I recently started reading the "Harry Potter" series. I’m 19 and can remember the original last book coming out while I was in elementary school (there was a big overnight lock-in at the library and everything). By most people’s definition, I’m far behind the times and the rest of my generation and need to step my game up if I want to keep up. The way my generation is going, one may need to have read or watched (perhaps both) the "Harry Potter" series several times to even be considered for employment when I start looking for an actual adult job (that will probably have nothing to do with the degree I’m working myself to death to receive -- go theatre majors). Which wouldn’t be a bad thing; there are some wonderful life lessons to be learned from the books and movies, and (so far) they’re all wonderful and entertaining.

I also picked up a copy of the "Chronicles of Narnia" series (at the request of my roommate and my mounting curiosity). But when I say I picked up a copy, I don’t mean that I grabbed a paperback of "The Magician's Nephew" or "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" (even though there were some very nice and cheap collector's editions that were calling my name). Instead, I grabbed a single, large, fairly thick book that has all seven books of the series in its pages. It was $25 plus tax and is probably frivolous, considering I haven’t read any of the books before. But I have been in love with the movies since I watched the second in theaters (I was young when the first came out and it scared me) and have been itching to read them for a long time. And besides, it’s a wonderful Christian story that could, perhaps, be the same as I theorize "Harry Potter" will be. (“You haven’t read The Magician’s Nephew? I’m afraid we just can’t.”)

I felt odd today, sitting on the floor of my Books-A-Million in the kids literature section. A couple of little girls, their older sister and father were looking at books around me, grabbing at one and their father saying he almost read it in class when he was younger. One book he looked at and talked about very nostalgically. I’m not sure that they ended up buying whatever book it was that they were looking at, but the father did look it over for quite some time with his youngest daughter. They spent an hour looking at kids literature, even after the mother came by and told them to pick a book and that they were leaving in five minutes. I was halfway down the aisle from the whole family and could actually feel how happy the father was to be sharing the classic and new books with all of his children. I could tell that he raised them to love books and treat them with as much respect as other children would technology. I felt odd because young couples with no children were looking at me oddly, but parents were, indeed, passing by while I sat on the floor and looked at the "Narnia" books and decided whether I wanted to buy the hulking giant with all the books or separate collector's edition books that would have cost more altogether. The moment that made me feel the best was the cashier -- not much older than I -- telling me that she had just finished reading the "Chronicles of Narnia" over again and that her copy of the books were all worn down because of years of usage.

But I’ve digressed and droned on. The point is that I’m getting to relive my childhood. And it’s so much better this time around. Sure, I’m not sitting inside my closet pretending I have a wand and saying “trificuss totalus” again, but I get to go to Hogwarts. I lived under the staircase with Harry, went to Diagon Alley with him, flew on a broomstick during his Quidditch match, and got to see his parents for the first time with him (though I had seen Lily and James in the movies, it's different this time). I even got so into it, I went to Pottermore.com and was sorted into a house (Slytherin AF, y’all) and got matched to a wand (12-and-a-half-inch cedar with a unicorn hair core). My Pinterest tattoo board is full of "Harry Potter"/Slytherin tattoos and I know I really kind of want an owl -- which is a little weird because I couldn’t and shouldn’t have one. I watched one of the movies because I was reading the book and got to remind myself that Hermoine and Harry should have ended up together, I really don’t like Ginny at all, and that Draco might be a fragile pumpkin but he’s also a narcissistic, rude, piece-of-trash fragile pumpkin. I watched the Triwizard tournament for the millionth time ("Goblet of Fire" was my favorite "Harry Potter" movie) and felt like I was living it all over again.

I don't care if people look at me funny when I read my scholastic "Harry Potter" books. I don't care if people think it's odd that I'm just now fangirling over things and making connections between points in the movie (LIKE DRACO AND SIRIUS BLACK ARE ACTUALLY RELATED, WTF IS GOING ON). Reading books has always been fun, but reading the books my childhood was based on is so much more than fun -- it's indescribable.