I see a lot of you saying 'I read the first book..first couple books...for kids...' stuff like that. In all fairness, it's not any more fair to judge the whole series by the first book any more than you should judge the Beatles by "I Want to Hold Your Hand." Some guy told me one time he didn't know what the big fuss over the Beatles was, he thought they were just a bunch of childish boyband nonsense because all he'd really heard were the first few hits. Like the Beatles, Harry becomes much more complicated, interesting, and dark as time goes on. I am a late coming fan, and I too used to wonder what was so great about it, but once I got into it I couldn't stop. The first few books are aimed more at kids, and I do think it's cool the series is aimed at kids who will 'grow up' with Harry and get older as he does. But by now this story is so dark, so twisted, so scary and full of hidden meaning I can't imagine any kid understanding it, and the movies get much worse all the time and are getting harder ratings. The later stuff gets into a lot of the very same stuff that makes Star Wars and LOTR so good, and, though I didn't even believe this myself at one time, you are really missing out on something if you don't try the later stuff. And the ending is going to be awesome. Just a word from somebody who used to think they didn't care. It got me!