last HP fling

Dunno about you, but I spent the weekend in bed with the last Harry Potter book and several pots of tea and toast. It was the best medicine I could think of for my gloom and fatigue, and I think it did me some good, despite the fact that it's the last book in the series, and sad and infuriating things happen in it. It was a satisfying read – the big, juicy tomes do that for me these days – and I think Rowling did everything she could to simultaneously close the series and gratify readers, which are no small tasks for a surprisingly monumental multi-book epic. You may think it's blasphemous, but I think the series will stand up there with Lewis and Tolkein and L'Engle and Le Guin and Bradley and Pullman over time.

I didn't pay much attention to the series until the fourth book was published and the buzz really started building, and the only reason I became interested was because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I had gotten a book club offer in the mail – "four books for four bucks," so that's how I got the first four books: first-edition hardcovers for a buck each. Go figure. I decided that if I didn't like the series, I'd only be out four dollars, and I could donate the books to the library. I was nicely surprised, however, as the books were well worth the fuss. I read the first three books in three days straight; I couldn't put them down, and I hadn't devoured books in that way in awhile. It took me another two days to read the fourth book, by which time I had the "Hogwarts headache" from too much intense reading. The darker tone of the fourth book, not to mention the length, was a little alarming, but it more than held my interest. I love it when I can sink down into a story and not surface until I have to and not even notice that time has passed. The books had a good pace, great characters, clever use of myth and allegory, comic relief when necessary, nothing added without good reason and/or future use, all kinds of things that kids and adults can relate to, not-too-preachy messages about tolerance and compassion, and an author who never seemed let ego get the better of her and continued to write a strong story right to the end, which is perhaps what I admire most about the whole thing.

By this point, I realized that most of my friends and co-workers were reading the series too, as were my mom and my sister, and we were all looking forward to the next book and the first film – all these inner children running rampant and free! And that's how I became an HP fan. I never went in for much of the paraphernalia, though I admit to having a Gryffindor refrigerator magnet and a "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" T-shirt, and after some consideration, I am of the opinion that the sorting hat probably would have put me into Ravenclaw. However, that's as far as I go.

I didn't allow myself any TV, radio, Internet, or newspaper access this weekend until I had finished the latest book. And I have now lost all respect for the various Newspapers-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named and their snotty excuses that they had obtained legal copies of the book before its release and were therefore justified in publishing pre-release reviews, some even with spoilers! They have no sense of the fun of anticipation and seemed to have a mean-spirited bent on ruining it for the public, and that sets such a bad example, especially for the kids. I almost wonder if they did it out of spite for the popularity of the series, and how ironic that these same reviewers grudgingly had to use words like "brilliant," and "breathtaking" and "stunning" – you can hear it in the tone of the reviews. It's as though they were almost hoping the book wouldn't be a very good finale and had to look really hard to find fault with it.


So having spent the weekend cloistered (I love that word) with a huge book and tea and a cat (it would have been nicer to have my dog still around too), I now have another Hogwarts headache, and I must see the new film (hopefully, the theaters won't be so crowded now), rejoin the ranks of the living, and possibly re-read the series again, which is really the only comfort now that the last book in the series has been published. There are more good things to look forward to, though – Gwen's tea party in August, another book or three and two films from Neil Gaiman, the first film from Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy with Daniel Craig (yummy!) playing Lord Asriel (if you haven't read the His Dark Materials series, I'd suggest that as a handy fix for any Potter withdrawal you may be feeling), a new film about Jane Austen, Sweeney Todd from Tim Burton (that ought to be deliciously creepy), the first film in the Spiderwick Chronicles series, and the next film in the Narnia series, and, I'm sure, more good books to read. That'll be enough to keep me entertained through the middle of next year at least.