I remember the first time I heard the name "Potter." I was living in Lesotho, a small country in the middle of South Africa that most of my friends had always thought was a lake. (It's not.) I was reading a comic in some American news magazine about the then-upcoming presidential elections and one character was saying to another. "How about this Potter fellow?" Potter, I remember thinking. I don't think I know him. I took from the tone of the cartoon (and the field of candidates at the time) that the author was simply saying he didn't like the current candidates, but I had no idea he was proposing a boy wizard...as popular as Harry Potter got and as quickly as he got there, he hadn't made it to the middle of my plateaued country at that time.

Fast-forward to today, long after I've read each and every brilliant Potter story, long after I've sat entranced through every minute of all the movies, to my recent Christmas present from my parents I received with no less excitement than my first bike, a shiny red one that waited for me at the bottom of the stairs one glorious Christmas morning. I now own (and have already shipped across the country, lugged up a flight of stairs, and stuffed into an already too-small condo) the complete Harry Potter. I've already opened the first book (and read it and closed it again). The second one will come soon...my husband was a little worried he wouldn't see me until all seven had been thoroughly devoured. It's an obsession I feel good about: it's one my kids can mimic to their hearts content.

I know the future is here and that it doesn't involve hardcover books, at least not in the mainstream. And I know that the people in the beach chairs next to me can fit thousands of books on their slim electronic devices. And I have nothing against that. But on my latest vacation, my oversized suitcase had two giant hardcover books (Ann Patchett's State of Wonder and Chad Harbach's Art of Fielding). Both of them were absolutely gorgeous, exquisite, fantastic novels. I lugged them around in my beach bag and I enjoyed every pound of paper I leafed through. I gained arm muscles holding the epic stories in the air over my lounge chair, changing the angle of my arms to match the sun.

And now I hold my new Potter books. I love the brilliant covers. I love the weight in my hands. I imagine the world will move one. I imagine hardcover books will be a collectible item one day. But that's okay. I'm already collecting them.

What about you? Are you for books or e-readers or both? And what about for your kids? Will you be getting them kindles or i-pads? Or sticking to the trees?