The little boy with the funny scar

Harry Potter

by J.K. Rowling

It's funny, isn't it? 

How a small paperback can do so much?

This is the first time that anything like this has happened, that a children's book has conquered the world, one page at a time. 

There are so many stories of people whose lives have changed because of little Harry, the strange scruffy boy living at number 4 Privet Drive. 

Personally, this story has affected my life very much. These were the first "big books" that I read. They were the gateway to reading and writing for me. J.K. Rowling has inspired me, she taught me that anything is possible and that good always triumphs over evil. She inspired me to start writing. Most of all though, the Harry Potter series is a gateway to making friends. I have a lot of friends that I wouldn't have met had I not read and loved these books. It starts with a recognition that someone else has read and enjoyed the same books, then it kind of goes from there when you realize that they have a lot more in common with you. As a general rule, all of my friends have read the Harry Potter books or have at the very least seen the movies. It's not my "standard" for a friend, I won't hate someone if they haven't, but it's statistically more likely that we will be friends if they have. 

For those select few of you who don't know what the Harry Potter series is about, I will attempt to summarize here.  Harry Potter is the story of a little boy with a scar shaped like a bolt of lightning. He's an orphan living with his aunt and uncle, rather unhappily, until a giant man appears and tells him that he is a wizard and that he has been accepted to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He goes to Hogwarts, meets Ron and Hermione and learns magic. Eventually, he finds out that a man named Lord Voldemort killed his parents along with many others, but that somehow he, Harry, survived when he was only a baby. Over the course of the series, he finds out more about his past and his connection to Voldemort. 

In addition to my tireless desire to go to Hogwarts, the reason I love the books is because of the characters. They're believable and attaching. Who wouldn't want to have dinner at the Weasley house, or meet Dumbledore, or the Marauders? They have so much depth that you get to know them in a way. You know that Hermione exhausts herself with studies before exams, and holds the rights of house elves at heart. You know that no one on the Quidditch team really pays attention to Oliver Wood before a game, but they still do their best to please him. It's little things like that, knowing what a character will say or how he will react. The ability to say "Oh yeah, he would do that, wouldn't he?"and get exasperated with them, as if they were one of your friends. That's really what I love with these books.

So if you haven't read them, go ahead and take the plunge. If not for the story, do it for the experience, the knowledge that you are contributing to an extraordinary and never-before-seen phenomenon. If you've only seen the movies and enjoyed them, I highly recommend the books, because they are funnier and more profound. I know that personally, in the movies, I always wanted to see more of the classes. In the books, you follow Harry around to his classes and to the Great Hall which makes it so much more tangible. 

So there you go, the first installment in the Series Series. Hope you enjoyed my long-winded praise for Harry Potter!

As always, leave comments and suggestions below and have a nice day! 

I would put some kind of the joke or pun here, but to reward you for reading to the end, I'll spare you the agony.

(Also for future reference, I am a Ravenclaw.)