Hokay, I live in London, you can call me nellie_darlin, and I'm nineteen now. I was ten when I was first aware of Harry Potter.
So yeah. I was aware of HP for about a year before I finally read it. I remember buying PS and CoS at the same time, although I don't remember my reaction (beyond loving them, of course...) I didn't queue up at midnight for PoA but I did get it that day and read it very quickly; I did queue for GoF with my friend KP. I remember having huge discussions at school about who was going to die in the fourth book (nothing much has changed there, then!), and developing theories about the significance of Harry having Lily's eyes. It was at that time that a friend suggested that maybe Snape loved Lily...
Growing up with the books meant that I grew up as Harry did. Whereas PS seems quite childish now, looking back on it, OotP and HBP are very grown up, both in themes and in style, and I kept pace with that. It was very satisfying, actually. I think the real difference, though, between growing up with the books and coming to them as an adult is that my perception of the earlier books was very childish. People were shipping Remus and Sirius from the moment they appeared in PoA, but I was unaware of that. As I said, the first ship I really thought about was Snape liking Lily. In fact, right up until I was sixteen I assumed Harry would end up with Hermione, "because that's what always happens". My friend KP was an ardent Harry/Ginny shipper from about GoF, and we had long, circular arguments about the issue - my first shipping wank, awww... And then, nearly two years ago now, I fell, quite by accident, into fandom. And that changed everything. I didn't really like Sirius in OotP, but becoming a Remus/Sirius shipper I fell in love with him (or my version of young him); I shipped Harry/Ginny, I realised that the twins are far crueller than I ever thought they were, and so on. Fandom marked the resurgence of my interest in HP - it had remained fairly constant, but after that it grew hugely, to the point where it's something I think about every day.
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So yeah. I was aware of HP for about a year before I finally read it. I remember buying PS and CoS at the same time, although I don't remember my reaction (beyond loving them, of course...) I didn't queue up at midnight for PoA but I did get it that day and read it very quickly; I did queue for GoF with my friend KP. I remember having huge discussions at school about who was going to die in the fourth book (nothing much has changed there, then!), and developing theories about the significance of Harry having Lily's eyes. It was at that time that a friend suggested that maybe Snape loved Lily...
Growing up with the books meant that I grew up as Harry did. Whereas PS seems quite childish now, looking back on it, OotP and HBP are very grown up, both in themes and in style, and I kept pace with that. It was very satisfying, actually. I think the real difference, though, between growing up with the books and coming to them as an adult is that my perception of the earlier books was very childish. People were shipping Remus and Sirius from the moment they appeared in PoA, but I was unaware of that. As I said, the first ship I really thought about was Snape liking Lily. In fact, right up until I was sixteen I assumed Harry would end up with Hermione, "because that's what always happens". My friend KP was an ardent Harry/Ginny shipper from about GoF, and we had long, circular arguments about the issue - my first shipping wank, awww... And then, nearly two years ago now, I fell, quite by accident, into fandom. And that changed everything. I didn't really like Sirius in OotP, but becoming a Remus/Sirius shipper I fell in love with him (or my version of young him); I shipped Harry/Ginny, I realised that the twins are far crueller than I ever thought they were, and so on. Fandom marked the resurgence of my interest in HP - it had remained fairly constant, but after that it grew hugely, to the point where it's something I think about every day.
I don't know if that helps at all...