I go home to watch the Powerpuff Girls (Bubbles is the best one!).
I’m 40 with two kids and I love those books to death. We have the hardcovers and the audio tapes and I listened to Prisoner of Azkaban so many times on my commute that I wore it out. I think the last two have more adult themes than the first two, but I’d read any of them in public.
Ignore anyone who’d look down their nose at you for reading anything. They are pretty insecure if they feel the need to control the reading taste of others.
I’m 25, no kids, and have read them all several times. The first time around, I was working in a children’s bookstore and therefore had a perfect excuse (you’ve got to know the stock, after all). But in any case, I don’t see any reason to be embarrassed about it – adults seem to read 'em all the time, at least where I’m from.
I’m 26 years old and a recent HP addict. I’ve read 1 and 2 and am 1/2 way through Prisoner. These books are wonderful! No shame here.
I’m 24, with no kids, and I read them. My sister is almost 27, her only child thus far isn’t even talking yet, and she reads them. My mom is… Well, older than me or my sister, and I’m her youngest, and she reads them. Do you want to know how my mom found them? One of her fellow teachers (also with no kids) swooped into her room with a Hedwig hand puppet carrying the book, and delivered it to her.
If there’s nothing wrong with that (and there isn’t), then what makes you think that there’s anything wrong with you reading them? Heck, that lady at the sandwich shop would probably have had the same reaction to Lord of the Rings, or The Neverending Story, or any other fantasy.
Another adult, childless Harry Potter fan right here. I read them in public and will be at the local Harry Potter opening this Thursday night, 9.30pm (I figure there’ll be fewer people there than at the 6.15pm showing).
There are other “kids” books I read quite comfortably, including the Narnia series and John Marsden’s “Tomorrow When the War Began” series (that’s more YA, though).
I’ve never noticed anyone giving me odd looks for reading any of them in public and, if I did, I wouldn’t particularly care. They’re the ones who are missing out, and life’s too short to care about what random strangers think.
By the same token, she might not have been impressed if you were reading an advanced book in your field because she might not have recognized it.
From Of Other Worlds (1966) by C.S. Lewis:
28 years old.
I love Harry. It actually never occurred to me that anyone would think anything about my reading them in public, but even now that you’ve said it, I still don’t particularly care. In my small town, if I stopped doing things other people found strange, I’d have to quit most of the things I like.
I was at opening night of the movie. In costume. That’s not odd, is it?
Then there’s the $75, black, leather-bound collector’s edition of the book. Now that is a book intended for adults. (Or, I suppose, very rich children.)
39, no kids and I love the books. I have yet to read the 4th one yet due to lack of money, but it will happen before the end of the year.
No one has ever commented on the books while I was reading them, but if someone said “Aren’t you a little old for that kind of stuff?” to me, I would tell them, “Never too old to enjoy myself.”
Another good series of books if you are suffering from withdrawal is Diane Duane’s Wizard books. The first is So You Want To Be A Wizard and they are juveniles aimed slightly older than the first Potter book. A lot of fun to read.
Thirty-something who has read the first 2 books & listened to about 1/2 of the third (which I just purchased & is next on my reading list). I was kind of disappointed in the movie - seemed very event-driven “we gotta show the sorting hat, we gotta show the quidditch game” - not much time to find out about the characters themselves.
Of course I’m not the best judge of what is “for kids” - I was thrilled to find the Sesame Street 25th anniversary celebration used on DVD, have several Oz books on my Palm, and have the following items on my Amazon wishlist:
The Witch Family and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (yes, that Julie Andrews!)
Let me tell you the tale of how I came to read Harry Potter, aged 24.
I’d heard of the books by the time the fourth one was released (let’s face it - by the fourth book, who hadn’t heard of them?), and I was curious about them. For a start, they had kids all over the world reading - incredible! I remember being picked on at school for being an avid reader, yet here were books making all kinds of kids read. Incredible indeed! I thought to myself that if I ever had the chance, I’d pick one up just to see what it was like.
