I remember the first time I saw the words "Harry Potter". I was reading the USA Today's Life section (way back in 1997) and the cover story was about a book by an unknown author that had some potential to be a breakout hit. Quite an understatement, it turns out. The books have done something that I thought was impossible - it turned a generation of today's youth into readers. Think about that - today's kids have so many entertainment options and such short attention spans, but so many of them eagerly waited in line to read a 700 page book this month. J.K. Rowling should win the Nobel prize for that miraculous feat. But she won't. I guess she'll have to settle for billions of dollars instead. Without giving anything away, I will say that I enjoyed the final book. The series lost a bit of its "magic" over time for me; that sense of wonder from the first book could not be maintained. But I never stopped caring about the characters, and was never bored. They are the kind of books where you can't wait to find out what's going to happen, but you slow down because you don't want it to end. The movies are excellent as well, and unlike the books seem to get better each time. I have no idea how they will translate this latest book into a 2-hour movie, but they better figure it out fast because those kid actors are growing up awfully fast.