I've been a Harry Potter fan sort of on-and-off since I was a little kid. I didn't really know or care about it much until the first movie came out. I was 6 or 7 then. (I still remember thinking that Harry was in a different house in every book. XP)
I didn't really read the books at all until after the second movie came out. The fifth book had come out at that point. I started with the third book, since the first two already had movies. I don't think I read them very fast, because I remember the sixth book coming out when I hadn't finished the fifth one. (The third movie must have been out by then.) Of course, it was impossible to evade the spoiler of who dies in the sixth book - though, I do tend to be able to convince myself that I'd never heard some spoilers.
I've always loved the movies, too. They work excellently as a sort of visual guide to what's in the books. Sure, some of the newer ones have to cut out a whole lot to fit in movie time, but that doesn't mean I don't like them. I don't see why they waited until the seventh movie to find means to extend it and include more details. They should have started the two-part thing with the fifth movie, or maybe even the fourth (though, I don't feel like the fourth movie cut out that much.)
There's also the games - the computer ones, specifically. I've played all of those. (The sixth one only on Wii, since I knew the PC game was exactly the same, but I don't like using arrow keys for what's meant to be a control stick.) They don't have much reputation as games, but I like them. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was probably the first video game I ever beat. I remember when my cousins introduced them to me and my brother. We all regarded them as essentially the main source of Harry Potter info, which is why I never had any idea what "boring" characters like Fudge and Crouch were doing in the books or movies. The Ministry of Magic doesn't really do anything in the games until the fifth one, (and then in the sixth one with the aurors locking parts of Hogwarts.)
Speaking of the fifth Harry Potter game, that was one I was EXTREMELY excited for, and it didn't dissapoint me (aside from the lack of a Forbidden Forest level leading to Grawp.) I had loved the prospect of mapping Hogwarts when the first game came out. Then, the second game came out. The map was completely different (though some of the main floor was familiar). I played some other versions of the games, too, usually just to see the map. The third game had its own map, too, and I began to think it changed each year. Then, the fourth game had no map at all, which angered me to no end. This perhaps made the fifth game even more welcoming, since the special thing there was the map of Hogwarts, where they took maps and photos of movie sets - from all five movies - and used notes from what's there in the books to make a really accurate map of Hogwarts. I was happy that the sixth game expanded on the map and included areas like the Training Grounds, the Quidditch Pitch, the Astronomy Tower, and Slughorn's Office.
I've kind of ranted here. Maybe I should stop. XP
