User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4130411-20110709072255

For me, like so many others, Harry Potter represents a microcosm of my childhood. I began reading the books in early-mid 2001 because a friend of mine was really into them, and over the next couple of years practically all of my friends became fans. It took me a chapter or two to really get into the story but I ended up devouring the four books that were out at the time as fast as I could, and I thought I couldn't possibly wait two whole years for Order of the Phoenix to come out. Fortunately this was only a few months before the first movie was released, which I was saw in a matinee showing on opening day while most everyone else was at work or school. As the books got darker and more mature, their releases roughly corresponded to a number of other milestones for me. Some were exciting events, like going away from home for a week for the first time, starting high school, and some were not so fun, like my parents' lengthy divorce. However, it was especially in those darker times that the Harry Potter stories meant a lot to me and that I could turn to for comfort when it was late at night and I was feeling upset and alone. I'm in a different and for the most part better place now, but Harry Potter is inextricably linked to innumerable childhood memories of mine and will always hold a cherished place in my heart.