Harry Potter Mania

Ok,

So the last of the Harry Potter books (Deathly Hallows) has finally come out. Everyone is reading it, and some have already read it four times. That is fine, and their legitimate choice.

What is not fine is the crazed cultural phenomenon that has lured readers into easy adventure stories. I have read the first three myself, and they are hard to put down. But, that's just it. To me, reading these books are like the difference between watching a sitcom like Friends, and watching the Band of Brothers Series. Cheap thrills verse substance.

One has entertertainment value for the moment, and basic/common sense life lessons about things like why it's bad to lie....to hurt someone's feelings, etc. The other is based on a book of truely meaningful events that have been verified by the very people who participated in them. Incredible lessons on love, hate, sacrifice, courage, fear, religion, and leadership are just a few of the things that make this second choice timeless.

Will Friends be timeless? I think only with those who grew up with it or who were made to watch it. Will Band of Brothers stand the test of time? Without a doubt. Of course, someone would then shoot back and say, "Hey, you're in the Army, of course you are partial to Band of Brothers". And yes, I am in the Army, but everyone I have ever shown Band of Brothers has remarked about the amazing lessons involved. These are normal men thrown into a fiery crucible of extraordinary events. They go far beyond war to the basic mettle of human nature and how we live with each other.

Bringing this back to Harry Potter, I will be blunt and say I see this as an easy read, aka...a child's book. It's fine for people to enjoy it, but for goodness sake, move on to bigger and better things. I like reading the Sunday Morning comics in the newspaper, but those are not my source of political news. The Colbert Report is funny, but that is no place to get news.

What are these fabled bigger and better things? Anything else. Here are some of my all-time favorites

-The Lord of the Rings BOOKS

-Any CS Lewis book, and yes I love the Chronicles of Narnia he wrote for children. Narnia could take Harry Potter and knock his socks off any day. They are that good.

-Last of the Mohicans

-Alas Babylon

-Black Hawk Down

-Jurassic Park- Entertaining, but for adults.

-Platoon Leader-Real story of a 2nd Lietenant in Vietnam that inspired the movie "Platoon"

-The Kite Runner

-Crime and Punishment

-All the Bertie and Jeeves stories, they are hilarious
-In the Heart of the Sea
-Any classic novel like Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, White Fang, Call of the Wild, Pride and Prejudice, All Quiet on the Western Front, etc...

-Anything history......history is man's best teacher. Those who fail to learn from it are doomed to repeat it.

ANYWAY, so all I'm saying is, read Harry Potter, but use it for kids as a springboard to bigger and better things. I'm not talking Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics or anything, but if you feed your mind junkfood all the time, your mind will get fat. Maybe that's what you want, but I don't.