The Entire Harry Potter Series is Finally Mine

John Guillen43 Comments

I know I’m a little late to the party here, but this is still a big deal.

In recent days I’ve discovered an app called OfferUp. It’s petty much the same as Craigslist, but without the creepy feeling. See, I’ve never used Craigslist before. And I never will because I’m not trying to get shot or stabbed or something crazy over something likely worth very little. But in this app I just discovered I decided to browse a little bit just to see what people are selling. And people are selling EVERYTHING. Cars. Dogs. Phones. Furniture. Babies. Wait, what? Only kidding. But if you’re someone who doesn’t mind used stuff like you’d find at garage sales, then I think you should check out the app here.

Anyway, so I’m browsing along and I come across the full Potter collection. For those who might not know, I’ve only read the first two books in the series, which I started last year well after seeing all of the movies. Why? Because I still have the opportunity to read the series all the way through for the first time, and I have no intention of rushing through just because I’ve gotten the first two out of the way. So I find the full collection, right? So what do I do? I make an offer. She was only asking $35 for all seven books, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and a Hedwig bookmark! Talk about a steal. But I didn’t need the first two books and currently have no interest in anything but the final five. I offered $25. She accepted. So I’m now the proud papa of ALL seven books in the series, and the five I bought from her are hardcovers! I don’t think there’s ever been a better deal anywhere.

20150701_203343The best part of this is that I’ve flipped through a couple of the books and it looks like she took great care of all of them. Oh how I appreciate that.

Now that I have the full series I plan on rushing right through them in July. Just kidding. I don’t think I’ll get through them until the end of next year at the earliest. Partly because of my rule against reading the same author/book series within five books of each other, but also because I see no reason to rush at this point. There’s no new movie coming out this summer. I’m talking Harry here guys, not that other thing.

I still have a question for you today. Have you ever treated a book series the way I’m treating this one? Or do you just rush through your favorites without looking back?

On this day in 2014 I published Tracking Your Reading.

 

43 thoughts on “The Entire Harry Potter Series is Finally Mine”

    • Or maybe you should just not throw them around while you’re not reading them? 😉 I wasn’t even looking for mine and I found multiple sellers selling their HP series. But the one I bought was the cheapest. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at them. I never knew how enormous they are. 😂

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  2. I tend to read an entire series back-to-back. I like the consistency of it. Of course, that assumes all the books in the series are written and available. When I read HP, she was still writing, so I had lots of waiting between those books. In my old age, I’ve become patient with such things. I’ll wait for a TV show to come to its full conclusion, and then watch a season at a time. I’ll wait for an author to say, “Okay, I’m totally done.” Then I’ll pick up book 1. Considering I can’t remember what I had for breakfast half the time, remembering what happened in a book I read two years ago is like, “hurrrrrr derp!”

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    • Haha! I think it probably helps that I read crime fiction. Sure there are things that are happening throughout every book, but mostly the books focus on the new case. So it’s easy to know anything still relevant to the current story or case because it’ll be continuing. Or maybe I just have a better memory than you? 😂

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  3. As for Craigslist… I’ve used it. Got my daughter’s loft bed from a very nice couple a few miles away from me. Sold her old bed to the parents of a sweet little girl who was getting her first “big girl” bed. I’ve bought ice skates, sold a dresser… haven’t died yet. Actually, it was funny… the dresser… I ended up selling it to the lunch lady at my son’s school. Didn’t realize it was her until she showed up at my house! LOL Usually I do Craigslist transactions outside. Her, I actually let in.

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    • I’ll still never use it. Cause I’m most definitely not going to anyone’s house and no one is coming to mine. Nope. Yesterday I met the girl at a really popular shopping center.

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  4. I got into the series based on a friend’s recommendation between books 3 and 4, so I devoured the first three in about the space of a week, then waited patiently (or not so patiently, sometimes) for each new release. I don’t believe I’ve read them all again back to back, though if I felt a strong HP urge, I probably would.

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  5. I think I rushed through the “True Blood’ book series until I got to book 8 or 9… then I gave it up. As for HP… I read them as they were coming out, so every two years. Then in three days to a week I would have it done and have to wait for the next one. Other than that, I rarely rush through a series unless it’s fairly simple reading. Some authors write easy.

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    • You basically treated these books like Netflix shows. Haha I usually get through House of Cards in three days. I’ve never been caught up with any series to read them as they come out. I think I might have been caught up with Jesse Stone when Robert B. Parker died. I think that’s it.

