I opened a self help book with a 97 cent store sticker on it still. I opened it in front of my aunt and cousins. It was a gift from my mom and it was deeply humiliating.

I support an author wanting to explore a new version of their work.

I would think they are brave for admitting it since it opens you up to judgement. But I would appreciate their honesty.

That professor made it look easy, but it takes a lot of time and energy to get to where he’s at in understanding the text. Don’t beat yourself up, but keep working at it, and you’ll eventually be able to critically analyze text much like the professor.

The first book I read of my own accord was The Time Machine when I was in the 4th grade. I remember really enjoying it and being proud of myself as I read through the book. Reading and keeping my attention span was hard for me so I would often have to reread parts of books as I forgot what I was reading and it was frustrating. My mother was a prolific reader her whole life so I didn’t understand why it was so hard for me to enjoy.

I read The Sun Also Rises and I didn’t like for any reason related to my sex or gender. I just didn’t like or care for the characters and his prose. But I think it might be that I was missing some context to for Hemingway as a writer that would have helped me appreciate the story more.

Finegan’s Wake?

I thought there were some really interesting parts to the first book like the human computer thing, but the writing (translation, I guess) eventually made me quit the book. But, it’s one I’ve marked to return to eventually. I think the concepts of the series make it worth finishing, so I think putting it down for now and coming back to it later might be a good option for you. When I’m feeling impatient with a book, I need to do this. Sometimes you just don’t vibe with the book at that time. :)

I think you need to give people space to come to understand their cognitive dissonance about something like the problematic themes in HP. Their attitudes can change, but it may not be as quickly as you’d like. My thoughts are that many of these people may have read the books as children or teens and it’s hard to lift the rose colored glasses of nostalgia and confront the dark under currents of our society’s past that have made their way into a beloved story from their youth. I was an adult when I read it, so confronting those issues isn’t so hard for me. But, this is just giving people the benefit of doubt that once they can work to overcome their hang-ups, they might be able to live up to the social justice principles they champion in others. Another thought I have on this subject, but specifically toward you, OP, is that sometimes you just need to take a break from a fandom online because it can be hard to deal with the strong and outspoken opinions of those you disagree with. For me, when it becomes emotional, I often have to check out. I’ve stopped following subs on Reddit for things I enjoy sometimes because it’s just too much and then I spend time feeling hostile and angry at the other members, which is not how I want to feel. So, give yourself some time and patience to feel the disappointment and frustration you feel, and if you decide to delete this post, I hope you found something worthwhile in these comments. I never dove deeply into HP, just saw a lot of drama over the years and watched from the sidelines, so it’s been interesting to me.

I don’t think you will be able to actively change this for her. She’ll need to come to this on her own. It may take a while, but an interest in reading is a pretty core part of a person. I think you risk being more of a hinderance than a help if you push too hard.

Only stats i track are how many books I read and what I thought of them. I use my Notes app to track this info and my rating system is just emojis to indicate if I love, liked, disliked or feel ambivalent about a book. If I’ve been interested in learning more about an author, I will read a biography, or look them up on the internet to get a better idea of who they are. But that information doesn’t make it into my notes.

I was one of those kids forced to read stuff I found really boring, but I don’t think it killed anything for me about reading. I just wasn’t interested in reading. Those books didn’t ignite a desire for sure! Reading was competing against a lot like Tv, video games, music and socializing in my teenage brain. So it wasn’t something I came to enjoy until I was a boring adult. But I’m ok with that. I do remember a few books being enjoyable for me like Of Mice and Men and The Scarlet Letter. It’s funny to think now and I tried to reread Walden years ago after remembering it as an assigned reading in my 11th grade English class from a teacher that seemed to dislike me quite a lot. I DNF Walden and just decided that I didn’t need to relive that read. Haha.

This is all to say, that in my experience, it was the teacher more than the material that gave me a negative association with reading and other challenges mounted on top of that. I may have something else like an undiagnosed learning disability that was making it hard for me to get into reading but I eventually got there.