I Did It . . . And I Liked It

I couldn't wait. I said I was going to. I said I didn't want to know. But the temptation was just too much and this morning, I caved.

I went online and got a preview of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I know, I know. I was so adamant about not reading anything regarding the book. I stayed away when I heard a couple of days ago that apparently someone had gotten a hold of the book and published photographs of every page on the web. Nope. I didn't want anything to do with it. I would be patient and wait for my copy to arrive early next week.

So much for that.

After hearing about the New York Times book review and the flack they were getting for publishing it before the book was released, I got a little curious. This came after I had reread Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as a primer for the final installment and then went to see the Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix movie Wednesday night. (The movie was amazing btw. There's one scene where Harry and a few other witches and wizards are flying through the night time skies of London on broomsticks - It was simply magical.)

I even thought about canceling my Amazon.com order and picking up the book today so that I could start it sooner, but by the time that idea occurred to me my order was already "being prepared for shipment" and therefore un-cancellable.

So I first gave in by reading the NYT book review which I must say doesn't really give anything away. All these people are up in arms that about it, but it didn't really say anything that we readers didn't expect. There are no big secrets revealed, no spoilers in my opinion. I understand the publisher and the author being upset by the fact that the reviewer was able to walk into a New York City bookstore on Wednesday and pick the book up . . . But then again I'm never all that disappointed when the big almighty marketing machine gets a wrench thrown into it.

The book review, however, did whet my appetite further and I found myself googling "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Sure enough, Wikipedia had an entry about it and gave a synopsis of the book with a few spoilers included. I didn't have to read it. And who knows, it might not even be accurate, but what I did read seemed pretty likely and confirmed some of my own feelings about how the story would wind up.

Now I'm no crazed Harry Potter fan. I didn't have any urge to dress up and go to one of these Midnight Madness events at my local bookstore (I'll leave that to the kids), but I am excited about reading the book and even after I gave myself a sneak peek, I'm still excited.

So if you don't hear from me for a few days starting Monday or Tuesday, have no fear I will be fully immersed in the magical world of Harry Potter. It's a wonderful story - one I never thought I would be the least bit interested in - and I'm a little sad to see that it will finally be over. Thank you, J.K. Rowling for creating such a wonderful reading experience for young and old. It has been a pleasure.

UPDATE, 2:01 p.m. - The mailman just delivered my book! I thought I would have to wait until next week and now I don't so I kind of feel bad that I couldn't wait to find out the end because now I will certainly devour this thing and stay up all too late reading . . . Gotta go!!

P.S. I wrote an entry this morning over at my website for my online writing journal that I'm sort of proud of and would like to invite you to read. I've been trying to give myself (and whoever else is reading) a weekly prompt to ponder and then posting my response to it. I liked this one, so if you'd like to read it I promise a warm, fuzzy feeling :)