i was influenced by 2 people from different the ends of the spectrum-- a 40+ year old woman and a 2-year old girl.
the woman was my boss, i couldnt believe how a successful career woman would be hooked on Harry Potter books. I was witness to all the times she told our office messenger not to stop looking for each book in all the bookstores bcoz they were running out of stock! she is our deputy executive director and recommended it to me when she temporarily appointed me as her acting executive assistant. she was kinda like my mentor & i admired her a lot. but i still didnt want to buy the books bcoz i actually thought that its just a waste of money-- can you believe that?!
but i saw the SS & CoS movies bcoz i took my younger brother & his friends to see them. i liked them a lot but i still didnt want to read the books.
then it happened-- one day we tried to scare my 2year old niece to sleep by showing her a picture of Dobby. but instead of getting scared, she liked Dobby! when we took her to the mall, she saw Dobby's picture in one of the video stores there & didnt stop crying until we bought the homevideo! she would watch it like almost everyday until we all got sick of it! when she saw catalogues of HP merchandise, she took out Dan Radcliffe's HP pictures and she would place them beside her pillow everytime she went to bed-- i asked myself in disbelief "how can a 2year old act this way?!"
so i realized then that the appeal of HP works across the boundaries of all demographics -- i said to myself "there must be something in those books, i must discover its mystery!"
and since then i knew i was "doomed" to be a fan! 😛