For These Harry Potter Fans, It's the Books That Matter Most

Longtime Harry Potter fans say the written word still rule. (Salt Lake Tribune, 7/13/2011)

Excerpt: A group of teens and young adults who recently gathered to discuss the Potter phenomenon at Shelley Timothy’s Tooele home agreed that the written word reigns supreme in the Potterverse. "It was over when the book came out," said Dallin Taggart, 15 - not that he plans to skip the movie, mind you.

Timothy was a junior-high teacher when the first novels in the series were published, while she now teaches at Tooele High. She recalls how the books ignited students’ love of reading - years before the first film adaptation, and even before word-of-mouth turned midnight Potter releases into events that rivaled blockbuster movie premieres. "Kids who never read before were suddenly reading," she said.