Harry, a History

Awesome

I really enjoyed "Harry, a History"!The author's the webmistress of the Harry Potter fansite, the Leaky Cauldron; and while I'm a pretty big Harry Potter fan myself, I hadn't really dabbled much in fansites and other serious Potter fandom, feeling a bit of a fraud by comparison with the really keen fans. However, the reviews I'd read sounded promising, so I gave it a go.Once I started reading, I was hooked - the author's love of Potter poured out from the pages, and re-sparked my own love for it. I liked her style too, clear, journalistic, and well-phrased. And I was fascinated by the story of the rise of the Potter phenomenon, particularly in the U.S. - I never realised just how popular it was there, as well as here. Lots of interesting facts and characters - the tour with the band Harry and the Potters springs to mind - look them up on YouTube if you dare!Reading this book, it would probably help if you were a Potter fan; but I reckon even a non-fan would be seduced by this passionate and sunny book!

I've read my fair share of books about Harry Potter in an attempt to get my fix now that no more books are being released, but most of them have just told the same story of how JK got published and how HP for popular which gets boring fast. I started reading this on a lazy Sunday morning and had it half-finished by the end of the day. The way Melissa Anelli tells the story is so interesting and personal, and I LOVELOVELOVE that it focuses heavily on the fans and the fanbase. Highly recommended for any HP fan :)

I agree with the reviewer who wrote that the timeline jumps about far too much - it's the reason I have yet to finish the book.I didn't mind that Melissa's story was such a big part of the book, I was actually interested in hearing her story, but I found it hard to concentrate on it because the book kept skipping back and forth so much, both back and forth in time and back and forth between the parts that were mostly about Melissa and the parts that were about the HP phenomenon.I was also annoyed by the fact that sometimes, Melissa introduces someone in her life by name only and doesn't explain who they are or how she came to know them, like the reader is supposed to already be familiar with everyone she associates with. I don't regret purchasing the book, but because it's so disjointed, it wasn't the page-turner I had expected it to be.

Book

The book is simply brilliant. Full of inomation that everyone that calls themselves a "Potterhead" needs to know.