I don’t think Harry Potter Mania took off until I was in 5th grade, one of my teachers was reading it to us and even I thought “So? It’s just a book” There are several factors as to why Harry never registered with me so allow me to explain:

In the Spring of 2000 I actually discovered a milk crate full of ValueTales books (yeah most of you are probably not old enough to remember these books as they have been out of print for over a generation, even though a treasury came out over a decade ago) these were children's introductions to famous people like Harriet Tubman and Helen Keller (as examples but I bet if they were written today they would have given Temple Grandin and Malala Yousafzai the value tales treatment) and I spent a good part of the year and a half reading these things, and for five years I thought I had them all until I discovered they gave one to Terry Fox, and it wasn't until another 4 years that I discovered there were more, I had since acquired five more titles (one of them being the Terry Fox book) wish I could find the book on Jim Henson though, I would have loved to have seen who his imaginary friend would have been, oh did I mention the Value Tales that these books were basically a "What if they had imaginary friends" series? I keep telling my dad I will never give these away because they are too valuable to me

and now the other reason:
By the time I entered the sixth grade, Pottermania reached fever pitch just in time for Goblet of fire to come out (and a year of waiting in anticipation for the first movie to come out) while everyone in my class had the books on their christmas list just to catch up and prepare, I was actually into a different book series at the time, Teletoon was airing the second season of Redwall (Mattimeo to be exact) which was based on the books by Brian Jacques and I was enjoying the hell out of it and I realized “Man I want to read this book” I didn’t get my hands on a library copy until like April of 2001 or something like that and I finished the book in a week, still I kind of wish that Nelvana hadn’t run out of funds after Martin the Warrior. But seriously even though I preferred Redwall over Harry Potter, in reality I just wanted my own copy of Anne Frank the Diary of a Young Girl, mostly because by then I was a very heavy history reader. Yes 11 year old me chose a girl who died in the holocaust over the boy who lived. I did get a copy of Anne Frank’s diary for Christmas and I actually still do have the book today. I just wish that Redwall had took off like Harry Potter did


Book 5 didn’t come out until I was just about to enter grade nine and even so by then I was still holding onto Redwall (and holding out hope that the show would get another season, however I am thrilled that Redwall is getting a new series on Netflix) but even so by then I was reading tabloids like crazy….and that’s why I never want to nostalgia over the 2000s like I nostalgia over the 90s, because I REMEMBER IT! But then again I only remember the entertainment aspects of the 90s that’s why I hold the most positivity towards it because when I think of the 90s, I think of the best that Nickelodeon, Disney, and even PBS Kids had to offer.


So even though Harry Potter was a thing in the 2000s (and it ended just in time for Twilight to take over, never cared for it and my mother should be thankful for that) I somehow managed to avoid the obsession, but you’re probably wondering, was there a book series I really did like? I won’t lie I never got to read every single book in the Redwall saga (and I was really sorry when I heard the news of Brian Jacques sudden passing) I found myself diving into the rabbit hole that was Nancy Drew, I’ve read many mystery stories and played the games, I’m even watching the CW series #WatchNancyDrewOnTheCW (I’m serious the show is suffering in the ratings, moving it to fridays didn’t help) So basically coming from a library tech’s mouth, if you’re into a book series, and devouring it’s merchandise good for you at least you are reading. One thing is for sure though, if I was born in a different year (before 1989)….I probably would have read the Baby-sitters Club, all 131 of them…..plus the 15 super specials, plus the Friends Forever finale series and it’s two super specials, though granted I’m kind of reading the series now because it got the graphic novel treatment and I got hooked on those plus Raina Telgemeier’s other work. I just wish I knew why I wasn’t a heavy chapter book reader in elementary school though, if I could go back and change that….would my younger self want to even read chapter books? Arthur had chapter books at the time and I wanted to see print versions of certain episodes of the show) Even if Harry Potter did get the graphic novel/manga treatment, I would still consider myself, forever a muggle

So did you manage to resist the boy wizards charms too?

I was more into the movies and especially the video game adaptations. I have very fond memories of the handheld ones - Chamber of Secrets was good, and Prisoner of Azkaban was a surprisingly competent JRPG. I tried to get into the books as a kid, but even then I had trouble maintaining the attention to read through it. It probably didn't help that I knew the general plots from watching the movies beforehand. I always want to eventually sit down and read them, but reading is the thing I have the most trouble actually making time to do.

In other words - I was never super-obsessed, but I was a fan when it was popular.

I remember the time before Order of the Phoenix came out and not getting why people were so obsessed with the books.

I knew someone who was getting the 5th book soon so I started reading them and I definitely enjoyed them but still not as obsessed as everyone else seemed to be.

I've ready them all and seen all the movies and introduced them to my kids as well. They all seem to enjoy them but again, not obsessed.

I'm very much in the area of - if you enjoy them then good for you. They were entertaining.

If you dislike them then so be it but leave those alone that enjoy them.

I'm tired of people being so obsessed with either being for or against something. Either enjoy it or not but leave the other side alone.