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It was ten years ago when I first saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone sitting on the shelf at Borders.

I distinctly remember the front cover illustration, how colorful it looked from afar and thinking how geeky the boy on the cover looked with his round glasses and oddly-shaped scar. Yet, because it was a children’s book I figured it wasn’t worth my time.

The Chosen One

I would’ve never guessed that not only would I read (and digest) every book in the series and watch every movie to date I would finally say goodbye to such a rich and imaginative world and a character that, next to Mickey Mouse, is so well known around the world.

The road to understanding Harry Potter wasn’t so smooth for me. It took some convincing on the part of my best friend’s father, who in his late 40s figured out something that I could not; that children’s books are written for children but also meant to be enjoyed by adults.

Adult fiction can be stressful and complicated, taking itself too seriously at times which is not to say children’s literature doesn’t stray from complicated plots, it’s just written in a manner that even at its most basic level a child could understand.

If you think for a moment of the best children’s stories turned to movie adaptations, sprinkled in there will be films that probably rate high on your all-time favorite list.

A few that come to my mind are:

• The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
• Bambi by Felix Salten
• Jumaji by Chris Van Allsburg

There are several others that have had such a profound impact on all of our lives and to think they all began as stories intended for children.

Moral Alignment

As for Harry Potter, after having read the first book, I had a cultivated initiative to finish the series to the end. It was my goal and since I’ve reached it there are thoughts that have stayed with me throughout the course of the story.

Many of which deal with the fact that Harry doesn’t fit the mold for a hero. He isn’t bulky, doesn’t have strength beyond his wand and depends on the aide of others.

However, he is the epitome of hope and strength to the wizarding world, which shares parallels with groups that in a historical context have been suppressed in every culture under the sun. While Harry never truly recognizes his importance, he remains humble and loving and these are traits that ultimately keep him on the straight and narrow, resilient to the evil that is always at bay.

This struggle between good and evil, right and wrong, decisions based on the protagonist’s moral standing are common threads shared by good literature. Literature that pulls you in, makes you feel sorrow and empathy and lays the groundwork for the ultimate showdown.

A World That Seems Real

While I consider myself a healthy reader there’s never been a series that has captivated me as much as the Harry Potter story has. I’m a lover of fantasy and while the Lord of the Rings books are grandiose, they can be difficult to read because the language itself (explored in depth by Tolkien) is a character unto itself.

The enjoyment of reading Harry Potter stems from the fact that Rowling doesn’t take herself too seriously and instead has fun with her material. I believe that beyond her shy persona is a woman who is witty and constantly imagining things as evidenced in the books. She managed to make reading interesting again for children and that alone deserves attention.

There’s a lot to like about Harry Potter and for that he’ll remain as real as other characters in fiction have become.

Either people are anxious to see fresh content or I’m just reading into it, either way, I’ve been passed a book baton by Greg, Phu and Khaled.

Number of Books on Shelf

Oh wow. Truthfully, there are about 100 books on the small bookshelf in our living room and scattered throughout our apartment I’d estimate that I’ve collected over 3-400 books that run the gamut as far as different subject matter. The plan is that when we finally take the plunge and purchase a house to store our material items, that we’ll set up more bookshelf space to properly (for once) store these books.

Last Book Purchased

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. While I didn’t go to one of those overnight parties, I did purchase it from Amazon.com and received it the same day it was released, which was a commendable feat in itself on Amazon’s part.

Book Reading Right Now

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Unlike Greg, who finished the latest Potter book in a few days, I’m about halfway through. I’d say this book is much more historically-driven than the previous novels.

Last 5 Books Read

I typically read about 5 or 6 books at a time, meaning that a lot of the content kind of mashes together into what I can only describe as a vividly stitched and interwoven storyline.

• The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood
• The Notebook by Nicolas Sparks

Books That Mean A Lot To Me

As Greg stated, this is a bit difficult since there are a slew of fantastic books that have in some way or another effected me on an emotional level.

• Boy’s Life by by Robert McCammon
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
• Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Pass it Along

Instead of choosing a select few to pass this along to, I’ll just suggest that anyone that’s interested, feel free to steal this book meme and make it your own.

My wife and I were watching the making of Disney’s Oliver and Company on DVD. Unlike today’s extensively (and sometimes exhaustively) researched “making-of” featurettes, you could tell this one was used moreso as a marketing tool. Halfway through the feature, the announcer mentions that Disney used “state of the art” computer technology as an aide to traditional 2-D animation.

The next scene shows an interview with Roy E. Disney who seems excited about the adaptation of computer technology and suggests that it’ll be a useful tool for future Disney films. Now here’s the kicker — towards the end of the computer animation bit the announcer reminds the viewers that while computer animation is a fantastic tool to aide in 2-D animation, fear not, for it will never replace traditional animation.

