This book is a history of the Harry Potter phenomenon, or movement, or fandom, or whatever you want to call it; it's about how and why the Harry Potter books inspired millions of people not just to read them, but to dress up for them, go to parties for them, create rock bands about them, and just generally maintain a ridiculous level of enthusiasm for years on end. It was a great book, but definitely an insider's book. Don't try and read it if you haven't read Harry Potter, definitely. Melissa Anelli was the webmistress for a popular fan website, and gives you the inside view of the whirlwind. My one criticism is that it's pretty heavily autobiographical, and in the early chapters, that dragged a little. I think it was necessary, however, since the true glory of the book is its ability to capture the highly personal excitement both of first reading the books and, most importantly, of the build-up to the release of book 7. I had tears in my eyes for large portions of the book, because it almost, almost, almost recaptured the feeling of being about to finally read Deathly Hallows. The chapter describing the release was very well done. This was a very good book, a chronicle of a movement (although I felt that that was a bit muddled in with the autobiography in places), and a description of a personal journey. It does however, assume some previous familiarity with the Harry Potter scene, I think, so be prepared for that. Overall, I'd highly recommend it for people who remember and are interested in the Harry Potter fervor. ( )

With infectious, at times frenetic excitement, the webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron Web site Melissa Anelli, presents narratives in this hip report on how a boy wizard became a rock star. Anelli pays exhaustive attention to the power of the Internet and its symbiotic relationship with fan communities, known as fandoms. "That before I read Harry Potter I was composed of magic dust and fairy breath, and reading the first book had been what brought all my particles together. That Harry Potter was my personal big bang."

Eventhough there have been many dozens of books attempting to chronicle the particulars of Harry Potter fandom in all its dimensions -- the fan fiction (Fanfiction Alley, Restricted Section, etc.), the popularity of AU most notably Cassandra Claire's "Draco Trilogy", the R/Hr & H/Hr shippers (oh the Ship Wars! Personally I was a D/G shipper myself), the newest music genre Wizard Rock (led by the band "Harry and the Potters"), the websites (Mugglenet, Sugar Quill, etc.) , the conventions (there's going to be Lumos 2009!) -- all have fallen short because of the inherent difficulty in condensing its breadth and scope to manageable size; but this one admirably compacts ten, detailed years of Harry Potter history in its 356 pages, and covers the subject thoroughly.

In reading Melissa's first-hand account of what's happened in Harry Potter fandom and the book/movie worlds drawn from the seven Harry Potter novels, it's as if you're right there with her, being caught up in all the excitement: of finally getting a copy of the newest installment to the Harry Potter book series, of knowing that it is indeed a fact that a lot of children were helped in getting to enjoy reading because they were introduced to the Harry Potter books, of getting a chance to land an interview with J.K. Rowling herself, to wondering out loud about Rowling's genius over the intricacy of her plots.

Included are remembrances from J. K. Rowling's editors, agents, publicists, fans, and Rowling herself; plus black-and-white pictures of everything Harry Potter, Anelli takes us on a personal journey through every aspect of the Harry Potter phenomenon.

Book Details:

Title Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon
Author Melissa Anelli; J.K. Rowling (Introduction)
Reviewed By Purplycookie ( )

A truly great book, which explains the Harry Potter phenomenon in a way that is both comprehensible for the non-fan, for the new fan, and for the old fan. Recommended to those who don't understand the Harry Potter hype, and for those who want to re-live the good memories. Superbly written by the Web mistress of The Leaky Cauldron; my personal favourite Harry Potter news site. ( )

If I could give this book 2 different ratings and reviews I would.

To begin with I feel as if the title is a bit misleading. This book is only in partly a history of Harry Potter, the remainder should have been titled "My Experience Running A Well-Known Fansite for HP". The book, as mentioned by a previous reviewer, is full of inside jokes, name dropping and details that would only make sense to someone who was a part of the Leaky Cauldron website. That portion of the book can make for some incomprehensible and frankly boring reading for the rest of us. Little mention is made of other websites that were involved in the HP phenomenon and no real attempt to recount the experience of the "average" fan is made at all.

That being said, the portion of the book recounting the history of Harry Potter as it relates to Jo Rowling was fabulous. Melissa is a great writer and an accomplished story teller and she was able to bring a bit of true contentment to this HP deprived reader. And for that i am deeply thankful. ( )

It was very interesting to read Melissa's own story of "life with Harry," but this book is nothing more than that. Fans looking for a history of the fandom as a whole will be disappointed.

There are a lot of things she leaves out. The HP community on LJ was mentioned, but as she was not a part of it, it was not described. She mentions Cassandra Claire, but not the controversy surrounding her writing. She doesn't talk about the Mugglenet New Clues theory board, which at one point decided that Mark Evans was of crucial importance to the series (a theory which had to be debunked by JKR on her website). There was no talk about the recent lawsuit over the Lexicon.

Also, from a writing standpoint, the constant switching between timelines was irritating. It was often unclear where we were in the story.

All in all, it's an interesting read, but I really wish there were a more comprehensive fan history out there. ( )