The End of a Long and Harrowing Journey

Well I did say to watch this spot for my review of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

My son (who works at a local movie theater) went to Wal-Mart last night after he got off work at 11:30. I mean, really, who would go to Wal-Mart when the BooksAMillion in town has had enormous parties for the the last 3 Potter releases? And, this is the Redneck Riviera.. do people here read?

Apparently a lot do. My son was given a Hufflepuff armband and told he would probably pick up his book about 4am. He came home and went to bed. Smart kid.

So I got up about 9 this morning and jumped in the shower. This would amaze anyone who knows me. I usually sleep until about 11 on Saturdays and shower after I have spent time in the pool.. maybe mid afternoon.

I was at Target before 10 and the entire transaction took less than 5 minutes, it took longer to pick up breakfast for the family. I finished 2 chapters while sitting in the drive through line.

What can I say about this book without giving away the ending, the list of dead, the list of those who lived? I can say I cried once in the first 100 pages and again throughout most of the last 100. I can say that it was a fitting ending for "the Boy who Lived". I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know and spending time in the magical world that J.K. Rowling created and Harry, Ron and Hermione inhabited.

I cannot say that this book was well written or that it was great literature. I cannot say that it was not.

I read quickly. I have an insatiable curiosity to find out the ending, whodunit, what happened, who lived. I do not (the first time I read a book) pay attention to a lot of details. I just have to find out how it ends. I now know how the Harry Potter saga ends. I have passed the book off to my son who is reading it as I type. I will start the entire journey over from the beginning and will, most likely, take the journey again and again, once a year or so, as I do with Stephen King's "The Stand". If I were an author, I would ask for nothing more. And as a reader, I can give no higher praise.