All right, true confession time—I love Harry Potter. I resisted reading the books for years despite constant and frequent recommendations from my students because I saw nothing interesting about a boy wizard having boy adventures in a boy’s world.
Boy, was I wrong!
I finally broke down after The Goblet of Fire came out and read the first four books in one feverish, magical weekend (my students aptly pointed out that, if I expected them to read books that I suggested, it was only fair that I give their recommendations a try). For the final three books of the series, I was one of the freaks in costume at Barnes and Noble waiting for the clock to strike midnight.
I went through a similar moral struggle when the movies came out—I have a tendency to dislike movie adaptations of books as …
