Hey! Thanks for reading my post! So I thought for my first ‘bookie’ blog post I would write about my forever favourite book series (and by forever series I mean the series that first got me into reading and which I can read over and over again)… Harry Potter!

My Harry Potter journey began whilst still in primary school. Before Harry Potter I enjoyed reading but didn’t necessarily read all the time. I remember my Year 3 teacher catching me out on my reading assignment when I had told her I had finished but actually hadn’t. I remember quite vividly that she asked ‘who where the people under the masks?’ (a very important part of the whole story) and silly baby me didn’t think to find out before saying I had finished (it was the cleaners…). After that I was so nervous about being caught out again that I read each assignment at least twice before moving to the next one! I am quite grateful to that teacher now however, she opened me up to a whole new wonderful world of books. I also remember that she didn’t question me ever again after I said I had finished… I guess she saw how sorry I was the first time!

About a year or so after this incident my school held a second hand book sale. My mum had given me £2 to spend in the sale and I was really looking forward to it (in those days £2 felt like a fortune to me). I can’t remember the first couple of books I bought though I know I was left with only 50p towards the end when I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on sale for £1. Obviously being the annoying child I was I asked the teacher about five times how much it was only to walk away each time… the last time the teacher agreed to give it to me for 50p since that was all I had!

I must admit the first few times I tried to read it I failed miserably… I must have read the first few pages about ten times before I finally decided to read the whole book. By then my sisters had bought the other books between them so once I was finished I was able to read the first few and later the rest.

Once I made it to secondary school I made a great friend when I saw she was wearing a Slytherin badge and I excitedly told her that I also loved Slytherin and Harry Potter in general (I loved.. and still love… Severus Snape even before we found out he still loved Lily and was protecting Harry the whole time). Through her I met my other friends and the rest as they say, is history. Incidentally, we both ended up being sorted into Slytherin when Pottermore became a thing!

I think what I loved most about the story was the idea that magic was actually real and that one day I could find out my parents had been hiding this side of their lives from me the whole time. I related most to Hermione (of course) however I was not as forthcoming as Hermione was when it came to answering questions in lessons.. I was pretty shy in school! Who would you say you related to most in the Harry Potter stories? Have any of you found great friends through your love of a certain book / book series?

XOXO