In less than fifty hours, an era will draw to a close with the release of the final book in the Harry Potter series. So far it’s been heralded by supposed electronic copies available via torrents and spoilers, complete with page numbers on the Wikipedia entry (Jana tells me that it’s taken down now, but I refuse to provide a link).
Harry Potter has been a big part of the Remy family for the past decade. We’re a family of bibliophiles, and GameBoy essentially began his reading life with Harry Potter. There were weeks in the first grade that he wore a fake scar on his forehead to class until it wore off. He refused to read anything else for a couple of years, and I remember being relieved when he began devouring the Narnia Chronicles and TA Barron’s Young Merlin series. CatGirl eventually caught the same bug, and I was skeptical until I sat on the hallway floor one night, thinking I’d just glance at the first few pages of the Sorcerer’s Stone, and ended up reading deep into the witching hours.
This week, both GameBoy and CatGirl have determined to read all six of the books, yet again, in preparation for the release party at our neighborhood children’s bookstore (I’ll be lucky if I can manage the sixth). We’ll be there, as Harry, Hermione, and Snape (you can guess who’s coming as whom). Jana tried to find a pink suit so that she could come as Umbridge. CatGirl’s blonde-haired friend plans to come as Luna Lovegood. It’s silly and fun, but at the same time, we take this reading business very seriously.
Let me know if you all plan to read the Deathly Hallows anytime soon.
10 responses so far ↓
1 Miko // Jul 18, 2007 at 10:08 pm
lalalalalalalala! Don’t tell me anything! I used to borrow the books from my roommate’s grandma…who won’t be buying this book. So I don’t know how I’m going to get a copy of it. NPR said that what happens is not news, so I can safely listen to them. Otherwise, I think I’ll have to live in a while for a while. Awesome costumes!
2 Deborah // Jul 19, 2007 at 5:44 am
My husband and I have two copies coming from Amazon (hope they arrive early in the day!) and have planned a party of it. We are ordering loads of bad-for-us take out, staying to stay in our pjs, and reading all day . . . The menu is planned, and we have some friendly wagers on our favorite pet theories.
3 nee // Jul 19, 2007 at 6:13 am
I pre-ordered from Amazon. It was discounted and they gave a $5 credit on a future purchase. No shipping charges as I was ordering other books so I ended up paying $12 for it. WooHoo!
4 Johnny // Jul 19, 2007 at 6:32 am
My wife and I are going to the B&N party to pick it up Friday night. Harry Potter has been a large part of our lives too, its sad to see it go.
5 catBonny // Jul 19, 2007 at 7:01 am
My friends and I are going to the Borders in Costa Mesa to grab it on Friday night, but I SO want to see the Remy family in their costumes. My twenty something friends somehow became too old to dress up, though I know several that have full Hogwarts school uniforms, which I plan to wear in full spirit of the event. (I am Slytherin because besides Ron, my favorite character in the book is Snape.) Anyway, I am really excited/ sad about the book release and have been discussing many different scenarios with friends over the past few days. I have concluded that as long as Snape does not die, I might be okay…might be. = )
6 Elaine Frei // Jul 19, 2007 at 7:13 am
I’ve only read the first book…and loved it, but was always too busy to get around to the others. As time passed and the new books came out and I never got to them, at some point around the time book four or five came out I just decided that I would wait until all of them are out and then read them straight through. Fortunately my best friend has all of them (or will have, once she gets hold of this new volume) and has promised me that I can borrow.
7 Bored in Vernal // Jul 19, 2007 at 12:08 pm
My husband has had ten copies of the book in his office for the past three days!! (He’s the director of the county library.) He won’t let any of us near it. I think that’s cruel and unusual punishment. We had to order our own, since the library’s copies have been on hold for months. I think I’m going to have to buy a personal copy for myself, since I’m the fourth in line to read our family copy. I don’t know if I’ll be able to wait that long.
8 John White // Jul 20, 2007 at 10:09 am
I couldn’t bring myself to read Goblet of Fire. The bad guys were just too cartoon-ish for my taste. The Ministry did things which were cartoonishly wrong, the Muggle relatives were cartoonishly bad, etc.
Back to George R. R. Martin.
9 Miko // Jul 20, 2007 at 4:08 pm
LOL. It really is a phenom, neh? I guess I didn’t realize it’d been around for that long. I’ve got my own beliefs about how it’ll end, but I suppose I should refrain for people who’ve not read them yet. I like Elaine’s idea to read them all straight through. That’s about what you have to do. Although, I think I need to read a cliff’s notes of #6 to remind myself what happened. Maybe Wikipedia’s got it.
10 Matt Thurston // Jul 24, 2007 at 3:35 pm
I read the first book. It was good, but not really my thing. Maybe if I were into fantasy books or a little younger… (BTW, I didn’t get into the Narnia or Hobbit books either, even as a kid/teen, though I’ve always been a voracious reader.) There are just too many books on my “must read” list (which grows faster than I can read) to make room for another Harry Potter book.
That said, if my kids prove to be fans (my oldest is only just learning to read) I can see myself reading the books so I can share in their world and their experiences.
Let us know what GameBoy and CatGirl thought of the final chapter…
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