Hey - this Harry Potter thing, it ain't half-bad. Funny story, my niece was staying the weekend at our place a couple of weeks ago. She was reading the Harry Potter series and I was telling her how much I loved those books. At some point I told her to read outloud while I worked (I can't remember the context of what I was doing, but I did build an outdoor poo-palace for my super old dog that weekend. You know, so she wouldn't have to keep going up and down the steps to go to the bathroom. So, I've got the 6' x 8' box of grade 'A' grass (the kind you walk on, not smoke) I've been growing on my back deck for the purpose of her using it as her new outdoor area for pooping and stuff). 
 Anyway, whatever, my niece read outloud to me, and during her reading she kept mentioning names I couldn't place (she was in the 4th book). It was really bugging me that I had to stop and ask her who this person was, or that person, I was so ashamed. 
 Well, I'd been meaning to reread the series again anyway. I hadn't done that since book seven was released. So it's been a few years. 
 Also, while she was here, she wanted to watch the movies at night as we hung out. Guess who was missing the 5th movie from his blu-ray collection? 
 Hint: It was me. 
 I was furious, I tore the house apart looking for it. The dumb thing was gone gone gone. Stupid movie. I noted that the whole HP series was on sale through itunes and so I bought it again (sorta by accident, as I was just showing it to my wife and SHE hit the button by mistake... I didn't set her up on purpose, it just worked out that way). 
 So, great, I've got them all available to stream too. So we watched the movie that way. My wife had never really cared to read them, and never got into the movies either, they watched 4-6 over the weekend, and the missus watched part 7 after our niece left to go back home. She talked about it for a few days... I really enjoyed what little I got to see of the movies myself, again, it had been awhile (long enough for the 5th one to disappear on its own) since I'd seen those too, and while they were watching them I was running around and doing chores around the house anyway. 
 Also, I was building my doggy shitter thing. 
 I decided to go ahead and read this one after I finished my book on Daniel (actually, I've read a few other books in the interim there that I may or may not actually review, since they were rereads and they've already been extensively reviewed by me (another hint: I reread the first couple of Expanse novels... I love them so much). 
 And I was pretty surprised how much I enjoyed this one. I read this exactly one other time (books 3-6 I've read twice each - It's complicated how I've determined what to reread). But, yeah, I read this one, actually, the first time, AFTER I'd read 2-6 in one go. I'd managed to skip the first one for some reason. 
 At the time I read it I was pretty disappointed with it. I didn't feel it had anywhere near the depth or awesomeness of the later novels in the series, but now, after reading it first... it was actually really good. I mean, really really good. 
 So, in case you are one of the half-dozen people out there who don't like Harry Potter but haven't read the books. I recommend you try them. If you are one of the people like me that thought the first in the series was much lamer than the others, you are wrong as I was wrong. Get your crap together.