The wait is over

No worries, no spoilers about Harry Potter here, even though I am going to talk about the book.

I had pre-ordered my book from Amazon with guaranteed delivery on Saturday. But then I decided I just couldn't wait, and I went to the bookstore at 9:15 and picked up a copy. I'm glad I went. It was really cool to see the steady stream of people going in empty handed and coming out with their copy of the book. One of the clerks said that she thought it was really amazing that pretty much everyone everywhere was reading the new book that morning. I hadn't thought of it that way, but she was right. It was like a big read-in scattered throughout Austin.

I was a bit nervous when I first opened the book. There has been so much speculation and so much anticipation leading up to its publication, how could it ever live up to the hype? After waiting so long to find out how it all ends, it would be horrible if the book was a disappointment.

I was also a bit sad; this was the last time to open a new Harry Potter book and enter Rowling's world, not knowing what was going to happen. This series was amazing in that it held everyone's interest and attention over so many books and so many years. It will be a miracle if another series of books is able to come close to equaling it. The "Series of Unfortunate Events" books got lots of media play for a while, but there were never any lines of people, adults and children, standing outside bookstores waiting for the next installment.

At least B and I will be able to keep the magic alive in our house for a while longer. Ella is in love with the books, and we're reading them with her. Or I should say that Brandon is reading them with her. They're only on the third book, so they have a long way to go together.

Next week I'll do my review of the book, once everyone I know has read it.