Am I too old to read Harry Potter?

I got the first four books in a set for when I started my maternity leave. Ds arrived in an emergency half way through Chamber of Secrets. I bought the rest of the books as they came out and can remember waiting in line at midnight for the last book.

He's a good actor. I saw him on stage in a Pinter revival years ago, and thought he was excellent.

Absolutely, Stephen Fry did play Lockhart as Kenneth-Branagh-playing-Lockhart!

(Though maybe, if you're right about the timings of the audiobook release and the making of Chamber of Secrets, Kenneth Branagh was using elements of SF's characterisation of GL in his approach to the role? Personally, though I love KB, I would have cast Hugh Grant, who has shown himself to be very good at that kind of comic villain in recent years...)

As a slight aside I've just listened to Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in the films) read Terry Pratchett's Moving Pictures and he is brilliant really good vocal range, what got me with the Stephen Fry audio was how he appeared to get Gilderoy Lockhart identical to Kenneth Branagh before he was cast in the role.....(I'm pretty sure the audio book predates the film by a few years).

I can't abide the way SF does girls' and women's voices. He does a sort of squeaky, high-pitched thing which is largely identical for everyone from Hermione to Bellatrix Lestrange to Petunia Dursley (Tonks is only distinguishable because he makes her sound like a Wurzel, and Luna because she sounds stoned).

I mean, I get that differentiating women's voices is an issue is you're a male reader voicing a huge cast of characters and trying to give everyone a slightly different 'sound', but it makes admirable female characters sound silly.

Get the Stephen Fry audio books. Much better than reading them!

@Mummy2022FT How are you going with the reading? So exciting to read it for the first time.

Of course not. I wouldn't bother with the films though.

I’m mid thirties and reading them for the first time. Well, I’m actually reading them to my son, but I’m certainly enjoying them too.

I'm nearly 40 and still read them 😊 so I say NO your not to old

I read the first one many years ago, though not as a child as it only came out when I was 23. I only recently read (and enjoyed) the others, partly because my daughter has been constantly listening to them on Audible, so I wanted to read them in the right order

I’m currently re reading for the millionth time. I’m in my 30’s!

A good book is a good book, no matter what age it is aimed at. I prefer the later ones in the series as they get more complex.

I'm in my 50s and just read the Percy Jackson series for the first time. I love mythology and am thoroughly enjoying the story and the way the author uses old myths in modern ways.

I was at a friends wife’s 40th, and stayed up all night. The next day I was snoozing on a sofa and picked up the first Harry Potter book belonging to one of their kids, and I was hooked! I read the whole thing and then all the others straight away. There’s no age limit on them….anyone can enjoy them.

I was in my twenties when they first came out. The first 4 passed my by completely. I remember I went down from Leeds to London to visit a friend, so came into Kings Cross, and saw some blond woman hanging off the front of a red steam train waving a book to a crowd of photographers and only much later worked out that it must have been the goblet of fire press launch.

Shortly after that, my boyfriend at the time and I went to visit his parents, and his Dad (who would have been in his 60s at the time) recommended I try them. He lent me Philosophers Stone and I read the whole thing in one sitting. I then devoured the entirety of the first four books, and eagerly awaited Order of the Phoenix.

I remain a ridiculously massive fan to this day (now mid 40s), and reread regularly.

Please don't watch the films before reading the books. The first four films are quite cheesy 🙈 and the later films missed out a lot of details and additional story lines that added depth to the main characters. But they are good fun ...

The books are wonderful and seem to mature in writing style as they progress . As an adult reading the books you will pick up a whole different perspective. JKR did a really good job of exploring themes such as gender, race and ethics all rolled into a story about witches and wizards ! Defo worth the read :) x

Please come back and tell us how much you love it… no pressure.

Absolutely not!

I remember being on holiday shortly after goblet of fire came out and seeing literally every other person round the pool reading it of all ages from about 10 to 70! I hadn't really heard about them much at that point (I was about 18 so not target age or or exposed to many kids of target age) so I went home and borrowed philosophers stone from my much younger cousin.

I swear JK Rowling cost me a grade in my degree classification because I struggled to put down whichever book had just come out before finals!

I know someone who read them in their 80s.

I wish I could read them now for the first time.

Read what you like. They didn't appeal to me, but I'm not you.

I hope not, I am listening to the audiobook of them for the first time in my mid 40s - I was busy with babies when they first came out.

There are lots of great "childrens" books that adults could read!

I read them to my children when they came out (the books, not the children 😂). I was in my late 30s and early 40s. I still re-read them occasionally. Never too old!