From: DROPdraco.malfoy@countermail.comCAPITALLETTERS   
      
   So I finally go around to downloading a copy of "Harry, A History"   
   which you can pick up a copy for yourself on    
      
   This book was so disappointing that what I'm going to say is going to   
   be cruel.   
      
   This is not actually a History of Harry, or even a book about the   
   Harry Potter books. It is a book about one woman's experience with   
   the books. The author, Melissa Anelli, was (is) a major player in the   
   Harry Potter fandom, and she tells her story as an "almost insider."   
      
   Let's not beat around the bush - this isn't really a history of the   
   Harry Potter fandom either. The title is not deceptive at all - it's   
   an outright lie. This book is actually about the author, Anelli, who   
   is basically just scrabbling at her fifteen minutes of fame.   
      
   I'm not ashamed to say that I've been in the Potter fandom for years   
   - since PoA first came out as a movie. I've been to the conferences,   
   partied with the fans and read all the related books that the series   
   has spawned. And I would love a book that studied the actual history   
   of said fandom. This, however, is most emphatically not  it. Yes, the   
   author met J.K Rowling, and this book might have had a redeeming   
   quality if Anelli had included a transcript of that encounter, but   
   no, she just alludes to it, making it frustratingly pointless. As   
   does the constant need for excessive detail, about utterly useless   
   things such as the author's to-do lists or how Harry Potter and the   
   Philosopher's Stone was published.   
      
   Those who know and - for some bizarre reason - worship the Leaky   
   Cauldron will love this book and champion it to death. For everyone   
   else? It's just a sad, sad waste of a tree.   
      
   This entire book is devoted to people who have this kind of   
   infantile, socially backward relationship with Harry Potter fandom &   
   it seriously fucking FREAKS ME OUT*.lol   
      
   Anelli writes about 9/11 & how no one knew where her sister was (her   
   sister worked in the world trade center) & how her fandom buddies   
   kept her company on instant messenger & really helped her through   
   that rough time, & how she found friends in harry potter fandom,   
   friends who really cared about her, etc.    
      
   Anelli wrote the book like it was a novel, a fictional piece, filled   
   with flowery description that I feel has no place in what is   
   essential a memoir of sorts.   
      
   What a self-indulgent mess this was. This was like the HP version of   
   Eat, Pray, Love. This should be called Anelii, A History. I just   
   rolled my eyes a lot at things like the shipper wars.   
      
   Good god, Anelli's writing style is annoying. ME-ME-ME!!!   
      
   Mom wants Anelli to get a /real/ job, but she wants to live at home   
   in her childhood bedroom, complain to her online friends that her   
   Mommy is sooooo unfaaaiiiir, and run a website for a "living" (where   
   she doesn't actually get paid, of course). lol   
      
   I don't know if 'read' is the right tag. I started it, got a few   
   chapters in, but couldn't finish it because every time I picked it up   
   and tried to read a little further my feelings toward the whole   
   phenomenon would gurgle and swell up so much that I had to put the   
   book down for fear that I'd explode.   
      
   Just because you run one of the biggest Harry Potter sites on the   
   internet, doesn't mean that your life as a fan is interesting for me   
   to read about.   
      
   Amateurish, narcissistic, simplistic and stupid,,,and damn icky-freaky   
   to boot.   
   --   
   The fans rightly adore me !   
   https://twitter.com/TomFelton   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)