The epic finish
When we got to Barnes & Noble late Friday night we could see the mass of people assembling inside. It was only about 15 minutes to midnight; my friend had gone ahead and picked up our wristband to guarantee our place in line. Closer to midnight the mass of people pressed in closer. I don’t think I’ve ever really seen such a crowd turn out in anticipation of a book. Then again, this is Harry Potter we’re talking about.
Book 7: The Deathly Hallows. The final chapter in the 7-year saga of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. Supposedly all threads wrapped up or at least some major questions will be answered. And above all: Harry must duel with He Who Must Not Be Named.
I got into reading the books a while back, but not really because I was enthralled with them. I had occasionally picked up a volume every now and then while I was at Costco, or stuck waiting in line in Fry’s. I didn’t see the draw. I knew quite a number of people who were serious Potter fans, but I always thought that was a bit silly. It’s a children’s book series after all … isn’t it? I think I saw a good deal on the set of the first five books one day and so I got them.
I had actually seen all the movies but I had never stopped to read the books. While I didn’t think the movies were all that, still there was something about the stories that kept me in a little bit of childish wonder. It was almost as if the movies made having a world of wizards and witches normal and pedestrian. So I started reading the series. I wasn’t impressed. Books 1 and 2 read like a comic book. But I bought the set and thus I was committed to finishing out the first 5 books. In fact, I read the first books so slowly that I used the set of 5 books together in their special holder as a bookend to hold up a series of other books. A fine utilitarian purpose, I think.
But something changed around Book 4 where Harry had the Tri-Wizard Championship. I began to see a much larger progression. The books themselves actually grew up along with Harry in the sense that the writing style became much more complicated, the words a bit tougher, and the characters started to delve into their emotions. There was more examination into the psyches of the characters and longer story arcs were evolving. By Book 5 (wherein Harry gets inducted into a secret clan) the whole tone of the story took a much more serious turn. People really started dying, and the situation was clearly grim. Harry and his friends could no longer count on the protection of the school that had kept them safe from so much evil. Skip ahead to the last book, No. 7, and here we finally have it: Harry’s final year and the ending of the series.
My friend and I stood in our letter group “C” behind the “B”s. The mass of people was unbelievable in such a small store! More to the point, the sweaty stink of hundreds of people started to get to me. It was almost as bad as anime conventions—yes, I used to do staff on them. Some time around 12:20am I reached the counter with my friend and we ordered 3 books between us. We stepped out into the cool night, free and light, and ready to devour the book.
I had shifted my sleeping schedule 3 days before—not exactly on purpose I admit—so that I was waking up at 12pm and sleeping at 5am. The intention was that after getting the book staying up to 5am would feel normal, 7am might have been a stretch. I found my place on the guest bed, my friend on a couch on the opposite room. The sound of the new book bindings crackling filled the room as the first pages of Chapter 1 opened up before us. My friend was clearly faster than I was, but I have almost never read for speed. I like to imagine as in a movie every scene, every crunch of footsteps on the dry leaves, the sizzle of charms flying off the ends of wands, the flickering illumination of dark rooms by wandlight, etc. I took breaks every hour or so to stretch, grab more Doritos, or sip apple juice. But around 3am or 4am my eyelids where just too heavy and I rolled over and slept.
My friend must have left silently after that to retreat to her real room to continue reading and turned off all the lights. I woke up somewhere around 8am when the sunlight was pouring in through the sliding glass patio door. I rubbed my eyes, readjusted the pillows, and went back to reading… She made some omelets with turkey, we did Fresh Choice for lunch, and ordered pizza in for dinner. At all other times I was power-reading through the book. Finally, at 10:30pm Saturday night I closed the back cover on 758 pages of the tome. I was emotionally and physically exhausted, having witnessed an ending that I thought was really worthy of the story. Tonight, Sunday, I reread quite a bit of it for the second time.
So, two reads of Harry Potter Book 7 in two days. I’m really happy with that. Thank you, J. K. Rowling.