A couple of months later, my friend left Australia to work on a summer camp in the US. She rang me from the camp one day, and mentioned that she was reading Harry Potter. I was excited, and asked her all about it, said I wanted to read Harry Potter too. She told me she’d been vaguely aware of them but uninterested until she had to read to the children she was looking after, and one gave her Harry Potter to read from. She said she couldn’t put the book down, and in the end she rushed out to buy her own copy. She wasn’t finished yet when she spoke to me, but she was thoroughly enjoying the book. I put down the phone, and made a mental note to seek out Harry Potter next time I was buying books.
A couple of weeks later, a mysterious parcel arrived in the mail, postmarked from the US. I opened it - and lo and behold, it was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone! My friend popped it in the mail to me when she’d finished with it. I took it into my bedroom to put it on the nightstand, but I thought to myself “I’ll just read the first few pages to see what it’s like”…
Two hours later, I finished it. It was fantastic! I just wanted to rush out and buy the rest of the books in the series!! My friend rang, and I thanked her profusely. She said that when I finished with it, could I please pass it on to another friend who wanted to read it, and I said “Sure!”. So it went to another girl we know, and she read it and loved it. Then her mother picked it up out of idle curiosity and got hooked - despite never being a big fan of reading, the mother has worked her way through the first four books, and now she’s finished she’s branching out into other books! I got a 21 year old friend reading them, and she got her boyfriend reading them… and on it goes. I met a 35 year old mother of 2 who confessed that she smuggled the book out of her kid’s room to finish on her own, because she HAD to know what happened next, and couldn’t wait for bedtime the next day.
Harry Potter appeals to children and adults alike. It’s about kids, and suitable for kids to read, but that doesn’t make it a kid’s book.
Incidently, Harry Potter lead me to these boards (sort of). I’d seen the Straight Dope before, and often came here to read Cecil’s column, but when someone on another board linked to a Harry Potter thread on the SDMB, I came to look, and stayed to chat. Harry Potter made me sign up! (although I can’t remember my first post - it may not have been to that thread).
i hope i didn’t offend you, i was just trying to make a point.
No offense taken. 
I am so, so tempted to buy this every time I see it in the store. Maybe Santa will bring it.
I’m another adult with no children who loves Harry. I’m a big fan of children’s lit in general, though, so any discomfort I had about reading it in public is long gone. I see a lot of adults reading Harry Potter in public, so my opinion is that your sandwich shop person is somewhat of a dolt.
Somebody on the radio (Michael Medved?) said that on a recent flight, one of the flight attendants told him that many adult passengers are reading Harry Potter books on planes.
I’m almost 31, married, no kids, have all the books (the British texts, from Canada–we’ll have to order the rest of ours long-distance so they’ll match). I read and collect a lot of children’s literature.
I also see lots of adults reading it on my morning commute. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.
I initially resisted the hype, figuring it to just be a marketing blitz rather than a genuine buzz about a good book. Then, around the time the third book came out, I was in a bookstore and picked up the first one out of curiosity and read the first chapter. And then read the next chapter. And then read the next chapter. And then said, “Oh fuck, now I have to buy this.” And I did.
I used to love that book, and I had no idea it was by “that” Julie Andrews.
Another good children’s book by a famous person is She Was Nice to Mice about a mouse in Queen Elizabeth I’s court. Written by one Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy when she was 12, IIRC.
Count me in. 30yo, big, fat, hairy guy and I really enjoy reading the books. Actually, most everyone I work with has read the books and I’m constantly loaning them out. People who give you those kind of comments are just ignorant.
I read the HP books, (just finished #4) and loved every one. (30, professional, educated fella). I’m glad that there are GOOD kids books out there and not all game and TV tie-ins. However I’m scared to see the movie, because I hate to have my own mental pictures of the book removed. Same goes for Lord of the Rings.
everyone else’s imagination is not as good as mine!
35, no childen. I read the first HP book about a month ago because I wanted to read it b4 the movie came out. (that I have not seen yet)
I enjoyed it, and see no problems with adults reading it, but if I had read this when I was a young teen (obvioyusly the book wanst out then, I hope you get what I am saying) I would have gone nuts for it.
I’m halfway through The Subtle Knife, and will add to Fibonacci’s recommendation for Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy.
“Hello, my name is Brian and I am an adult who has read Harry Potter”