I was happy to let the Harry Potter craze pass me by, and did so for about four years. Just another children's fantasy series, I thought: a good way of getting children, especially boys, to read, but there was nothing in it for me. Then, last year, I found myself staying in a Perth suburb with a cousin and her partner, who were much more besotted with Harry than their children were. The film of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban had hit the cinemas, and my hosts insisted on taking me along, and lent me the first three books so that I could catch up with the story. In holiday mode, with not much to do, I read the first book in little more than a day, skimmed through the next two and went along to the film.

I'm not a hardcore Harry fan by any means. I've read the first and fourth books and have seen the second and third films. The fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is crying for attention on my coffee table, buried under anthropology textbooks and assorted Penguin Classics. I won't even think of buying Number 6 until I've finished reading Number 5. Some of my reluctance in picking up Number 5 is the sleepless nights that Number 4 caused: the first of the fat books, it took me three or four sittings to get through over six hundred pages.

I haven't spent enough time with the books to really say, but I wonder whether Rowling has been increasing the complexity of each progressive book. Compared to my memory of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (or Sorcerer's) Stone, the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire—as well as being much longer—seemed to have longer words and sentences, and a general sense of greater maturity in the writing, as well as the characters. After reading the first book I thought that the writing was very simple—appropriate for eleven-year-old readers—but the ideas and the setting were very promising.

One of the reasons I keep up with the series is that I can recognise myself in some of the characters, especially Harry, Hermione and Neville. I didn't go to a boarding school, but an exclusive private school in Melbourne comes close enough. Like Harry and Hermione, I was noted both for my brains and for coming from a family background that wasn't quite up to the standards of most of the students. Like Neville, I was shy and had a habit of making a fool of myself. Character empathy is a good way of getting people to keep reading. An awkward or nerdy child can find comfort in seeing people like them appearing as heroes in these stories, and even triumphing over the bullies.

So mark me as an admiring, but not driven, fan of the boy wizard. I didn't go to any of this morning's Harry Potter parties. I haven't pre-ordered Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I'll eventually read it, maybe this year, maybe next year. I will probably see the film of the Goblet of Fire when it finally arrives in Australia. But I don't think I'll be grief-stricken when the series comes to an end. There are always other books to read.

Edited: PC
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