30 Days of Harry Potter (Day 26 - YABReviewed)

We are so close to the end with more amazing guest posts! It doesn't matter if Harry Potter and teh Deathly Hallows premiered last week. We have the whole month to celebrate it!

Today we have Lesley from Young Adult Books Reviewed on the blog. Let's welcome her!

--------------------

Harry Potter was ridiculous. Well, that was what I thought when I first encountered it...

I was a Junior in High School, and my English teacher decided every Friday she would read us Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And I hated it. I was thinking, "What is this? Why is the teacher doing story time to sixteen and seventeen-year-old's?" And I rebelled. I refused to listen, especially since it was mandatory (I never said I was a good kid, haha).

So when the movie came out, my mom wanted to see it. I was visiting her after she had taken a big job and moved across the country, so I wanted to make her happy. I figured it's her money, we'll just go in and I can whine about it after the movie was over. But it wasn't bad. Not at all. It actually was pretty amazing. Ron was hilarious, Harry was so cute, and Hermoine I loved to hate. My mom rubbed it in my face, and we left the theater.

I watched Chamber of Secrets after I graduated. I loved it even more, and I decided to buy the books. Books-A-Million had the box set that day and it was 40 percent off. It was calling to me! So I brought it home, but didn't read it. Not at first.
In February of 2005, I was diagnosed with cancer. Yep, the big C. I was 20 years old and had to drop out of college and move back home. The chemotherapy wasn't painful, honest, it was just boring. You would sit in a room for six to twelve hours and you couldn't move out of your seat. So, my mom brought in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for me to read. I thought "Okay, I have nothing better to do, I think I will read it."

And it was one of the best books I've ever read. I read the entire thing in that chemo session, and I loved every bit of it. The next chemo session came around, and I read the Order of The Phoenix. And then I went back, and read the first three.

And by the time all my chemo was over, I had finished reading the series (except Deathly Hallows since it hadn't been released yet). I became an official Harry Potter fan. I was kicking my high school self and saying "Quit being so rebellious, it was worth listening to!"

My experience with Harry Potter is forever a memorable one. I won't say Harry Potter changed me, because I don't think it was that drastic. But I do think Harry Potter and the school of Hogwart's helped me through an incredibly difficult time, and made me love reading more than I had when I was a teenage "rebel."

I can't wait for the last movies, and I will be one of the first in line for both of them!

--------------------

What a touching story, very amazing! Thank you, Lesley, for doing this! I appreciate it.

You can see more of Lesley over at her BLOG.

Until tomorrow,