Okay, FINE! But I'm not going to any conventions.

Disclaimer: Diana is the artist. Maybe she will someday grace you with the wonderous beauty of her artwork, but for now all you have are my shitty stick people.

So, I did it. Something anyone who knows me would never believe to be true (no, I haven't succumbed to seafood or scaled backward down a skyscraper). And I might be fourteen years or so behind the bandwagon; but nevertheless, I've started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. GASP!

And yes, I've made fun of Harry Potter dorks for as long as they've existed. So shoot me. Someone out there has to admit that from the outset, Potterheads (I'm assuming that is what they call themselves, no?) were an interesting-looking bunch. I remember seeing news footage of adults lined up for the first movie's premiere dressed in all sorts of age-inappropriate things and nerd glasses and broomsticks and other weird whatnots, and that must've been the exact moment where I decided that I was waaay too cool for that nonsense. To be fair however, I'm not really that cool, it's just that my nerd allegiance lies elsewhere. More on that later.

So here I am on page 83. A young Harry and Hagrid are going to buy his first wand. I'll pause here to give fanatics a moment to revisit this magical beginning (I'm guessing they look upon this moment as something equivalent to losing their virginity or falling in love). Are you done now? .

My early, early review is that it's going to be a good read. Duh. Billions of dollars and like twelve movies later, no one needs my review to qualify that. And I should note that as I'm writing this, a visitor stopped by. When I told her what I was writing and that I had just started reading the series, I got an "ohhh my god, you haven't read Harry Potter?!" reaction. Actually, I haven't divulged my dirty little secret to many people yet, mostly in part because that's the response I'm expecting to hear over and over again. But also in part because, as I said earlier, my nerd allegiance lies elsewhere - in the world of vampires and zombies - and I was worried people would begin to think I've gone soft. For years I've been loyal to the likes of Buffy and Bram Stoker and I've put off the wizard and witch phenomenon for fear of betrayal. (Sidenote: I just finished reading Price and Prejudice and Zombies and I loved it. It totally renewed my love for brain-eating corpses. And as soon as I'm done reading the Harry Potter books, I'm going to read Wuthering Bites. Sounds like I'm going to be in need of some good ol' fashioned non-fiction reading when all is said and done!)

ANYWAY, I can't really jump the gun here; after all, I've got like 4092 pages left to read (there are 4175 pages in the series. It's true, I googled it). But there is a blooming possibility that there may be room in my life for vampires and zombies AND wizards to coexist peacefully. Maybe.