15 years later we’ve seen the immediate closure of Disney’s Florida Animation Studio in 2004 which “put approximately 250 animators, technicians and other personnel out of work.” — a move that many say ended the era of traditional animation and the rumor that Disney will redo many of their classic films using CGI (or Computer Generated Imagery).

Like many I’ve been extremely impressed with Pixar’s films, but also feel a bit saddened by the fact that traditional animation is viewed as something abitrary and stone aged. To me there are traditionally animated films that impress me moreso than computer-animated movies. Put it this way, to this day I’m still moved and in awe of many 2-D animated films (like The Jungle Book and Bambi) and mostly because of the fluidity and beauty that resonates via a few pencil strokes.

The secret to Pixar’s success, at least from what I’ve gathered from watching “making-of” featurettes and books, is their ability to dig deep into their subject matter, into the core of their film and its message and then flesh it out with CGI, something that is lacking in other animated films.

Related: The State of Animation Features by Michael Heilemann

Two years ago, after reading Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman, I made an oath to myself that I would kick my old web development habits and take my Jedi training in CSS-based design.

I can remember the exact moment when the proverbial lightbulb appeared above my head because it was around the same time my daughter was born. In a short span of time two pinnacle moments (albeit with seperate meanings) changed my perspective on life; the birth of my daughter and becoming a better web designer.

Changing my Habits

It happened as I was sitting there in the hospital cafeteria, carefully reading Designing with Web Standards while I munched on overcooked scrambled eggs. Combing through the text I felt the need to change my habits, dance to a different drum and work towards bettering my skill in web design. Prior to this, I only used Dreamweaver’s WYSIWYG editor because I couldn’t get a grasp of the meaning of HTML code. To me, if Dreamweaver handled the code, there was no reason to muck around and potentially cause damage to the code. It’s amazing how wrong I was.

The most important step towards becoming a good web designer is first learning how various tags work in your code. Otherwise there’s no reason to even take that plunge let alone consider it as a viable career option. I’ve seen several good designers feel the need to rely on WYSIWYG editors rather than understand how HTML (or XHTML) functions. I know because I was one of them at one point but after investing in a library of web development books I’ve scrambled out of the hole I had dug myself into.

CSS is a Tricky Beast

After re-learning how to code properly I hit the books as far as educating myself about Cascading Style Sheets. I had used CSS previously, in a limited fashion, to style text. I remember thinking it was a huge deal to change the color of a word or sentence using inline CSS but at that point I really didn’t see the value in using it for layout, neither did I realize that it could be used to control an entire layout. Cut to a few years later and I’m surprised I didn’t catch on earlier but just as well since earlier browser versions had limited CSS support.

While CSS is an amazing tool it’s also a tricky beast and that’s due to Internet Explorer’s poor CSS support. I know many designers who’ve given up supporting IE all together and while that’s a personal and comendable choice on different levels I feel the need to continue supporting IE because it’s still used by a majority of the Internet audience and mostly because it comes pre-installed on most PC systems.

Also, as Molly and I have discussed, designers that have transitioned from print to CSS-based layout have difficulties mainly because of their inability to make their layouts pixel perfect. Speaking from experience, I come from a print background and quite honestly using CSS came quite naturally for me and a lot of this had to do with my attitude towards it. Let’s face it, the web and print world are on opposite sides of the spectrum of design. One can easily fire up a copy of Adobe InDesign, choose a two or three column template and using the Shift + Arrow key method align certain components to the pixel. CSS, on the other hand, isn’t as easy to manipulate and mainly that’s due to browser support and certain limitations with the technology. Instead of creating a pixel perfect layout you have to be in the mindset that you’ll get close to aligning certain aspects the way you want them to, but certaintly not perfectly.

The Road Ahead

Even though I have a good working knowledge of CSS and apply that knowledge on a daily basis I’ve decided to make a personal goal; to refresh my experience with CSS and web development in general by hitting the books and relearning everything from the ground up. To do this I’ve added a few notable books to my library and to date my library of web development and CSS books is comprised of the following:

• PHP/MySQL: Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL by Kevin Yank
• Designing CSS Web Pages by Christopher Schmitt
• Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
• CSS: Seperating Content from Presentation by Briggs, Champeon, Costello and Patterson
• CSS: The Designer’s Edge by Molly E. Holzschlag
• Web Standards Solutions by Dan Cederholm
• Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman
• Eric Meyer on CSS (and More Eric Meyer on CSS) by Eric Meyer
• The Zen of CSS Design by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag

Wish me luck.