Crosmando: I liked the HP books, but I have to say I didn't like it's treatment of magic much, it just rips out any mystery magic could have had and reduces it the wand being a gun and the spells being bullets (which is why I'm suprised their was never a HP first-person shooter).
I always thought Rowling was going for more of a Star Wars vibe with the magic thing. The books are more geared to the chivalry of it, not the legend/tradition (for lack of better words) of magic lore and yore. Magic to her is just another form of the light saber.
I'm reminded of the fights Wells and Verne had. Wells was interested in the aesthetics of science, leaning more toward the fantasy. It didn't have to be realistic, it just had to look cool. Verne thought you had to back everything up with hard science. He was always critical of Wells for not explaining and backing up how time travel actually worked, what a time machine would actually look like, why and why it wouldn't or not work.
And Bookwyrm, that is the dumbest comparison in the history of dumb comparisons. XD
Equating reading a book to cutting an arm off. XD
I give up! I'm done here!