Harry Potter...no spoilers here!

Before everyone starts to freak out and not read my post because nobody wants anything in the final book revealed to them, it's okay...there will be no details of the book expressed in this post. But I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my experience with Harry over the last 7+ years. I watched an interview with J.K. Rowling where she was saying how difficult it was to write the last book because Harry has been with her through all her success over the last number of years and how she will miss the escape to that world. I thought it was a little cheesy when I saw it, but when I picked up the book and opened the front flap of the dust jacket and read "We now present the seventh and final installment in the epic tale of Harry Potter" I have to admit I got a little weepy. I realized I had started reading Harry Potter when I was still in college and have read it throughout 5 years of marriage. Suffice it to say, Harry Potter has been with me through a lot too.

A friend and I went to go see the movie for the 5th Harry Potter book the same night that the book was going to be released. We didn't do this by choice, it was just a coincidence, but as we walked through Barnes and Noble before the movie started, I couldn't believe all of the people that were in the store. About half were dressed up in Harry Potter garb, and old ladies were dressed up in witches hats. We couldn't believe people would hang around a bookstore for hours until midnight only to get the book and go home and probably fall asleep after read one chapter. And then we ran into three families from the ward. As we were sitting in the theater before the previews began I said to my friend "Ya know, if people are going to go crazy about something, it should be a book. It's better than going crazy over Lindsey Lohan or Paris Hilton right?"

I was able to pick up my copy the next day while doing my weekly grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. I read the book in three days while my child destroyed our apartment. I cried off and on in the last 1/3 of the book, and when Clark saw me, he just kept coming over to me and saying "uh-oh". So what I want to know for all you Harry Potter readers out there is, did you cry? Or am I a psycho? Or both? ;-)

So whether you like or loathe Harry Potter, everyone would have to agree that if there is one thing J.K. Rowling should be praised for, it would be that she wrote something that brought a love of reading to child and adult alike. Tanner said that when he was in the airport on the way home from Tampa, it seemed everywhere he looked people where reading Harry Potter. When was the last time you saw that happen, other than when the last Harry Potter book came out?