I thought I should mention here that, at last, I have sucked it up and read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I’m glad I did, if for no other reason than to enter into the conversation about the series, both with those on this site and with the larger culture of which the series is a part.

I do have to say that the book didn’t provide me with a significantly better experience than the movie version, which I recalled seeing with many of you in Saint Louis during a Thanksgiving weekend. But I did appreciate the book, its humor, its adventure, and even some of its broader thoughts on death and sacrifice and friendship–which was more deeply felt in the book, certainly, than the movie. It is a book and style almost entirely at the level of plot, however, and I know some of you have seemed to suggest that there are additional layers in later books. I hope that is the case–which is to say that I am planning on moving on to book two of the series.

With all the fervor earlier on this site about Harry Potter, I hope some of you can see that my finally picking up the books is a conciliatory kind of act. I truly respect everyone’s taste and critical thought about art and literature, and with almost all of you involved in the Harry Potter books, it was time I gave it a try.