I’ve got a glaring blindspot in my nerd life. James tells us to confess our sins to our brothers and sisters, though, so here goes:
I’ve never read any Harry Potter books and I’ve never seen any Harry Potter movies.
Here are five reasons why I haven’t read Harry Potter.
I Was Too Old
When the Harry Potter books first started getting popular in the late 90s I was well into high school. A lot of my younger friends really got into the books when they were children. But when they were reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I was reading the Cliff’s Notes for every book assigned in high school English. Had the books come out when I was a little younger or a little older, I probably would have been on board. But I was right in that age where I was just old enough to be too cool to read a kids book.
Too Many Nerdclinations
To be honest, even by the time the books first came out, my nerd plate was a little full. I was already a big fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, comics, WWE and video games. Regardless of how good Harry Potter was, there just wasn’t any space in my life for another nerdclination. I was watching four hours of wrestling a week and scouring the Internet for information about Episodes 1-3. I didn’t have time to read about a little boy wizard playing lacrosse on a broom.
Too Many Books
Seven books. That’s a large commitment for someone like me. I enjoy reading but I spend most of my time reading nonfiction. I read about one fiction book for every four or five nonfiction books. It would take me a long time to get through the entirety of J.K. Rowling’s series. I got married 10 months ago and I’m not ready to make another large commitment. I don’t need to commit myself to Harry, Ron and Hermione while I’m still trying to fully figure out this commitment I’ve made to my wife.
Too Good?
I imagine I’d like the Harry Potter books if I read them, which scares me. If I read the first book I would immediately jump into the second book. When I want to read, that’s all I will do. I won’t sleep, I won’t work out, I even won’t play video games. My wife has the books, they’re sitting on our bookcase right now. They’re big books and, even if I was going through them pretty quickly, it would still take me close to a month. That’s one month of not really doing anything else but reading about wizards and names that shall not be named. If I was 10 and on summer vacation that would be all right. But I’m 30 and have a lot of video games to play.
Object of Disdain
One of the best ways to hide your nerdiness is to show disdain for other nerds. Even if someone calls me a nerd, I can always say at least I’m not as bad as those nerds over there. For me those nerds “over there” are Harry Potter fans. I don’t know much about Harry Potter. I know just enough to poke fun at my friends who like Harry Potter. If I fully invest myself in Harry Potter I won’t have an object for my nerd disdain. Who would be left to mock? Babylon 5 fans? Stargate fans? I can be mean, but not that mean.
At some point I’ll read the Harry Potter books and then I’ll watch all the movies. Right now, though, there are a lot of other books to read and movies to watch. And until I do make the plunge into J.K. Rowling’s world of wizardry, I’ll still be able to raise my eyebrows to anyone who refers to me as a muggle.
What’s your attitude toward Harry Potter?
Even though I enjoyed the first 4 books, I realized at the 5th that I had no real interest in the convoluted series anymore. I’m pretty sure my awakening occurred after a reading spree that included 1984, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and Frankenstein. Couldn’t read preteen drama anymore.
Although I have never put myself in the “nerd” category, I did read all 7 books at around the age of 37. I read them so that I could have an actual opinion when the topic of “to let your kids read them or not” came up. Well I enjoyed them very much! But as a busy wife and mother (and old) had not the time or inclination to ever get truly nerdy over the whole thing. ( I haven’t even seen all the movies.). Recently my daughters expressed an interest so we have been reading them together. We just finished book two, and they are becoming preoccupied with them to a very nerdy and somewhat alarming degree! I know that I have created this monster. So I am now doing some unofficial research on denerdification. I will be keeping your blog on as a reference, thank you.
I’m in the same camp as you, my friend. I think fro all the same reasons as well.
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