I can't believe it's actually over...no more waiting for another book, wondering where she's going to take the story next.
Ken & I were talking the other night about the Harry Potter phenomenon; we couldn't think of any other book or author that has caused this kind of mayhem. I look forward to a new Alex Cross book by James Patterson, and so do lots of other people...but bookshops don't open at midnight and have themed parties for James Patterson books. There are people who don't even know who Alex Cross or James Patterson are - but everybody, it seems, whether they read the books or not, has heard of Harry Potter.
Ken pointed out that the fans and frenzy of Harry Potter would probably even put Star Wars in the dust. There are countless numbers of highly devoted Star Wars fans (I know; I'm married to one of them!), but the people who lined up for the midnight release of the films were mostly geeks (I know; I was there.)
The people who have followed the Harry Potter books are from all different crowds: the people I know who planned to be somewhere at midnight to get their copy of this last book include two coworkers, who have very little else in common, and at least one family in our small-group Bible study. Then there are my two former coworkers in Dallas, and two old roommates, from two different houses.
And us. We were there at midnight for the last book release, and we almost made it for this one, but only by chance - we wouldn't have left the house to be there at midnight this time, but we'd been out anyway, and were just getting back into town, so we thought we might as well stop. Alas, we got there too late, and they wouldn't let us in. So I went back yesterday morning. Ken got to read it first; he had it read by last night, and then handed it over to me, and now we've both finished it, and we have the complete set on our living room bookshelf, finally.
I like the way she ended it; she tied up all the loose ends, and didn't get (too) predictable. And I really liked the Epilogue, though Ken didn't.
But Goblet Of Fire is still my favorite.
