Harry Potter

One of my friends posted a status on Facebook that gave me the overwhelming desire to fire off an acerbic reply. Instead of doing it on his Facebook wall, I'll do it here, safely in silence.

This is what he said: "I must be the only person who has NOT read a HARRY POTTER book, or watched ANY of the movies, and has no desire to."

Several other people agreed with this post, arguing how the movies are terrible, and that the books are just kids books. Here's another direct quote from this conversation: "While most people will say you are missing out on some of the best literature of our time, I say it's a kid's book, and you're not missing out on much." (This from someone who hasn't read any of them).

They are so WRONG!

First of all, I can understand not being able to get into the movies. The first few aren't that great (the good ones being 3,5,6, and 7 pt1. I haven't seen 7 pt2 yet, but I'm hearing that it's the best of the lot). But that's a ridiculous reason not to read the books. Everyone knows that a great book rarely transforms into a great movie. Bad movies are made from a lot of really brilliant books. So if the movie didn't work for you, give the book a chance.

But here's what really gets me. Why would you deliberately turn away from some of the greatest literature of our time because of a preconceived idea about genre? Stupid! That's a ridiculous attitude to have!

And, I'll point out that Harry Potter goes far beyond "kids" literature. I don't doubt that there will be college courses within the next 20 years that study Harry Potter from a serious literary standpoint.

So, in short, Harry Potter is awesome and everybody should read it. The End.