Why I haven't read Harry Potter yet.

First of all, let me say that I'm very glad the Harry Potter series exists. Kids should be reading. They are more likely to read books that are written to appeal to them instead of books written by and for dead white guys. There is nothing wrong with the classics, but your kids just aren't ready for Shakespeare, Orwell, or even Steinbeck. They just aren't. Kids who grow up reading for fun become lifelong readers. Kids who read because they have to grow up to watch reality television as soon as they move out of the house. You need a LOT of sugar for the medicine to go down, is what I'm getting at.

So the Harry Potter series is largely aimed at children. The first book came out in 1997, the very year that I stopped being a child. That year, I was reading military fiction like Tom Clancy and Cosmos by Carl Sagan. I still don't have time to read all the books that I want to read, let alone the books that everyone else reads.

Now, some day I might have kids. They might want to watch or read Harry Potter, and they might want me to read or watch it with them. And I might weep many tears for what I have missed out on all that time. But kids like to watch stuff again. And again. And AGAIN!

So in the mean time, I will enjoy books meant for mommies and daddies who love each other. As far as I know, Harry Potter doesn't receive a blowjob from a blue-skinned chick. As far as I know, Snape doesn't eject entire families into space for celebrating the wrong holiday. As far as I know, Voldemort doesn't develop a weapon that melts a planet's entire crust and makes it as smooth as a giant cueball. 

As I understand it, the Harry Potter series does contain World War II allegory. So there might be some overlapping appeal between JK Rowling's series and my novel.