User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4129829-20110709020932

I had no clue what was in store for me when I first picked as copy of Sorcerer's Stone in 1999. It was a quick impulse buy so I could have something to read during nap time at my summer daycare job. As I read it, I kept going "wow, this is ....just...fantastic storytelling!" I had never read a anything that engrossing before. I finished it in a snap and felt kind of sad it was over....until a few weeks later, I saw the Chamber of Secrets and the Prisoner of Azkaban at a bookstore. After finishing the 3rd book, I knew that this series was truly unique. It transcends age brackets and genres. It stands alone as a phenomenal work of literature.

Harry Potter has dramatically impacted my life. Harry was there through triumphs in my life and good times with family and friends as we debated late into the night "what's going to happen in the next book" and how awesome it would be if they made a theme park (and they DID!). I cried and empathized with Harry when Sirius died, having just lost my Dad a couple of months before. He was there when I got my first awesome paying job...and there when I lost it. There when I had my first major heartbreak. And Harry Potter is one of the main things that brought me and the love of my life together.

I am absolutely awestruck at times when I fathom ALL that these books have spawned! Movies, an ultra fantastic theme park (which I have yet to visit), charities, websites, specialty food, a whole entire music genre...and that's not even all! Lifelong friendships have been forged that wouldn't have been if not for Harry Potter. The books' message of friendship and love prevailing above everything else has done it's work. It's amazing how this entire alternate universe has woven itself so seamlessly into our world. I imagine one day that Butterbeer will be just a common household beverage in the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook! I could honestly ramble on forever! I can never express JUST HOW MUCH Harry Potter means to me! When I'm an old woman I can sit by the fire and regale tales of the awesome Potter phenomenon and say "Oh, boy, you shoulda been there!" I'm so happy that I got to be a part of it all while it was happening.