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I avoided them for a long time, due to marketing hype and the goofy (IMHO) covers of the US editions. Then I was traveling for work for a week, and ran out of things to read. (This was before I had an ebook reader.) There was a book store in walking distance, so I wandered over. A couple of friends with good taste in books had given their opinion that the HP books were readable and fun, and I wanted something relatively light, so I picked up the first one. The second night, I went back and got the second one. Then I had a difficult struggle with wallet and luggage (no, not The Luggage) over whether to buy the third one in hardcover, which gives you some idea of when this happened. I was able to wait until I got home and could borrow it from the library. I bought the next four as they came out, in hardcover (though I was actually first on the waiting list at my local library to read Goblet of Fire).
As I've said before, I think the series peaked at volume 3, but the others were worth reading, and I've re-read all but the last one (I'll get to it eventually). I know it's inevitable to compare them to other "great" fantasy works like LotR, but I think they aren't really in the same category. Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books would be a better comparison, I think, though the authors have very different strengths and styles.
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