Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon

by Melissa Anelli (Goodreads author), J.K. Rowling (Introduction)
Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon
book data
540 ratings, 4.03 average rating, 156 reviews (more data...)
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published
November 4th 2008 by Pocket

binding
Paperback, 356 pages

isbn
1416554955    (isbn13: 9781416554950)

description
Featuring a Foreward by J.K. Rowling
The Harry Potter Books Were Just the Beginning of the Story...

During the brief span of just one ...more




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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,087)

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Cheryl
10/22/08
Cheryl rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: nonfiction
Read in July, 2008
recommends it for: Harry Potter fans
I am a good friend of the author's and I appear fairly often in this book, so I'm cheerfully biased about it. But judged solely as a piece of writing, it is excellent and essential reportage about the history of the Harry Potter books and phenomenon -- the only book with firsthand accounts from J. K. Rowling, her agent, her editors and publicists, and various other people involved in the publication of the series or who helped to make it big. Melissa covers the growth of the online fandom, from ...more
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Monica Edinger
10/29/08
Monica Edinger added it

This book defies my rating it. I mean, I'd rate it completely differently for different audiences.

For avid Harry Potter fans familiar with the Leaky Cauldron, fan fiction, the shipping wars, Harry and the Potters, and so forth the book is probably five stars. Melissa captures, with vim and tremendous enthusiasm, the history of Harry Potter fandom filtered through her personal experience. No doubt those on the wrong side of certain conflicts (notably those fans who were advocating ...more
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Rachel
01/16/09
Rachel rated it: 2 of 5 stars

bookshelves: adult-non-fiction
Read in January, 2009
This is not actually a History of Harry, or even a book about the Harry Potter books. It is a book about one woman's experience with the books. The author, Melissa Anelli, was (is) a major player in the Harry Potter fandom, and she tells her story as an "almost insider." Her perspective is interesting to a point, but for someone (ie, me) who loves Harry, but operated outside the fandom, it isn't really particularly relevant. It kind of just made me mad. I felt like, "I love Har...more
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Allison
01/02/09
Allison rated it: 2 of 5 stars

bookshelves: non-fiction
Read in January, 2009
An interesting read. Melissa is a good writer, and I was certainly cheering for her as she met, and interviewed JK Rowling. However, as Melissa discusses the in-depth-ness of many Harry Potter fans, which she treats with a mixture of awe and amusement, she neglects the fact that there are many HP fans who did not travel to conferences, read or write fan-fiction, speculate about the books online etc. etc. The book is written with the assumption that every HP fan was die-hard, neglecting the fact ...more
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Ciara
12/22/08
Ciara rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: read-in-2008
Read in December, 2008
recommends it for: insane harry potter fans, Hr/R shippers, scarf-wearing muggles, wizard rockers
i confess i feel like a dork for even having read this book, which is all about the fandom & media phenomena surrounding the harry potter books. now, i am a big fan of the harry potter books, but i don't frequent fan sites or wear scarves declaring my allegience to certain hogwarts houses or anything like that. this book was written by someone who runs a fansite (the leaky cauldron) & is all about the types of people who wear scarves as an expression of their harry potter love, & honestly, the w...more
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Jamieson
02/04/09
Jamieson rated it: 5 of 5 stars

I am reading the most wonderfully, magnificent, incredible and enjoyable book I have read in ages. It is a breath of fresh air and I’m thrilled that I picked it up. I’m talking about Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli.

I remember the first time I read Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone.

I had ignored the buzz surrounding Harry Potter for a long time. I remember thinking: No book could possibly be that good. I would see people reading it on the buss, on lunch breaks...more
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Runa
11/13/08
Runa added it

Read in January, 2009
For all the fanfare this book has gotten, I'm not entirely sure all of it is deserved. It is a lovely look back at how the Harry Potter fandom evolved and got to where it is today, but there are some issues I do have with the book. One of the things I noticed was that Melissa told the book like it was a novel, a fictional piece, filled with flowery description that I feel has no place in what is essential a memoir of sorts. The intent of the book is to retell the HP fandom, from start to fini...more
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Claire
04/03/09
Claire rated it: 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Yamile
03/26/09
Yamile rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2009
OK, how do I start? Ever since I found out about this book, I've been wanting to read it, and even after I bought it, I took a long time to finally pick it up. Once I opened it though, I couldn't put it down.
Just the name, "Harry, A History" and the cover, a couple of old looking books with a familiar set of round glasses on top, brought tears to my eyes. So many memories...
I started reading Harry Potter after "Goblet of Fire" was released. I was expecting my firs...more
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Jenni
01/23/09
Jenni rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in December, 2008
The Phenomenon of Harry Potter is unlike anything that's come before it. Melissa Anelli does a brilliant job painting a picture of the major points in the fandom. It also has wonderful personal anecdotes and the ever coveted conversations with Jo herself.

