(Late) Into the Pottermania

The boy wizard's spell has finally been cast upon me. Late as it is, I now consider myself a "legit" Harry Potter fan, an upgrade from the previous "mild" status. I've picked up on my reading on the HP Book series and have just finished reading the third book, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (like you don't know what the third book is).

I still wonder why only now did I decide to read the HP series, knowing myself as someone with a major interest in books and HP as the biggest phenomenon to have hit the bookshelves in our lifetime. It's not that I wasn't interested, I certainly was. Whatever the reasons and circumstances, I decided to catch up and am totally enjoying it.

A small price I'm paying is the notion that almost everybody has finished the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and found closure with the story, while here I am getting up and excited each turned page midway into the series. I also have the unwelcome foreknowledge about the broader parts of the story, having watched all the movies so far. But, as with most cases, I find the books far better than the movies and I find whatever small consolation in that ("at least I know this is how it really turned out to be").

Still, I'm trying to finish the series before the next movie (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) comes up on November 2008 (quite a lot of time I have, no?). That way I'd be reading the last two books with no idea at all on how they will end. Finishing the books would also make the wait to November '08 more exciting.