While I have been anticipating it for weeks (ok, maybe longer) it worked out that we were in Iowa on the releases. I knew a copy would be waiting in Los Angeles, so I was able to stave off the initial urge to find a copy and stay up all night reading with millions of others. I did stare down a copy in the airport bookstore, but reason won out.
Once I was home I needed to commit to resuming life post-vacation. Days were passing and the book was still in the cardboard mailer covered in messages to muggles. I decided I really should read Book Six again since I was fuzzy on details, and I figured that would stretch out the eventual end of the series. I read Six, and started using Seven as a reward for working on my dissertation (i.e., write some pages, read a chapter). This had been working well. I was getting a Potter fix, the book was lasting more than a couple of days, and I wasn't neglecting my To-Do list entirely.
Then it happened that I hit the point in the story where you can't break away as easily. I had to keep reading. That pretty much sums up what happened to this Saturday. I did take a shower and make a blueberry (with a hint of lemon) pie, but these were tasks intended to keep the end from coming.
Here's the pie -
I feel satisfied with the end, and that was my biggest concern. I didn't want these past ten years (!!) to end in disappointment or too much ambiguity. It wasn't too neat, and to be honest I was as happy at the end as I was in the beginning. Having said that, I am sad that it is over. I don't need, nor want, it to drag on into Harry's mid-life crisis, but I will miss the feeling that came with reading the books. Not since I was a "Young Adult" have I found myself so caught up in reading something. When I was younger it was easier to get involved in stories, whereas lately I find myself reading just to turn off other parts of my brain; the books less memorable, or weighty with no sense of reprieve at the end. Harry Potter has been a good companion. I didn't start reading the books until I moved to Iowa. The books let me escape grad school and a new city. Later, Orion and I listened to one on tape driving West the first time. I remember Harry's adventures as we drove through Wyoming at sunset. I'm not sure what to say now that the series is over, I just felt like thinking about it a little longer before the book finds its place on the shelf with the others.
3 comments:
Sarah...I did the same thing! I couldn't put it on my shelf for a couple of weeks. I had to let it sit around. I had to re-read the last half, then other parts here and there. Occasionally I just had to look at it. Now it is finally on my shelf. It's a happy kind of sad.
dang, i'm going to have to read these books. i've seen all the movies, but maybe the books will still over a sense of wonder...
ooh, ooh--and your pies turn out just like mine! i can never figure out how to keep the inside stuff from leaking out the sides onto the top crust. but they are delicious nonetheless (and blueberry is my fave!)
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