Harry Potter 7, take 2

One of my favorite New York City memories is the subway after the midnight release of Harry Potter 7. It was around 1:30 or 2 when I went into the station and I loved that every single person there was reading it.



I myself was determined to read the entire thing before any spoilers were printed. To that end, I stayed up for about 20 hours straight and read the whole thing in pretty much one sitting.

At this point, I will explain that my addictive personality manifests itself in full force when it comes to books. You may be aware of how I can get obsessive even with bad literature, so you can imagine my over-reaction to good literature (seriously, don't even get me started on my love for Uncle Tom's Cabin). With this in mind, several years ago I have set for myself a "only one time through" rule for Harry Potter. I just get too, too, too excited.

That said, I was disappointed with Death Hallows. It just didn't move me the way I expected it to. Other people seemed to love it a lot, but it just didn't elicit a strong emotional response from me. Which surprised me, especially since everyone else I talked to about it said it was the best one yet. (as a side note, my favorite was probably #3-- I almost beat myself to death with the book because of the suspense at the end.)

Friday night, in preparation for the upcoming release of movie #6, I went to a Potter-themed party to watch #5. The next morning, I was trying to remember who had died at the end of book 7 and I couldn't remember so I got out my copy and started looking. I read one paragraph and was instantly sucked in. Despite my once-through rule, I found myself re-reading the last 150 pages. And it was really really really good. I kept thinking "this is the best book ever!! No wonder everyone loved it!!" I was touched, moved, distraught, uplifted, overwhelmed and inspired (sometimes simultaneously), and eventually--emotionally satisfied.

Let this be a lesson to me: I cannot emotionally appreciate a book when sleep-deprived. I will not make that mistake again!

PS Right after finishing this post, I found this on PostSecrets