I'm over a decade behind but I finally made it!

I have just now (well, in the last three days) finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

It wasn't for lack of trying. My friend, a huge HP fan, gifted me a hardcover copy of the book when I graduated from college. Now, I admit that I still would have been about a decade behind the original publishing date of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, but still it sat.

And after reading it, of course, I'm sad that it sat unread or rather barely read for two and a half years. I had started it a couple of times, but my brain got sidetracked by a book that seemed more adult, mature...like something I really should have been reading as opposed to the children's book I was reading. But what I found when I read it is that it's really a novel for any age and that being a little bit older only meant I could get through it a little bit faster than any of my 8-year-old counterparts.

I had so much fun reading this book, maybe because it is a children's book, but it was so darn enjoyable that I'm pretty excited about getting the second book...and then the third...and the fourth, etc. I realized while reading it that my novels don't have to be as intense or grown-up as I thought they needed to be and I can still get all the elements that I wanted: good characterization, well-defined plot points, suspense, well-written relationships/friendships between characters.

Besides, being an adult is so overrated.

And in this vein, I wanted to start a Harry Potter Christmas List, but then I realized that after reading Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (which is what I'm currently reading) that I would want to add more than just Harry Potter related things so here's the modified version:

Fantasy-based Children's Literature Christmas List
Invisibility Cloak - enough said.
Owl and and Owlery to put said owl in - this also means Mogge and friends that you should expect your e-mail via owls now.
Quills - This is what you send your messages on with the owls, right?
Portrait - Of course this means that I would like a portrait where the person in it moves around. Next Christmas I'll ask for another one so that (s)he may have a friend to go visit.