Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Almost There...

Yesterday, as I was peddling away on the bike at the gym, I noticed that the girl on the bike beside me was reading a purple and black book just like the one I held. Apparently I am not the only one on the last stretch of the Harry Potter marathon (or, rather, sprint in my case). Jason is somewhere between Libya and Rome right now, so on Sunday after church I grabbed a huge bowl of cherries and parked on the couch (a delightful new addition to our living room, much preferable to the lone lawn chair) for...10 hours? Wow. I did take a short break to put a desk together, but basically I went from not-quite-halfway-through-OOTP to 2/3-through-HBP. Gorging on Harry Potter is delicious. Telfer and Andrea, I think you were quite right to cheat.

I only have a few chapters left, but, predictably, I am dreading the end of Book 6 again and will not let myself read it late at night in a husband-less house (my imagination is already overly active without worrying that when I look out the darkened window I will find the face of He Who Must Not Be Named staring back at me). Jason comes back tomorrow, though, so I should easily slide into home by 00:01 on the 21st.

Can I just say, I am a bit sad about the coming book. I'm not quite ready to have all my questions answered, and I don't want to know who dies next, and mostly I know that I will read the book all in one sitting (inevitable) and the last time that I experience reading a Harry Potter book for the first time will be over all too soon. Plus, I'm still a bit traumatized by the end of HBP (as Scott said at the time, "Oh, you poor thing, you really didn't see it coming?"), even though I'm on my third reading. Angst. I have a lot of angst.

We are planning to go to the beach on Saturday, post-book-pick-up (mostly I think we are going to the beach just to say we went this summer, as the next, what, six weekends are booked? Oh, and also to get away from our house for a bit. :)). I don't think I'll see much of the water.

5 comments:

Amanda said...

Next time Jason's out of town, can we hang out? Miss you, friend!

Andrea said...

I am just so EMOTIONAL over HP. As a young reader, working my way through the Nancy Drew books (in order), I would always turn to the end of the mystery just to make sure that Nancy made it out safely in the end. I could not handle the drama of it all. And hello, Harry Potter is so much bigger than Nancy Drew and I have so much invested in these characters...it's going to be really hard for me to not turn to the end of the book just to make sure Harry is okay, and if he's not, to deal with it before I get there. How abnormal is this?

Missy Small said...

i so feel your pain. i finished HBP last night and cried. again. i sort of feel like if i don't read it then the bad thing won't happen. i'm afraid i will hate the series forever if harry dies... yikes!

you ARE going to read it this weekend, right? cuz i may need emotional support... :)

Andrea said...

yes, i am going to read this weekend but split it up over Saturday, Sunday and Monday (and yes, i am taking a vacation day on Monday) - i don't want it to be over TOO quickly. We might have to have a phone date! andrea

Missy Small said...

yes please!