The year was 1999.

I was an adolescent who had “grown up” and turned away from the puerile adventures and vernal fantasies found in the books of Enid Blyton (including Secret Seven and Famous Five), Roald Dahl (in particular Big Friendly Giant) and Hardy Boys. I had more serious distractions like puppy love, Napster and Katie Holmes (before she met Tom).

Furthermore, Internet and video games replaced my guilty pleasures in dog-eared paperbacks. In fact, I was never fond of the smell of mouldy carpet in old libraries. Until my colleague at my part-time workplace, Azzura, passed me a Bloomsbury copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (pictured left).

“Just give it a shot,” enthused Azzura. I did, and the rest they say is Muggle history.

For a cynical teen, it was simply magic (pun intended) to rediscover the long-lost childlike wonder where a magical world of wizards, butterbeer and flying broomsticks became real and apparent.

For many fervent days and weeks whenever a new Harry Potter book is released (I remember the long queues outside Borders early morning), every child and adult with an inner child in him or her would revel and partake in the breathtaking adventures shared between Harry, Hermione and Ron, transposed into a familiar and comforting (albeit sometimes dark) world where a new spell is learnt (“Finite Incantatem!”), a secret discovered (Snape loves Lily!) and a loved one lost (Cedric Diggory, Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin and Hedwig, you will be missed).

How wonderful J.K. Rowling’s words have inspired and exhorted occupied adults to put down their BlackBerrys and iPads to read, angsty teenagers to put down their game consoles and controllers to read, and more importantly, hyperactive children to put down their toys to read too.

Since Jo, as fans and friends affectionately called Rowling, started constructing ideas of a young boy wizard on a train ride from Manchester to London, it has been a spellbinding journey for millions of Muggles all over the world. The tiny step off 9 ¾ platform is a symbolic leap of faith by the reader into the unchartered parts of the fertile mind inhabited with wizards, giants, dragons, schoolmasters, Qudditch players and – gasp! – dementors, orchestrated and put together by Jo’s beautiful words.

Words that converted the pariahs, heretics and agnostics of literature (read: writer’s anecdote above) into benevolent readers who love to read and read to love.

Herein lies a potent force by Rowling where words and imagination collide, magic and belief exist, good and evil welter, friendships and love reign. Life’s lessons and values acquired simply by the art of reading.

And it’s heartening to know the generation that grew up reading Harry Potter has matured towards young adulthood and will hopefully continue to pick up a novel instead of a magazine full of pictures with half-witted captions about celebrities fornicating, or Tumblr posts riddled with saturated photos and melancholic quotes, or worse, incomprehensible sentences fondly called tweets.

No amount of Ashton Kutcher’s inane tweets or exclusive “stories” on Miley Cyrus’ wild nights could replace the joy and awe of being in Hogwarts, The Burrow, Hogsmeade or even the cupboard under the stairs. Jo has successfully created a new world by the sleight of her pen (or wand, depending on what you believe Jo to be) built on intricate words and layered with rich imagination of the curious reader.

While previous generations had George Lucas’ Star Wars, J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Superman comics and many other blockbuster franchises in the history of pop culture, Harry Potter belongs to the iSomething generation of today.

As the curtain falls on the last movie – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II (pictured left) which has amassed billions at box offices worldwide – the magic lives on in the fans. From the Wizarding World theme park at Universal Orlando (pictured right) to Pottermore.com, the appetite for Harry Potter is insatiable even as the young readers have grown up thanks to its timeless appeal. Of course, Potter mania has evolved into the sacred cash cow where the fat cats of Hollywood (Warner Bros studio) are ready to milk for what it’s worth at the mercy (or blind allegiance) of consumers. But we digress.

Indeed, Potter belongs to Generation Millennials who favour content packaged holistically in bulk or pretty boxes. As one of the few books that made a successful transition into films (for every Potter or Twilight, there is a Lemony Snicket or Golden Compass that went south), Potter demonstrated its ability to adapt and manifest in different mediums (think video games, board games, Lego sets) with thriving results. The fans want more and never enough, and judging by the trajectory of the Potter universe (next venture: Pottermore), Harry’s gonna stay around a little while longer.

It’s evident what Harry has infused into the consciousness of Muggles all over the world like a spell that will probably last for some time – a form of escapist adventure for weary adults who could relive their childhood time spent reading books under the bedroom light away from the vagaries of a mad, crazy world and a transformative experience for children and teenagers where they grapple and deal with relevant issues and baffling emotions from jealousy, insecurities, sacrifice to self-esteem that parallel the seven most amazing books (and soon in electronic form). Harry made us believe in the magic and might of the written word.

And thank you dearest Azzura. Your Philosopher’s Stone will be passed on to my nieces, nephews and god-daughters.

Ronald Wan is a Muggle and former editor of The UrbanWire.