Have you seen the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailers yet? Have you? You gotta see them, they’re awesome.

My Twitter feed is full of Star Wars hype. My Facebook timeline looks like a continuous advert for the upcoming movie. I can practically hear the sound of lightsabers on every corner.

And part of me doesn’t care.

I love Star Wars. I really do. I was in High School when the first movie came out. I remember the awesomeness of the title scroll the first time I read “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”. I vividly remember the terror that Darth Vader’s breathing gave me. That first movie stuck with me for a very long time.

I went on my first real date with my wife to The Empire Strikes Back. As she tells the story, I ruined the entire movie with my commentary. My recollection is that I enhanced the movie-going experience by explaining all the underlying themes. I’m sticking with my story because it sounds better!

But for all the importance that Star Wars has had for me and my family, I’m into another series.

I’m Jeff. I’m 53. I’m a Harry Potter fan.

(now you say “Hi Jeff” in unison, ok?)

Actually, I’m not really a fan. I’m a totally immersed Harry Potter nerd. If you don’t get the fandom, haven’t read the books, have only seen the movies, or haven’t seen the movies at all…be prepared. I’m really into this series. By really into, I mean that I’ve read the entire series of seven book at least a dozen times. I’ve not only read them in order from book 1 through book 7. I’ve read them in reverse order (book 7 back to book 1). I’ve read them in reverse chapter order (end of book 7 to start of book 7, then end of book 6…you get the idea). I’ve read them in pairs (book 1+7, 2+6, 3+5, 4). And I’ve read them a couple of other ways that you also don’t care about.

I get it, most people don’t care. And that’s fine with me.

Most of my family doesn’t give a flying broomstick about how devastated I was when I officially become a Ravenclaw after having been a Hufflepuff for years. I decided that the Pottermore sorting test was the gold standard of sorting…and it resorted me. Thankfully I have two daughters who understood my concern over my misplacement for all these years. They patiently talked me through this dark phase of my life. As one put it, “Imagine if you’d been sorted into Slytherin”. Oh Em Gee…I would’ve died.

If you’ve stuck with me thus far in the post, you’re probably asking “why are you telling us this?”.

Well, because it’s important. Quite honestly, the two most impactful series of movies to who I am today are Harry Potter and Star Wars. There’s a lot of press about the new Star Wars movie.  I think it’s great that we’re going to introduce an entire new generation to the movies. But all the hype got me to thinking about the differences between the two franchises. Star Wars is a movie phenomenon. Sure, there are books that have been written in the same universe, with the same characters. Some have even been consider to be officially part of the lore (also known as Canon if you’re nerding out). But Star Wars is about the visual consumption and interpretation of the story. It revolves around watching.

The Harry Potter series lives a dual life, as both books and movies. If you’ve only seen the movies, please read the books. I’m shamelessly begging you. If you haven’t read a book in years, that’s fine…these are easy to read. If you have kids, it’s in everyone’s best interest that you read the books together. Think about the myriad of themes, discuss them, and apply what you learn to real life. No, you won’t be able to use any of the spells to actual effect (you’re a Muggle, it’s just not going to happen), but you can use the ideas of friendship, loyalty, courage, and honor to teach your kids how to be better people.

If you’ve read the books, but they’ve gotten dusty on your shelves, how about another go? Take yourself back to the first time you read them and enjoy the journey anew.

No matter where you live, it seems that society is in for the quick fix. The latest fad rises and falls like the waves of the ocean, and seem to last just as long. We live in a world where we focus on one fad and then race off to another. Sure, we older folks (53…remember?) are a bit slower to jump from bandwagon to bandwagon, but we still do it. Watching my kids, ranging in age from 12 to 25, I see them leaping with reckless abandon to the newest thing like fleas from a dog. And my kids are aware of what they’re doing because we talk about it. We talk about it all the time. We’re observers of society first, and participants second. Yet even with this awareness, they still get caught up in the latest thing.

Right now, in the SciFi/Fantasy/Epic Movie world, one of the latest things is Star Wars. That’s great. It really is. But on a certain level, the movies are just, well, movies. You watch them. When you eventually buy them on BluRay you watch them over and over. But you’re watching. You’re not really interacting. You haven’t immersed yourself in the experience by taking the characters and forming them in your mind. Molding them to what you think they should be. You’re spoon fed a character with voice, movement, and looks. Your internal prejudices, likes, and dislikes immediately shape your interaction with that character because of their superficial characteristics.

On the written page, characters come to life more fully. They have a psyche that you have to explore. You see glimpses of them, but you’re free to shape them in a way that fits who you are when you read the book. There’s no force-feeding. There’s no coddling. You have to do the heavy lifting of creating the character from the clues the author gives you.

That’s why, in my humble opinion, books are superior to movies. You have to work to get something out of them. But that work pay off in so many ways. You learn about deductive reasoning. You learn to follow clues to piece together a puzzle. The entire world of a book becomes your playground. And despite the fact that your working, you’re also having fun. You’re playing. And your mind is expanding by what you read.

So as I’m making plans to go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens with all the giddy anticipation of a kindergartener getting ready for her first day of school…I’m making other plans. I’m planning to read the entire Harry Potter series with Hectic 12 this summer. I’m hoping that we can interleave independent reading with co-reading. We’d like to get Hectic Grandson to sit in on some of our out-loud reading sessions, thus introducing him to the Harry Potter universe. We’ll have to see on that second count because frankly, I’m more worried that Hectic 12 hasn’t read the books.

Yes, I said “worried”, because I am. She’s a huge fan of the movies, but she hasn’t read the books. In my mind, that means that she’s missed out on the true intricacies of the Harry Potter story. And that, to me, points to failure as a parent…