I never watch a movie when it first comes out and I never read a book less than 2 years old.
That way all the hype can die down and I can make a well educated decision as to where best to spend my time.
For the record, HP has not made it on to my long list of books to enjoy.
Your loss, but you seem to have two others to share in it.
I usually follow that rule with books. Movies not so much, because some of them, I want to see on the big screen with a group of friends and talk about it over a cold beverage afterward. And there's nothing like seeing a movie at the drive-in with good friends, a full cooler and a hot BBQ grill.
Generally speaking, I avoid books with an overwhelming hype level, because they almost never live up to it. The more people gushed about the Bridges of Madison County, or The Celestine Prophecy, or The DaVinci Code, the less interested I became, and I don't feel that I have missed anything by not reading those.
Harry Potter became an exception. I blew off the first three books until my mom started gushing about them, and gave me her copies. i trusted my mom's opinion (she got me to watch "Office Space"), so I gave it a try. Books 4-7, I bought within a couple of days of release. They're kid fiction, so it's a fairly fast read, in spite of the imposing length of the later books.
I have never had a long list of authors whose books I will buy as soon as they come out -- three in my whole life, as far as I can remember, and that number is now down to zero. Tom Clancy fell off the list. Douglas Adams died. And now JK Rowling is done. If she publishes a non-Potter book, I'll probably check it out in a timely manner.
But other than that, I have a long enough backlog to last me several years, even if I spend more time reading books and less time reading FR and other sites.
I have a Lincoln bio lined up now, I want to read or re-read a bunch of Vonnegut, as my own personal tribute; I did the same when I learned Douglas Adams had died. A friend whose judgment I trust recommends The First American, a Ben Franklin bio. And as long as David McCullough and Joseph Ellis have written more books than I've read, I have unfinished business.