Quick like a bunny

That's how fast I read. If bunnies could read, that is, and who's to say they can't? It took me under 8 hours to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and if you think that's a lame thing to brag about, I won't disagree with you! It is super duper lame, yet I persist in my childish pride. In fact if you trim out the inevitable breaks, it was probably more like 7 hours. Yeah. Lame.

How about I tell you the tale of my Quest for the Book? At six am or so I went to Wal-Mart and bought the book. Remember how I said I was going to go the bookstore thing last night? Really, I did, but I just stood and talked to my friends there for a few minutes and left. You may not know this about me, and I'm only really figuring it out myself recently, but I hate standing in lines. Lines bother me, not waiting. I was happy to go home and wait until morning for my copy and not stand around 3 hours waiting for it with a bunch of jerks. Very early this morning I woke up and went for the book. Even though I'm not a big fan of Wal-Mart, I knew it was a place that was open and had books. Sometimes that's what matters!

I was very pleased with this book. I've had a poor track record at guessing what will happen in the new books or figuring out clues once I'm reading the book. Seriously, someone had to point out things like Knockturn Alley and Diagon Alley - the simplest puns. (nocturnally and diagonally in case there's anyone else out there with the same brain block) Snape and Neville, among others, had the fates I thought they would. I got a piece of the plot figured out early on, although not entirely. Maybe Rowling put in a few easy clues for those of us who are a bit obtuse. :)

I think I was a little leery of writing a post like this, because I don't want people to make fun of me for being a Harry Potter fan. But I don't care, or more accurately, I don't want to care about that. Yeah, I'm sure some of the adults out there in costumes or whatnot were kind of creepy or weird, but there were also many who, well, weren't creepy or weird and just had fun. In fact my friend knitted a Gryffindor scarf for her boyfriend and he wore it to Barnes and Noble very proudly. Ok, they might be weird but I view that as a wonderful quality, and they weren't at all creepy. Haters gotta hate, but I encourage you to read some of the cool articles and reviews out there by bright and fascinating people, good stuff. I bet some of the kids whose parents brought them out for the "Midnight Magic" stuff will remember it for the rest of their lives.

This book, for all the sad parts, left me with a good feeling. It seems the author genuinely cares about the creatures of her imagination and the fans who've come along for the ride. It's hard to put into words, and it's not anything huge, just that it seems like the person who wrote this book must be quite nice. From what I've read in the past, she actually has a lot more material and backstories for the characters than she put into the books. I don't think she'll put out anymore about the Harry Potter-verse but it would be amazing if she did.

I do feel as though I've been babbling on for long enough. I have, haven't I? So I'll stop here.

If you would like a spoiler, the biggest spoiler, the one that's probably out everywhere now, but what the hell -- there's an acrostic in the second paragraph of this post. Don't look for it if you don't want to know.

Also, I'd love to hear what you thought of the books -- even if it's just "It was good" or "It sucked". Did anybody go out for the book at midnight? Do you have a favorite part or line (just be careful with spoilers).

Here are two of my favorite lines: "I was a fool!" and "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" Note: the two lines are not from the same conversation, if you were thinking What The Hell. There was also a great little callback to the first book, I believe it was, an exchange between Ron and Hermione...but oh look! I'm babbling again. See ya.