When blackbootz and veen came out I bullied them into coming up with a list of 10-15 books each for my eternal infernal bicycle ride this summer. They came through. And then my library informed me that Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone was available.

I enjoyed bugging the shit out of Harry Potter fans by telling them I'd read the books once all the movies were out - after all, the book is always better than the movie (right?) and that way I could appreciate the movies for what they were and then get still more fulfillment out of the books. And then the last movie was made and I was busy doing something else so I'n'I have been getting my Hogwarts on.

Know what I remember from popular reaction to Harry Potter? Everyone freaking out about all these kids reading and whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy would they read HP when they have no interest in The Scarlet Letter or Castle Ghormengast or Atlas Shrugged or A Collection of Proust Juvenalia or some shit like that and holy fuck, people, it's because it's fucking fun. Know why people like The DaVinci Code? It's fucking fun. I've never read any Danielle Steele books but you know what? I'll bet they're fucking fun. And for most people, fun is enough.

I've got a screenplay that was basically The Martian ten years before The Martian came out. Except it's also a ghost story. And it's angsty as fuck. It is not "fucking fun." I let people convince me to write a novel after starting the Game of Thrones books because they're really good. But they're no fucking fun. I kinda wonder what my craft would have looked like if I'd picked up Sorcerer's Stone in 2001.