Harry Potter annoys me ...

... and I have zero justification for being annoyed. I've neither read the books, nor have I seen the movies. I'm a curmudgeon who ignorantly and reflexively dismisses the whole Harry Potter phenomenon as a passing and frivolous fad.

Still, far be it from me to bemoan J.K. Rowling's books as too "low-brow," or somehow actually bad for literature and its young (and old) readers. (From where does this idea come that literature must always be good for you, like brussels sprouts, or memorizing the multiplication table? This idea seems to inform a lot of both Harry Potter lovers and haters. Some Harry Potter lovers point to the books' popularity as tricking getting kids to read, thus turning them into super geniuses. Meanwhile, Harry Potter haters think the books are the work of a hack, and measure up poorly to "classic" children's/young adult literature. "The next generation of readers will have low standards, because they'll measure everything against Harry Potter books!" Why can't reading a book simply be a pleasure in itself?)

At any rate, the preceding was just a roundabout way to refer you to an excellent and moving essay by Michael Bérubé entitled Harry Potter and the Power of Narrative. I may just have to pick up the first Harry Potter book after all.