A really interesting view of the whole Harry Potter experience from the fan point of view. The author is working for the popular fan-site ''leaky-cauldron'' since 2001 and offers a lot of precious insights surrounding the editing world, the internet fandom world and bribes of interviews that will please any real fan.

Melissa Anelli draws you into her memories of riding the Harry Potter phenomenon. From first picking up the book and realizing she was not the only college student who was a fan. Her struggles with her "real life" job and what she thought was just a hobby. This book is part biography and part history text book.

An enjoyable read for anyone who has read the Harry Potter series and wishes there was more.

In Harry, A History, now in it's fourth week on the New York Times Bestseller list, Melissa Anelli describes the explosion of the Harry Potter phenomenon with the added bonus of her insider's perspective - along with being a journalist, Anelli is the "webmistress" of one of the most popular Harry Potter fan sites, The Leaky Cauldron. Harry Potter fans will be delighted to see themselves - to varying degrees depending on their level of fanaticism - within the pages of this book. And those few people who have been living in a vacuum cleaner the past several years will be shocked, and possibly appalled, at the intensity of the emotions, debates, commitments and reactions described by Anelli.

The subtitle to Harry, A History is "The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon." The book really addresses only the latter two subjects - Anelli's own personal experience as a passionate "BNF" (big name fan), and the various expressions of fandom in general. At times these two subjects don't mesh well, as Anelli vacillates between recounting word-for-word her conversations with friends about Harry Potter and more objective information regarding book sales, spoiler attempts and the online shipping wars (and, no, this doesn't refer to a battle over shipping deadlines between Amazon and Chapters - a "ship" refers to a "relationship", namely, who Harry is going to end up with). While Anelli's personal recollections are an interesting insight into the mind of a fan, the book would have been better served if these parts had been limited to the big events in Potter history in which she had been personally involved, like her personal interviews with J.K. Rowling, the most recent of which lasted 2 days.

Anelli does a good job of giving an overall impression of the breadth and depth of the Harry Potter phenomenon. She covers topics such as the copyright war between Warner Brothers and fan websites; the birth of a new musical genre, Wizard Rock; the Laura Mallory-led fight to have the books banned from schools and libraries; release parties that shut down entire cities; tens of thousands of fans coming out to PotterCast's travelling live podcasts; Potter-based academic discussions and conferences, and more. Throughout it all, Anelli shares stories from her personal Potter journey - the first time she met J.K. Rowling, her friendship with the actor who plays Vincent Crabbe in the movies, and the "confessional room" she used to express her frustration at the darkness of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The book certainly has momentum, and Anelli's excitement and enthusiasm for her topic are contagious. But some of the people encountered in Harry, A History - including Anelli herself, have taken fandom to a whole new level - which Rowling admits in the forward is, on occasion, "downright alarming." And yet it is these fans who have made Harry Potter more than just a bestselling series and franchise - they have made it a historical and world-wide phenomenon that is not soon to be forgotten. Anelli's book is probably one of many that will explore this phenomenon and its cultural implications in the coming years. But what makes her book stand out is that it is not written by an academic or a cultural observer, but by someone who was in the midst of it all - and who played a key role in making Harry Potter the phenomenon it is today.