Oh goodness, I believe I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I started reading them. Well, actually, our teacher read the first one to us, then I decided to read them on my own.
I started reading them in 2nd grade or something like that. I started to read them because I heard about the movie and my brother had borrowed the book from a neighbour like a year before so we still had it.
I read it, and didn't see the movie for the longest time.
So yes I did read them because the first one was coming out, but I've never liked the movies.