Pottermania has me in its grip

Hi. My name is Dale and I’m a Harry Potter addict.
I’m 31 years old. I have a college education. I’m married and have two-and-a-half kids. I read several books a month, sometimes ranging from a dozen to topping 20 or so. Reading is my favorite hobby and vocation, and I enjoy it.
But even with all that, I’ve read the Harry Potter series (which now stands at five novels) ... seven times.
Seven times. That’s over 2400 pages times six. That’s over 16,000 pages.
That’s a lot of Quiddich, Hogwarts, Bertie Botts’ Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, house elves, Nimbus 2000 and Firebolt broomsticks, Professors Snape and McGonagall, Headmaster Dumbledore, Hagrid, Hermoine, Ron and my favorite wizard of all, Harry Potter.
I own all five books. I’ve signed up on Amazon.com to let me know the very nanosecond Book Six comes out. I own the two “textbooks” that have been published, “Quiddich Through the Ages” and “Care of Magical Creatures.” (I’ve read the Quiddich one five times.)
I saw the first movie on opening weekend. My wife (a Harry addict in her own right) and I were the only adults in the theater without any children. Our six month-old son was being baby-sat by his Grandma — arrangements for his care on the movie’s opening weekend were made before he was born. The second and third movies were seen on opening weekends too -- this time with babysitters for both our kids again. We own the DVDs. We've seen em' a lot of times.
I fought with my wife over who gets to read Book Four as soon as we bought it. She got first crack — I had to drive home from the store so she was already a chapter or two into it — so I re-read the first three books while she read the fourth.
When Book Five came out, I drove to the store by myself at 5:30 a.m. to get it. I was in line for only a minute and was the first to get it. I sat in the car for 20 minutes and read 3 chapters before taking it home to my wife.
I think Quiddich should be made an Olympic sport as soon as the Department of Magical Games and Sports can work out the details with the International Olympic Committee.
I think hippogriffs, blast-ended skrewts, unicorns and three-headed dogs should be at every local zoo.
I think that we should all have enchanted, flying cars despite what the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office wants.
I think we should all receive the newspaper by Owl Post. That would save on costs.
You might think I’m crazy as a loon. And I might respond with waving my pencil in your direction muttering a Patronus Charm. Am I crazy? Hm...
Of course. I think anything in this charming, magical and brilliant collection of stories that teaches that good always triumphs evil, friendship is all-important and the fact that excitement can be found in a good book — is crazily good.
I think any story that gets American audiences to plunk down $100 million in one week to see the first movie on is a great thing. And continue to do so each movie is even greater.
It’s basically choosing fantasy. Real life can be scarier, more boring and weirder. Harry’s world — and yes, I know it’s all make-believe — is at times a much more fun world to escape into. It certainly stimulates the imagination. And isn’t developing an imagination healthier than reading about war, terrorism, taxes, budget cuts and politics?
I certainly think so. I say we need more Quiddich. We need more Hogwarts. I think we need more stories that get millions of children (and adults) reading 800+ page books for the sheer pleasure of reading. I say we need champions of right, people (both real and imagined in books) that stick up for their friends, no matter what.
So there, you Muggle-loving, Anti-Harry, Right-Wing Conservatives that think that everything Potter is evil, anti-Christian and demonic. Pointing fingers at this bastion of good beating evil and calling the whole schebang a “tool of the devil” is about as ludicrous as saying that Pikachu is the Beast of Revelation in league with the Anti-Christ. (This is a Pokemon reference. For more information, ask a human under 11 years old.)
Harry is cool. Harry is ‘da bomb.’
If you want me, I’ll be finishing off Book Five, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the eighth time. And you can bet your broomstick I’ll be one of the first to buy Book Six.
Maybe this time I’ll let my wife drive home.