I actually started watching the movies before I picked up the books, but before the 5th movie was released, I began to read all of the books and that is when my deep appreciation for Harry Potter was developed.
J.K. Rowling is a literary genius and anyone who argues differently is ignorant to the fact that most of the novels that are in the 'canon' (for those of you don't know, a list made up by a bunch of white European males, concerning what can and should be on reading lists in schools) are journey novels. Starting with The Illiad and Odyssey and even The Bible. They are all novels concerning human morals and what is right what is wrong, the temptations that we all face, the mistakes, etc. No, I'm not comparing The Bible to Harry Potter because I realize that many take The Bible as a non-fictional book. However, the initial structure of the stories are fairly similar. It can also be compared to The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Lord of the Rings series, Agamemnon, and many other journey novels.
J.K. Rowling created a world that we all want to live in. She created a world that is vast in adventures and thoroughly detailed with her personal creations, including language, characters, scenery, and magic.
The movies are not nearly as fantastic as the books, but if you go into the theater with an open mind, they are still quite entertaining and on there own, they are pretty great. I am really happy that they broke up the last book into two separate movies and I almost wish they would have done that with every book starting with the fourth novel.
If you have not read Harry Potter, please don't be holding off just because you think the culture surrounding it is a tad ridiculous or because you feel silly reading stories about magic. These books and movies are made for all ages and even if the first two books are fairly difficult to get through, the writing in the books develops as they go on, as well as the characters, and just about everything else, including action. This is probably my most highly recommended book and I hope that one day all of our children and there children are required to read it, just as they are other novels throughout high school and college.
