On Saturday, as the seventh month is close to death, the seventh book in the Harry Potter series will be whisked from shelves. At midnight, muggles around the world will attend B.Y.O.B parties – bring your own brooms. At 12:01 a.m., a roar, a rush and then millions will be reading until the sun comes up.

I will be with them. I am no better than any other muggle.

Should the Harry Potter books be listed amongst the greatest of all time? Yes. Anything that can bring out such a passionate, emotional response from so many readers around the world cannot, and should not, be taken for granted.

In a recent article, Washington Post Senior Editor Ron Charles held up his glass of pinot noir and equated Potter enthusiasts to idiots getting drunk on a box of Franzia.

He stated, “I’d like to think that this is a romantic return to youth, but it looks like a bad case of cultural infantilism.”

I’m sorry, but Harry Potter is not a symptom of illiteracy – it is the cure. Perhaps if other novelists would pay attention to the tone of a Harry Potter book, there would be more readers. What J.K. Rowling has brilliantly done is created a world where everyone can live and be happy – even elitist book reviewers.

The average novelist is a sad bloke. He or she dreams of writing the next great American novel in the style of Steinbeck or Joyce. He or she does too many drugs. He or she sits in a lonely room and writes lonely stories. The great novels we should all supposedly read are melancholy works about potato famines, drug addicts, welfare and wars.

No one wants to read them. Great things can be learned from great novels, but I don’t want to spend hours of my life building up to a crescendo of depression. If I must choose, I’d rather read a simple story about a boy who lived.

I’d rather read about a poor, four-eyed geek who finds out he’s a wizard, has a knack for riding a broom and learns the values of friendship, family and love.

So, every year, I’ve waited eagerly for the next chapter in the saga – every year but this one. A lot can happen in The Deathly Hallows. Will Severus Snape be redeemed? Where will the remaining horcruxes be found? Who is R.A.B.? Will Harry survive?

In one day, we’ll all know the answers.

I’ve read a few articles letting parents know that they should be prepared if, indeed, J.K. Rowling kills off her hero. Some would say that with the level of attachment the readers have to these characters, grief counseling would not be out of the question.

By sundown on Saturday, even if Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley are still alive, I will be mourning a loss. With no more books in this brilliant, simple series, perhaps reading will continue to dwindle and die as it has for so many years.

If other writers can write with the magic of J.K. Rowling, we will not be destined to the same fate.