When the first Harry Potter books were published I didn’t bother to read them. I saw the films, but they didn’t strike me as especially significant. Yes, they were full of magic and wonder. But I failed to perceive anything of lasting substance. I dismissed Harry Potter as a fad.
Yet as the series progressed, so did the depth of storytelling. By the time that I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I had become a believer.
But I didn’t begin reading the books until Deathly Hallows was released. Why? Because friends kept telling me that the books were superior to the films. That’s not unexpected, as fans of any series would make similar claims. But what struck me as unusual was that these friends had a decidedly different viewing experience of the films than I did.