I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Tuesday and I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m just about ready to read all 750+ pages again, just to re-absorb and re-experience it in all its glory.

One thing that’s caused me to do is to devour all the information that I managed to avoid prior to reading the book – all the reviews and spoilers and such that have been splashed all over the news and internets. Today, I found an absolutely wonderful overview of J.K. Rowling’s accomplishment written for Entertainment Weekly by the king of the horror novel, Stephen King. NOTE: If you have not yet read the book, you’ll want to avoid the article…there are MANY spoilers.

But one thing that King does better than anyone I’ve seen so far is really get to the heart of what an accomplishment this series has been for Rowling. It may not get the literary appreciation and it might not ever be taught in schools, but the sheer scope of the world of magic she created and the way that her characters and their story grew as the years at Hogwarts passed was nothing short of magnificent.

I applaud Rowling for creating this amazing body of work that is appreciated by children and adults alike (although from about Book 5 on, the subject matter could be considered more adult in nature). My hope is that she will continue to write and create because she is more than just the writer who brought the world Harry Potter; she is extremely talented and can communicate to a wide range of age groups with ease, something that should be valued in a world where children and adults very often have trouble finding common ground in communication.

And for those of you who, like myself, felt like they were “too old” or “too educated” or whatever to appreciate Harry Potter and the wizarding world… I implore you to reconsider. What you’ll find in the books is a series that can be read and re-read, passed along to others, and enjoyed for many years to come. Plus, you’ll have 7 rather large books to add to your personal library and everyone knows that having a lot of books is cool.