I'm Just Joining the Harry Potter Party

I teach high school English, so one would suspect that I keep myself well-versed in the literary happenings of the day. Wrong! The most popular literary phenomenon ever almost completely passed me by. But fortunately for me, I jumped on the bandwagon just in time for the big finish.

I was sitting at lunch with my colleagues one day, and the subject of the seventh Harry Potter book came up. I was the only person in the English department who had not read a single book in the series, and I felt quite embarrassed for it at the time, so I decided to start reading the first one that very day. Now, I had seen the movies and thought they were cute and interesting, but it never dawned on me to read the books. The day I started the first one, I knew that the movies couldn't even scratch the surface of the excitement contained within those pages. I was addicted.

My students began to giggle about my obsession, as I could now be spotted walking down the halls during my planning hour with my nose crammed in a book. Some, however, those who had read the books, were very understanding. I would get questioned by students I had never even met saying, "Which one are you on?". I actually found the fact that they were interested in reading, even if it was my reading, a very good thing. And within a week and a half, I had read all seven books. That's how much I liked them. I couldn't stop until I had reached the finish line.

Now, after my craze has died down a bit, I am trying to figure out what is so incredible about these books. I had my doubts before I read them for many reasons, not the least of them being that I am a Christian who attended a private Baptist college and had been warned countless times about the "dangers" of reading these "evil" books. However, after very careful readings and re-readings, I find that these books are anything BUT evil. In fact, they are packed with so much goodness and love that it's almost too much. Even if J.K. Rowling says that Dumbledore is gay, I can't see one reason why any good person would have anything bad to say about these books.

The combination of the wildly unrealistic setting with the touchingly realistic emotions makes the entire Harry Potter series an unforgettable reading experience. Rowling draws the reader into the emotion of each scene and it is impossible to leave unscathed. The characters become so well-known to the reader throughout the series that every grand quality and every minute flaw can be seen as if through a magnifying glass. To me, these qualities in literature make a book worth reading.