User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4148393-20110714221611

To me - to everyone, really - Harry Potter is magic. I know what you're thinking, that calling the books magical is borderline cheating, but I don't think there's any other way to describe them. So many kids, just here on this site, are talking about how the Sorcerer's Stone was the first book they ever read. How can that not be magical, to open a child's seemingly limited world to the unlimited dimensions that exist in reading? And we all know J.K. Rowling's story - of the woman who could barely make ends meet to the woman (and this is a big deal - the WOMAN) who is the most successful author of all time. My story isn't that grand, and maybe isn't as poignant as the kindergartner whose first reading experience was in this beautiful world. But I remember, at twenty-two, waiting for the last book. My cousin, one of my favorite people in the entire world (a real Neville Longbottom, if you want to know the truth), was fourteen. Together, we went to WalMart for the midnight release party. I remember sitting there with him, as we watched all of these kids, near sleep but fighting, holding their parents' hands, and we felt a little silly. We were the oldest people there that weren't accompanying their children. But we were there. And we played the games with the kids. And it was one of the best nights. As soon as we bought the books, we raced into the world with which we had grown so familiar, so comfortable - a world where he was able to develop as a reader and a person, and a world where I was able to revisit childhood. That night, and the ensuing 24 hours that it took us to finish the book, are so very precious to me. And while I know I love the books on their own, a part of me will always love them because of my connection to that boy, who is now eighteen and will start college in the Fall. He's all grown up too, but I can visit these books with him, and go to midnight shows with him, and we can live once more in that wonderful, ageless memory.