MAGIC         PORK

I was late to join the whole Harry Potter bandwagon. I didn’t start reading the series until November. Prior to that, I really had no interest in it. In October, there was an article in the Rochester Insider about Harry Potter fans and I didn’t even read it. I just thought “whatever”. But a few people have told me it’s good and my sister offered to let me borrow the books.

After I finished the first book, I thought it was kind of a cute story, but I didn’t see what the big deal was. But the second book got me hooked. I read through the rest of them (there’s been six so far), and also saw the first three movies on DVD and caught the 4th movie at the dollar theater before it managed to stop playing. (I liked the 2nd & 4th movies the best.)

Last Wednesday I was nearing the end of the 6th book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It got to be 1:30 AM and I still had a ways to go so I went to bed. It’s not unusual for me to stay up until 1 AM because I have a pretty flexible work schedule and I like to stay up late, so 1:30 wasn’t outrageous. But after lying there for about 15 minutes and not any closer to sleep, I said hell with it, I might as well go read some more until I’m tired. Well you can guess where that led to. I sat in my chair reading until 4 AM. (Any coworkers reading this: Don’t worry, I was fine at work the next day! In fact I got in earlier than normal. OK, maybe I was a little tired.)

I won’t reveal what happens at the end that book, but let’s just say there’s some not-so-happy stuff. Some of it I was expecting because back in my pre-fan days I had stumbled upon it online. But what I wasn’t expecting was the funk I felt in after I finished the book. Not because of anything sad that happened in the book, although that might have been part of it, but because there’s only one more book in the series! Then that’s it! And I have to wait for her to finish it.

I know it’s pathetic. You don’t need to tell me that. But I seriously had a couple times over the few days after I finished where I’d think I’m going to read some Harry Potter, then I’d look over at my chair and there wasn’t a Harry Potter book sitting next to it and I remembered that there was no more Harry Potter. And a sadness would creep over me. See unlike most fans who are accustomed to waiting for the next book to be released, I read through them all back-to-back so I’ve just become used to there being a Harry Potter book to read.

I tried to fill the void by searching online for any & every tidbit of info I could: FAQ’s, interviews with J.K. Rowling. I stopped at the fan fiction, though. I just couldn’t go that far.

It was on the third day that I started drinking. It was the only thing that would kill the pain. OK, I’m exaggerating now.

Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I won’t turn into that woman from Misery, although I do understand where she’s coming from now. I can still remember the opening line to that book: “Yern umber whunn fayunnn. These sounds, even in the haze.” Well, close enough. I just checked it and the full quote is:

umber whunnnn
yerrrnnn umber whunnnn
fayunnnn
These sounds: even in the haze.

Not bad considering I read it back in high school. But I digress. The point is, I won’t try to chop off Rowling’s foot with an axe in order to get her to write an eighth book. Or something.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 at 8:49 pm and is filed under books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.