Harry, a History

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

Melissa Anelli is regarded as an important person in the Harry Potter fandom. However I was never in the Harry Potter fan community so to me Melissa Anelli is just the owner of a rather popular fansite. And to be honest the only reason I wanted to read this book is because it was about Harry Potter. So when I read a review which said this book is basically Melissa Anelli “scrabbling at her fifteen minutes of fame” I was expecting to not like this book.

While part of this book is Melissa Anelli's autobiography it is also a fascinating account of how Harry Potter was published, the growth of the online fan community, fanfiction, the shipping wars and Harry and the Potters. Basically if you are a huge Harry Potter fan you should read this book. There was also one piece of trivia in this book which I found really interesting: It was an intentional decision by Warner Bros to keep the Harry Potter movies and books as separate as possible which means there has never been a movie edition of a Harry Potter book. I am embarrassed to admit I have been reading Harry Potter for 16 years and never noticed this before now.