While Anelli's story is very personal (how else can someone write about such an experience except in the way they lived it?), almost any fan can relate her stories to their own. It perfectly captures the feeling of suspense, and insa...more
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Mallory
06/29/09
Mallory rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2009
recommends it for: Serious HP fans, people who don't mind a bit of whining
I knew about the Harry Potter "fandom" (websites dedicated to obsessing over Harry Potter, which is fun when the books are about to come out and creepy and dull during the long stretches between novels) and thought this book sounded cute. I was interested in hearing about the fansites and getting some inside information. There is a section dedicated to Wizard Rock (Harry and the Potters) which I think is funny and worth reading. But good god, Anelli's writing style is annoying and s...more
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Alyson
06/17/09
Alyson rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2009
The stories and experiences that Melissa writes about are really insightful. It tells you a lot about what it’s like to be a fan of such a huge series,although I doubt the amount of people who don’t know what it’s like will actually pick it up to find out. There are a lot of moments in the book where, I could imagine, every fan wished he or she was Melissa. Lemme think… well, she’s friends with the Jamie Waylett aka Crabbe, she’s held an original copy of Beedle, she’s been on to...more
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Danielle
12/10/08
Danielle rated it: 5 of 5 stars

I couldn't believe this book. I started reading Harry when i was 12, so i've been a fan a very long time but i've never been "active" in fandom. I browsed sites like Mugglenet and Leaky, back in the day i read a handful of fanfics and i listen to the podcasts. So to be confronted with a book reminding me so how much of fandom i'd actually known about (things as simple as the fic i read and loved when i was like... 15, which apparently was a majorly renowned piece) gave me a bit of a cu...more
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Josh de Lioncourt
03/23/09
Josh de Lioncourt rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2009

Wow.


I started reading this book a few weeks ago on the computer. Unlike a lot of blindies, I don't like reading books this way. Audio is my preferred format...well, Braille too, but obtaining a great book in Braille is only slightly easier than winning the California lottery. So, while I was enjoying the book, it was hard to stay focused on it.


On Saturday afternoon, I stumbled into a listing for the book on Audible.com. It had just been released there as an audio book a couple of w

...more
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Claudia
12/24/08
Claudia rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in November, 2008
recommends it for: Anyone who has read Harry Potter
The first Harry Potter book came out in my eighth grade year, I never read them and none of my friends were reading them so I didn't give them much importance. Throughout high school when the others continued to be published, I decided that I would read them one day when I wasn't so busy (I took a brief hiatus from reading a few years along the way).

So it's the summer before my last semester at college and I just decided to finally start reading them. From page one I was hooked. I r...more
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Kelli
12/09/08
Kelli rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in December, 2008
This book was a well-written and insightful perspective on the "Harry Potter" phenomenon. Written from a true fan's perspective, Melissa gives us insight into why the books are so important to people around the world. It's not an objective view of the fandom that has grown exponentially, but an insider's view of how "Harry Potter" changed the way we read books and grew into something bigger than itself. She covers everything from Wizard Rock to fan-fiction in a way that ad...more
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Nick Ewen
02/16/09
Nick Ewen rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2009
This is a really fascinating look at the Harry Potter phenomenon through the eyes of an individual fully entrenched in its center. I personally never got caught up in the release parties, fan sites, or "Wizard rock" bands, though I probably would have succumbed for the release of Deathly Hallows if I hadn't been in China. Despite my lack of personal experience with the movement, I was still enthralled with Anelli's story, which alternates between autobiographical (her story of her Harr...more
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Purplycookie
04/13/09
Purplycookie rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in November, 2008
With infectious, at times frenetic excitement, the webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron Web site Melissa Anelli, presents narratives in this hip report on how a boy wizard became a rock star. Anelli pays exhaustive attention to the power of the Internet and its symbiotic relationship with fan communities, known as fandoms. "That before I read Harry Potter I was composed of magic dust and fairy breath, and reading the first book had been what brought all my particles together. That Harry Potter...more
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jill
02/12/09
jill rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: memoir
Read in March, 2009
I read through it in just a couple of hours yesterday, so definitely a nice quick read. I probably would have quit after the first 50 or 60 pages though, if Lani hadn't recommended it. Other than being excited that she really got into the series at The Prisoner of Azkhaban, which is clearly the best of the Harry Potter books, I didn't really care that much about the first few chapters. The sections on the children's book industry and the way J.K. Rowling got published were pretty interesting, ...more
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Megan
01/08/09
Megan rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2009
I often felt embarrassed while reading this book. Those of us who aren't the "Potterheads" described in the book might have some difficulty getting through it. But it is extremely well written, which makes it both readable and relevant. Written journalistically, it is fairly objective chronicle of the Harry Potter phenomenon. It was interesting to learn how the first HP book got published and the extent to which the series' popularity impacted children's literature and the literary wor...more
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Harry: A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon (Harry Potter)
Harry, A History: The True Story Off a Boy Wizard, His Fan and (Paperback)
Harry, a History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon (Audio CD)







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