Inside Colin's Head

I may be a bit behind on this one, but I just heard about this book series. It's called Harry Potter, named for the main character in the story, and apparently it's about magic. Or about a young English gardener, I'm actually not completely sure... I'm making it my quest to figure this out and report back to you all--just in case they turn out to be really good books and you might want to read them, too!

(end satire)

I am a unique specimen. I'm one of the 112 people in the world (literate ones, that is) who haven't read the Harry Potter books. This distinction will now end and I'll have to find some other way to make myself stand out. Maybe I'll shave my head...oh wait.

My wife is a huge Potterhead. As are many of my best friends. As is my brother. And my mom. And my two dogs (only for the movies, though). 

My wife has two (!) official wands as well as versions of the books in languages she will never learn. I decided that I can't let my life go by without making an attempt to be a part of something that she loves so much. And with the final movie coming out in July (we've been to the last two midnight openings), I might just have enough time to read them all and stop being a god damn poser.

To be clear, I've always liked the movies. And I was Harry Potter once when " The Goblet of Fire" came out and I was working at Books-A-Million. So I definitely have some street creds. Historically, I've just had a hard time reading fiction books. I've been more interested in learning about how things work than diving into imaginative worlds. The way my wife's face lights up when she has a good book to read is the same kind of passion I have for building things (usually in the form of coding); and that's kept me from exploring the fictional world.

We of course can't do everything; especially not all at once. But now feels like a good time for me to take on this challenge. And for you readers out there who don't think reading the seven Harry Potter books before July 15th is a big deal: take my word for it, for someone like me who can't even remember the last seven fiction books he has read (that list would probably take me back to school days), it will be a very big deal indeed.