Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of JK Rowling’s enchanted world may never again appear the “New Books” section of the store. The movie series will also soon be over, and Daniel Radcliffe will be free to fuck horses until the cows come home. These stories will pass into legend, and they’ll take their rightful place in libraries alongside The Chronicles of Narnia as the must-read fantasy fiction series for young adults. (Well, except that people will probably read all 7 books. How many people have read all of the Narnia books, or can name one other than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?) 75 years from now, I can see “Modern British Mythology” popping up in college coursebooks alongside the Greeks and the Romans, where fresh-faced 19-year-olds can debate the moral implications of a Horcrux, study the history of Neville Longbottom, or learn to construct their very own Pensieve. The movies will be remade, HP cons will continue in perpetuity, Emma Watson will do a Maxim spread and fall off the face of the earth, and Bonnie Wright will grow up to be smokin’. The glitz, the glam, the marketing, the books will all remain firmly a part of our culture for a good long time.

That, however, is not the Potter legacy. The legacy is the books themselves. When is the last time teenagers slept on sidewalks to wait in line for a book? Not an iPhone, not concert tickets, not even a DVD – an honest-to-goodness book that requires imagination and sucks you in to the point where you can’t put it down and makes you want more. Kids are reading, voluntarily — and so are adults! I heard a few days ago that many, many adults never,ever pick up a book after they graduate — but that may be changing. People are reading, and have been reading, these books. Parents are reading them to children too young to handle the books themselves. People are talking about the books – not just the issues in the books, but the actual act of reading.

Whether they find their way from Harry Potter to Artemis Fowl, Shakespeare, or Erma Bombeck, it doesn’t matter. People are reading again. That’s the real legacy.

This lunatic rant is brought to you by caffeine, Pop-Tarts, and 4 hours’ sleep, because yes I was up until 5:00 AM finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, TYVM.