With the latest technology available to the youth of today, from Xbox, to all the latest apps on the iPhone, to the millions and millions of pages of the Internet to surf, I have always been interested in how the Harry Potter series cut through all that, and got billions of young people to read.

What is so magical about it?

Why is it so popular?

And how I am going to possibly read all 7 books, totalling 3,500 pages (see my stack of books and the first five movies on DVD to the right), when my books tend to be short, sharp 300 page things?

It didn’t take long to answer these questions, and by the end of the first book, I was hooked.

The benefit of starting late was that I didn’t have to wait for the next book to come out – it was there waiting for me. So as soon as one book was done, I was immediately on to the next one. They are very addictive.

The characters are all classic (my favourites are Dobby, Hagrid and Lupin), the stories have many up and downs, when I finally finished the last book, the Deathly Hallows, I was left with a feeling of closure that was definitely worth the time and effort invested.

I have also now seen the first five movies, which I must say are great, but not a lick on the greatness of the books. With the last movie split into two parts, and the second part not coming out until July 2011, I now have a long time to wait to finish this goal off.

Until then, I will work on my Patronus Charm – just in case