…literally!
i bought the first book on a whim about six weeks ago because there was so much fuss about the latest edition. *** and for the record, i have only just started the 7th book and i have no idea what happens, so please don’t spoil it for me. no comments on this post will be read until i have finished the book *** i just finished the seventh book, and wow!
anyway, back to the story… i got the first book and decided to skim through it since i had already seen the movie. the movie pretty faithfully follows the book on the major plot points from what i remember, and it took me about two days to read it, so i got the second one having also seen the second movie. well, i thought i’d give myself a slight break between books so that they would line up as individual volumes in my mind. i read the robert jordan “wheel of time” series literally from start to finish through 10 books and they all jumble up in my head for the most part. trying to avoid this with harry potter, i decided to read something else in between potter books.
well, this was working well until i got to book five, “harry potter and the order of the phoenix”. once i started reading that book, i could not put it down for two days straight. i stayed up reading until 2am (or later), had to be up for work around 6:30-7am, and ended up reading myself right into a cold that kept me out of work for two days, and made me miss a co-workers wedding reception. was it worth it? even though i missed work and may not get paid for those two days, and i still feel like shit, and felt like i was going to die of a heart attack during those days, i would say that there is no other way to read these books except obsessively. and i just finished “harry potter and the half blood prince” after three days of reading that one. and now i’m starting on the last book “the deathly hallows” without even waiting for book six to cool off first.
i have been told by friends and friends of friends that these books were very well written, but they were people whose book opinions i didn’t value very highly (no offense to anyone who recommended me these books if you are reading — which you probably aren’t anyway but still). either i didn’t have the same taste in books as they did, or they were more casual readers than i am, and the fact that a bunch of kids also love these books made me think it was written for a lower age group than the one i occupied. and i have to say that the first three books definitely come out as “young adult” material, but after that the series goes very dark and very sinister. they almost read like a murder mystery, except the murders come near the end and you pretty much know who did it because you can “see” it happening! i have spent the last six weeks saying to myself, “wow it’s getting late, one more chapter and then i’ll go to bed” at roughly 1am most nights. “just one more chapter and then i really need to go to sleep”. it sounds very much like i’m a crack addict when i write it out like that. i guess we can all be thankful that there are no “harry potter whores” trying to sleep with their dealers so that they can get the next chapter in the saga….