Today the A to Z Challenge continues! I’ll be posting about one letter/word on every weekday in April. Don’t want the barrage of posts? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when I start doing new stuff next month!
J is for JK Rowling.
My mother read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to me out loud when I was a little kid. I loved the world of Hogwarts before most people had even heard of it. Between the books, Pottermore stories, endless Hogwarts house quizzes, fanfiction and eventually the movies I’ve probably spent a few thousand hours on the Harry Potter series. There was a time when you could ask me pretty much any question about Harry Potter and I’d know the answer within a few seconds(I still remember a lot of this trivia, but I don’t know any actor names outside the main trio and some of the Hogwarts staff).
Still, I don’t want to be the next JK Rowling. Sure, I’d love to inspire an entire generation, to bring the love of books to millions of kids and make boatloads of money in the process. But my books are incredibly different from the Harry Potter series. I am extremely different from JK Rowling. I have different stories to tell. And that is exactly how it should be.
This year the first in a trilogy of new movies set in the Potterverse, Fantastical Beasts and Where To Find Them, is coming out. Lots of people are thrilled and lots of other people think it’s going to be awful. I feel like perhaps I should be excited–we’re going to see a huge part of the world Rowling built and never showed in the Harry Potter series–but I can’t bring myself to be anything other than mildly curious. I don’t actually think it will be a bad movie, but I’d be lying if I said I was expecting a spectacular show.
JK Rowling’s stories had a major impact on me both as a person and as a writer. I no longer consider myself a fan of Harry Potter but I still appreciate the depth of her worldbuilding and the way she wove her stories–and I can only hope that someone eventually will love my books as much as I once loved hers, if for very different reasons.
Are you a fan of Harry Potter? Have you read any of JK Rowling’s other books? Are you looking forward to the new movie? Let me know in the comments section below!
I didn’t pick up the books until I saw the movie and am glad I did. While I enjoy the movies, they had to cut a lot so it was nice being able to ‘explore’ more.
~Ninja Minion Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
The first 3 movies actually managed to cover most of the stuff in the books and were really spot on, but the last few books are so big there was a lot of stuff they simply couldn’t include. But I disagree with a lot of the stuff they left out/changed in the later movies anyway, whereas I didn’t really mind most of the changes made to LOTR in Peter Jackson’s adaptations. Then again, every reader has a different opinion on what can be left out. There is no winning when making a big book into a movie!
I love Harry Potter and I love JK Rowling. I’ve been meaning to read that adult mystery book she’d written under a pen name. Your post reminds me I need to put that on my TBR list.
My daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan. I’ve never really had too much of an interest, although I did see all the movies. Just not my cuppa. I would like to visit the Harry Potter world in Florida, just for the asthetics…I think it may be interesting.
~Katie
TheCyborgMom
No one book or series is right for everyone. I myself am not much of a Harry Potter fan anymore but I do still love the aesthetic and certain things about the series.
Thanks for stopping by!