false 3130430 1416554955 9781416554950 785 194 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1256133597m/3130430.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3130430.Harry_A_History_The_True_Story_of_a_Boy_Wizard_His_Fans_and_Life_Inside_the_Harry_Potter_Phenomenon 1336408 Melissa Anelli 792 196 5 1 false Sun May 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Dec 24 11:09:49 -0800 2008 Wed May 20 09:24:10 -0700 2009
For one, it was just something fun to read. For two, I have an academic interest in people's relationship to media, so I am interested in its observations about HP audiences (how people can feel ownership or investment in the books, and even try to participate in the creation, via fanfic, writing music, making costumes, etc etc). I was also interested in how the Internet played a role in people's relationship to the books. A third position might be as a fan, but I have to say that I'm not a "hardcore fan", in fact I don't actually like the books :) It wasn't until I discovered the band Harry & the Potters, and the whole world of fan-written music (is there a word analogous to "fanfic"?), that I decided to finish reading the series, so I could get all the references. Other than those concerts, I've never been to a HP conference, I've never bought a HP book or been to a midnight release, I've never written fanfic, I've never spent more than a few minutes on a HP website. But I enjoyed this book, so I find it odd when reviews (mostly negative ones) say that only hardcore fans will enjoy this book or that this book is only for people who participated in the online culture and that those people who "only read the books" will feel left out -- that's rubbish. Perhaps, though, while I've never participated in most of HP fandom, I *am* aware of fandom in general (whether it's anime, Star Trek, Joss Whedon, etc). So maybe I was able to enjoy the book because I'm aware of those things -- but, if you're not aware of things, then it should be even *more* interesting, shouldn't it?!

Melissa's writing is *excellent*. She's very good at writing narrative. That definitely made this book enjoyable and easy to read. I was really able to get into the events.

The book is told mostly through her experiences -- which some people use as a criticism, saying that they'd wanted to read about the HP phenomenon and not about Melissa (that it should be called "Melissa, A History"). But her story is interesting, is a good example of many of the ways that readers of the books became more than just readers, and she was there in the middle of most of it, so her story is not unrelated! She does pepper it with stories from other people. And the section that explains the history of how the first book got published and how the movies came to be, etc, are very interesting (and not about Melissa at all :) Oh, it's worth mentioning that despite "Harry" in the title, the book is not at all about the character, nor does it talk about contents of the books much, but is mostly about the fans, though also about the author and publisher and copyright holders in their relation to fans. The section on how they avoided leaking the title or contents of the books was interesting, but I wish there had been more!

I would have liked more facts, like that. For the most part the book does a good job of explaining everything, but there are some events in the HP fandom that we're assumed to have heard of, or which are only briefly mentioned. I would have liked more explanation. Though the book is already big, so I don't know what I would suggest cutting :)

Oh, and if I forgot to mention, Melissa is a head of the Leaky Cauldron fan website/newssite, which is why she had visibility to all this. Leaky Cauldron is organizing their first convention this year, and it's in my town this weekend. I was looking forward to going to my first HP convention, to see what it was like (purely out of academic curiosity, of course!). But I will be out of town for something else :(]]>