I admit it. I finally succumbed. Yes, I’m a Harry Potter addict. But at least I know I’m not alone.
When I first heard about the books, I didn’t give them much thought. It’s not that I have anything against children’s literature, but I’m not exactly a child anymore. Then I started hearing acquaintances mentioning how much they enjoyed reading their kids’ books. And then other acquaintances – childless acquaintances – started gushing, and besides, I was getting impressed, despite myself, over the popularity of these things among children and adults alike. We’re talking a book here. Not some mindless video game, or the latest must-have cartoon character plush toy. Books.
In other words, by this time I just couldn’t help it. I gave in to the lure of the fad. I borrowed the first book and after reading it in one evening, I was hooked. When I headed out to Atlanta for DragonCon, I spent the night curled up on Ivymoon‘s living room floor reading the second one, and the next morning as we waited for our delayed plane to arrive, I devoured the third one.
When I heard the news that number four was imminent, I was pretty happy, looking forward to reading it. However, despite how much I might love something, it’s not really in my nature to become a screaming fan (well, with the notable exception of dark chocolate. But that’s more of a dietary need than anything else. Ahem. Anyway). Back when I was in college, I dated a man who was hopelessly infatuated with the Beatles. When Paul McCartney came to town to perform, he camped outside the local Bass ticket outlet to purchase tickets to the show, and then dragged me along. In preparation for the concert, I got to listen to my tone-deaf boyfriend sing Beatles songs non-stop. When we got to the concert, he was beside himself. If he’d been younger and female, he probably would have tossed his panties onto the stage – that is how thrilled he was. Me – well, I’ve nothing against the Beatles, and some of their music isn’t too bad, but after being subjected to McCartney and Beatle tunes for weeks on end sung by a man who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, well, let’s just say that my enthusiasm – slight as it was – had waned significantly.
Back to present day. The book was scheduled to be released Friday night – or rather Saturday morning, to be more precise, at 12:01 am. I had absolutely no intention of waiting in line – I simply popped onto Amazon.com and happily ordered the entire quartet of books. However, I had no sooner completed the order when Richard mentioned that he wanted to get the new Harry Potter book for his niece…and that if we were going to get it in time for the birthday party the next day, guess what we needed to do. So we ended up at the local Borders, standing (or rather sitting) in line in wait for midnight. At least we managed to get a copy – judging by the sheer volume of people who showed up in that store vying for one of the 75 un-reserved copies they had left, I think we might have been one of the lucky ones.
When I got home this evening from a long day at work, the box from Amazon was on my doorstep, all four books inside. The goal is to save the extra-lengthy fourth book til I fly out to Ohio next week so that maybe I’ll at least have something vaguely entertaining to do on the plane. I’ll see how long I can hold out.
Oh. And just to pass the addiction along, I gushed enough at Richard that he decided he needed to read the books too. He’s just finished the first one and I handed him my brand new copy of book two as I unpacked it, so that he can continue in the series.