I've read some negative reviews the past hour. I don't disagree with what some of them are saying. I even have to agree sometimes. But I still can't give the series less than 5 stars. (They aren't bad anyway, so even if people don't associate the following things with them, I don't see how less than 3.5/4 stars is possible..)Why? Because it's comforting. Harry Potter is a part of me growing up. I've learned how to deal with things while I read the novels. Some streets in my hometown remind me of passages of Harry Potter, because I listened to the audiobook while I walked them. I cried my eyes out everytime someone died, I dealt with Harry's problems and it was so much safer for me, because it was just fiction. Does it make sense? His problems felt real, but at no point did I feel weak or as if I couldn't manage them. Harry Potter might not be a masterpiece of literature, but these books stand for something. There was no big shipping, no Team Harry or Ron or Malfoy. Somehow, the books are pure to me and remind me of times when I felt like that, too. : )And I think in twenty years I will still take the time to listen to Rufus Beck reading them and pronouncing the name 'Severus' wrong.