What the fuck is a Deathly Hallow, anyway? July 17, 2007 ~ 4:18 pm
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz, Reviews , trackbackI am alternately eagerly anticipating and dreading this Friday. If you’ve been living under a rock, Friday at midnight is when the final Harry Potter book comes out. As the Oldest pointed out to me after we saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last week, “We should really appreciate these last few days because they’re the last ones we have where we don’t know what happens.” She’s right, of course. She has grown up with Harry Potter, literally. The first book came out in the US in 1998, when she was six. I’m not sure when she started reading the series (or having it read to her), but Harry has been a massive part of her life.
I found Harry Potter by accident during grad school. I was trying to juggle a heavy course load and a job, and was longing for the days when I had free time to read something other than dramatic criticism and theatre history. One night while I was up procrastinating work on a paper, I saw a book that my roommate had left out on the dining room table: Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone. I picked it up and devoured it during the course of the next three nights before moving onto the next one, which my roomate also had. After that, I pre-ordered the new books on-line and spent the next however many hours it took reading them through to the finish, the last two within 24 hours so that I could hand them off to the Oldest (her summer schedule is always up in the air and we never know where she will be to pre-order them). This series of books makes me happy in a way that no other series ever has, and any children who come into my life will grow up knowing Harry the way I wish I could have as a child.
Saturday will mark the first time that I will not be home when the book is delivered, since I will be in the park for Samang’s blessing/naming ceremony. Bet your ass that when I get home, though, that book will be superglued to my hand until I have read the very last word. I’m predicting that will happen late Sunday afternoon, even if I have to stay up all night to do so. This is my last chance to race unknowingly towards the conclusion of a Harry Potter book, after all. There will be time enough to read slowly the second time through. The first read is always a full-out sprint. See you all at the finish line.
Comments
Harry Potter is like your Batman.
I resisted Harry Potter for the longest time, being sort of snobbish about it.
Until I watched Sorcerer’s Stone on TV. Then I was hooked. The movie was so cool I had to read the book. And that was it. I believe the first 5 books were already out by that time (told I resisted a while) and I read all 5 within about 4 or 5 weeks. I’m looking forward to the new book but won’t do an all nighter to read the whole thing in one sitting. I’m far too old.
So don’t spoil it for me!
I watched the first movie. It was pretty cool with the quiddich and magic and whatnot. I’m still not hooked. But am damn impressed that J.K. came up with something so lucrative and meaningful.
I hope it ends well!
I love this post! And it reminds me of how weird it is that my 12 year old has never cared for, nor has ever been coerced into, the Potter phenom. He could care less about the movies, and I MAKE him go! I made him read the first book thinking, “Hey, once he reads it, there’s NO way he won’t LOVE it.”
Sadly, we cannot control what our children think, DAMMIT!
And Seth, the movies are for AFTER you’ve read a book. It’s a MILLION times better in print!(and I like the movies) ESPECIALLY the earlier books.
PS is breaking our standing Friday night date for the first time ever due to Harry Potter. He is picking up his book Friday night, then seeing the movie Saturday with his daughter, THEN picking me up.
I’m debating making him sit thru it again Sunday when he wants to take me to the movies or making him take me to Live Free or Die Hard.
Retro~Not quite. I would say that Doctor Who is probably my Batman. But Harry is very important to me.
Vince~I won’t. If I do talk about it after I’ve read it, I will put it behind a cut. I hate spoilers.
Seth~Read the books, that will hook you. The movies are just the cherries on top. Nice and all, but still not as good as the ice cream sundae.
Foundme~The Youngest is like that. She likes the movies okay, but has never been into the books, while her sister and I are obsessed with them. I’m hoping the the hype for Book 7 will finally bring her over.
Pand0ra~Go see OotP!! Do iiiiit!