While I completely understand the desire to avoid that which is overhyped and grotesquely popular (I myself went straight out and bought black headphones to use with my iPod). I will say this in defense of the Potter series: do you know anyone, anywhere who’s read them and didn’t like them?
No, the people I know who have read them love them. But these are also people who tend to be kind of infantile, have myspace pages with faeries all over them, tend toward whatever puerile popular, breathy love song is top 40 right now, and like pretty pony sparkly unicorn stuff.
Well, I only know one person who's read them (actually a friend of my wife) and she really likes them, but I don't think that qualifies as much of a sampling for me. I'm not saying there not good, I'm just saying I'll likely never know that first hand (and I'm perfectly fine with that).