Cape Not Included

I am not ashamed to admit that I am a huge fan of a Harry Potter series. I have never gone as far as to wait in line to see the movie while carrying a wand and wearing a cape, though I debate whether I could pull off a Potter costume every Halloween. (Maybe it would be less 'weird' if I waited for an acceptable dress up day? )

Typically I avoid any major 'fad' like the plague. I never saw any of the Lord of the Rings movies, I never read the Narnija books and I know very little about Star Wars. ( I did get caught up in the Twlight series, but it was a romantic series. I couldn't help it. All that sweet talk! ) I also tend not to be a fan of Fantasy or Science Fiction books, so when Harry Potter was first released in 1997, I had no initial interest. There was one thing that caught my attention, I was 11 years old, and so was Harry. Before we took off on a family road trip, I picked up the book ( at that time there was only one) and had the whole book finished by day two of our trip. Something about this series had got me hook line and sinker. Now 14 years later we sat in the theater last night and watched the final movie.

Johnny never read any of the books, but has seen the movies and he enjoyed the final film. I didn't just enjoy it though, I relished every moment of it. I laughed, I cried and I celebrated with the main characters. Every year for the last 14 years I have either been reading a new book, or watching a new movie based on the books. After so much time spent with a series, these actors weren't just portraying characters, they were portraying people that I really felt like I had come to know. I didn't realize just how big of a role Harry Potter had played in my teenage life until we sat in the theater last night and the credits rolled. It felt a bit like graduation. Another chapter of life is over, leaving another chapter now out there to discover. What ( if any) series of books or movies captivated your attention for years? Did you see the final Harry Potter movie?