Finding a Forgotten Love

I am very much part of the generation who was forced to read all sorts of "horrid books" my entire life, and, regrettably, I lost my passion for reading. It's not that I am a bad reader or that I don't have time for reading. I just have not had the same hunger for the written word that I used to have when I was younger. In school they would push tons of books that were probably very good, but we detested the thought of them because they had that one terrible word attached to them: homework. If you tell any young pupil that something is homework it will instantly become, in their eyes, some vicious monster with patchy gray fur, bulging yellow eyes, and big ugly fangs. That can make even the greatest stories like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby seem like dry toast.

Now that I am older and look back at the books I declared as ridiculous, I see that I was quite wrong about them. Except for As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. No offense to any diehard Faulkner fans, but that was truly dreadful to read. However, in almost every way I found that I was completely wrong about reading as a whole. I discovered the thrill of being lost in an enchanting story, and the agony of that story ending, leaving you feeling as though you had discovered an amazing new world that you could no longer return to. Unless, of course, you read the book again. The two books that made me fall in love with reading again were The Great Gatsby and East of Eden. Since then I have been reading more and more to catch up on lost time. After all of the books I have read, no other series is nearly as important as what I am reading now.

In my family, Harry Potter has played a huge role in our lives. I remember my mom reading the books to my two sisters and I as kids, and always waiting for the next one to come out. I was much younger than my sisters when my mom started to read the books to us. So when they out grew being read to, they continued to read the story on their own. I, however, was at the awkward age of being old enough to read the Harry Potter books, but being young enough that I did not have the incentive or motivation to read them on my own. The story did continue to play a large role in my life as the movies came out. From then on I was well versed in the films, but not so much in the books. Growing up like that, I have had a very unique intertwining with the story.

Most people read the books and then saw the movies, and they all got upset with how the movies changed a few things. Then there are the people who watched all of the movies and then read the books. My experience has been different than both of those. I was introduced to the magic of it all from the books when I was little, but then I went on to only see the movies. But even my movie-watching experience was mixed with things from the books because my mom and sisters all would say to me "no this is how it REALLY happened," or "this movie got it wrong because in the book..." and so on. So now I am reading all of the books on my own to catch up on anything I was not already aware of. It has given me an interesting way of seeing the story now.

Reading the Harry Potter books is a lot like finally hearing the true story after listening to people spread around rumors. I know the story well from several different sources, but now I am learning what really happened and exactly how it happened. I'm sure there are people who would criticize me for being someone who watched the movies before reading the books, but I wouldn't change anything about the way I've gotten to know the story. Harry Potter plays as big a role in my life now as it did when I first heard my mom read "Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived."

-Emily