It's time for a little confession: I have survived eighteen years without ever having read any Harry Potter book or having watched any Harry Potter movie. I remember seeing glimpses of the third or fourth movie in my childhood on a friend's birthday, but that's about everything which connected me with the world of Harry Potter. More recently, a friend of mine forced me to finally watch the movies, not understanding how I could still have had a relatively enjoyable childhood without the presence of Harry Potter in it. So here I am, having read the first book approximately ten years too late, and regretting to never have read it before. 
 The novel actually has a lot of flaws which I could start to criticize right now. But apart from the assumption that it would gain me some enemies, what would be the point of it? This book is magical exactly the way it has been written. Even its flaws made me laugh or at least chuckle, and during every other page of the book, I wanted to be a part of Hogwarts. I always thought of the HP series as being set in a world designed for children, but now I understand how wrong my thinking was. Furthermore, I can't stop comparing it to the Chronicles of Narnia, which are set in another magical world - yet the writing seems so much more childish. Rowling's style addresses children, teens and adults alike, and that's what I admire most about her writing. 
 I'm only 57 days older than the first book of the Harry Potter series as of its publication date, yet it has needed 6746 days before I finally entered the world of Hogwarts along with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and all the other well-known characters connected with the series, and two more days before I finished the first year in Hogwarts. The only possible way for me to make good for avoiding Rowling's book for such a long time is to read all the six following novels. Soon. 
 And to await the arrival of my own Hogwarts letter.