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      • yeah, I binged on those books. And by the time I was done, I never wanted to read them again! Um, I don’t usually get caught up with series either.. Oh, pardon, I did with Twilight, but that was the last one, I think. There aren’t to many modern writers who catch my binge interest. And now that R. Parker is dead…. who knows if he had any Jesse Stone novels in the works. That might be the end of the series. Kind of like Brian Jacques and the Redwall series, which I didn’t read, but my sister does.

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      • After he died Michael Brandman continued writing the series. Now Reed Farrell Coleman writes it. I don’t like Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone. So I’ve avoided all of those adaptations.

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  6. LOL! I love this…congratulations! I covet all of the Ladies’ No. 1 Detective Agency series.

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  7. Yes, your books represented a deal too good to refuse. I have only read the first book in the Harry Potter series but I’m impressed at the way the series engages young readers. And, yes, I’ve been thoroughly hooked by a series in a totally different genre. Winston Graham’s Poldark series, based in Cornwall, England, beginning in the 18th century. The 12 books were written over a period of 57 years. I’m pleased to say I wasn’t born when the first books were written. Winston Graham died in 2003, a year after the 12th Poldark novel was published. He’s probably better remembered in the US as the writer of the Alfred Hitchcock movie Marnie. I read the later Poldark books as soon as they were published. No waiting, no delay!

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    • Hmm. I’ve never heard of him or his series. But that is forever to write 12 books. I mean, I don’t think George R. R. Martin could even accomplish that and I think he’s known as being really slow. I think.

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  8. I never read Anne of Green Gables and finally did about year ago. There are 6 books in the first series. I was so taken by Anne and the world LM Montgomery created I read one after the other. I got all the books at my favorite used bookstore, which was a great excuse to go (as if I needed one)!

    With HP, I discovered that series after the third one was published, so I read the first three one after the other, then read each as they were published. And btw, as you will see if you saw all the movies, there is SO much more detail in the books. You are going to have a great time!!

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      • You mean the Anne of Green Gables series? I somehow missed them when I was young. I never heard about Anne of Green Gables. The Little House books, yes, but Anne, no. And I thought I was too old at this point. But a friend pushed me to try. And boy was I wrong. I am now reading the Emily series. 🙂

        Actually, I am now reading all the “children’s” classics I somehow managed to miss as a kid, Secret Garden, Wind in the Willows….etc. I don’t think they are just for children 🙂

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  9. Ok I will confess my secret shame. I snubbed Harry Potter because I thought I was too cool for school. I was in, like, high school. Then when I was babysitting during college summers, I must have watch the first 2 HP movies a dozen times with the kids. (Kids like to repeat things.) By the third movie, I finally saw the light and had to read all the books.

    I went to midnight release parties for books 6 and 7 and the rest is history.

    I do like to read the series all together if I can. The Hunger Games trilogy was read in one weekend. I had to know what happened.

    Now George R.R. Martin has not pulled me in with his ice and his fire and his saga. I am stuck on book 2, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

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    • Too cool for school, huh? And then you loved it. That’s funny. The Hunger Games is my favorite series, but I read it over maybe two or three months, I think. And I didn’t change my normal reading rules to accommodate it.

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  10. Dude, when it comes to Harry Potter, I could read all seven books back to back without thinking twice about it. I don’t know what she was thinking selling her HP books! I’ll hold on to mine till I die. My kids can have their own copies.
    I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, every time I reread them feels like the first time. You made me want to reread them again now!

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  11. I am so jealous! (But in the good way.) I am slowly upgrading to Hard Back. I have 4, 6, and 7 in hard back. The rest are in paper back. Book 3 Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite of the series and has been leafed through the most and it shows it! I might have to check that app out!

    Anyway I tend to power through a lot of series. I like to keep stories fresh and going. If I get bogged down I might take breathers between the book. I’m reading the Percy Jackson series but I a taking a break between two of the books and reading other things. It kind of depends on the Author and the story if I power through or if I pace it out.

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    • I actually had no intention of ever getting a hardcover version of any of the books. They’re too expensive and I typically don’t buy used books. Hm. My reading policy forbids me from reading a series all at once. And I wouldn’t want to, anyway.

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      • That makes me just that little more sick. But it is what it is and I am happy you were able to get the books in general for such a fantastic deal! We each have our own way of reading a series. 🙂

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      • It makes me a little more sick with jealousy that you weren’t even going for hardbacks and got them for such a good price. I was then trying to put a positive spin on things saying that I’m happy for you all the same. Then I was finally referring to how you don’t want to read series in one go and I was admitting to we each having our own way of reading things. (Sorry for the confusion, hopefully I’ve made myself more clear if not, no worries.)

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