User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-3244803-20110720113425

Harry Potter has been the literary focus of my entire childhood. Not only has it been a morality tale that has helped me to understand many situations involved with teenage adolescence but in a way it has also governed many of the decisions that I have made, rather ironic in a way, seeing as the world of Harry Potter is set in a fictional universe, yet it relates so well to modern-day situations. When the first book of the series, "Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone", was released, I was only two years old and so the start of my Harry Potter experience was that of my Father reading to me almost every night, with me left begging for another chapter. By book four I was reading them myself and can quite confidently attribute my  rapid advance in reading ability to those many nights being read to, with me constantly asking what a word meant or attempting to read a chapter by myself. I devoured each book as they were published, finishing them in no more than a few days as I tried so desperately to immerse myself in the world of Harry Potter, what I would give to have it be true! Despite finishing the series I went on to re-read it twice, then three times, then four times until finally coming to a grand total of having read the series from start to finish eight times (at the very least), but also having re-read my favourite book of the series ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) many, many times over. Yet my insatiable appetite for this incredible series has never wavered and still, fourteen years on from the first time my Father read the first page of "Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone" to me, I am still able to come home after a tiring day of school, put any troubles I may have aside and immerse myself in the world of Harry Potter, I can give no more thanks to J.K.Rowling than to say that she has irrevocably and unequivocally shaped my childhood, and I'm bloody grateful that she did!