Has Harry Jumped The Quaffle?

My adventure with "the boy who lived" is a strange one. It started in 1999 just after the release of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. My wife, who had been reading the first two books with my son, had just finished the third, Azkaban. She had been encouraging me to read them and I was equally resistant, insisting that they were kids' books.

So one day after I had just finished the latest Alex Cross novel by James Patterson and I had nothing else to read, I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and I finished it that day. I had discovered Potter crack. The next day I knocked out Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in short order and moved on to Azkaban. I couldn't get enough. J.K. Rowling had me wanting more and more and I couldn't wait for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to come out.

When Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out in July 2000, I read all 734 pages in one sitting. I enjoyed this book immensely and it is probably my favorite Harry Potter book of all six that I have read. Little did I know that it was the beginning of the end for me.

I could hardly wait for the long anticipated screen version of Chamber. When it finally came out, we, as a family waited in line to see what Christopher Columbus, the director was going to do with the screenplay of the novel. I, personally, thought that Chamber was and still is the best of all the Potter films. I was not dissappointed. It was everything that I had hoped it would be. All of the characters from Robbie Coltraine as Hagrid

to especially Richard Harris (may he rest in peace) as Albus Dumbledore were simply perfect.

This was the pinnacle for me. Fonzi was revving up his bike and I didn't even know it.