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Disclaimer: This post does not contain spoilers. I have done my best to link to posts and items that do not contain spoilers however I cannot promise that comments in those posts follow that same spirit. Some links may contain mild spoilers. Click on links at your own risk.
At the stroke of midnight on Saturday July 21 my cell phone alarm went off telling me that it was time to leave my apartment and join the hoards of Muggles trying to get their hands on the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. On Friday I had found out that the small bookstore that I used to work in was having a Harry Potter party. Since it wasn't highly publicized I figured the lines would be shorter and boy was I correct. I was back in my apartment with two copies of of the book by 12:30. Score! Unlike most people I felt I was unable to dive into the book right away. My memory of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was very foggy and I felt I needed to reread it. So I kept plowing away at it, shutting off my light at 2am and turning it back on at 7am. At 9 I headed out the door to my favourite bakery and by 10 I was sitting down with a fresh cup of coffee, a chocolatine, and the very last Harry Potter book.
Unfortunately not everyone had the same amount of ease getting their copy that I did. Check out this very amusing post from Shelley Powers. My experience was so much less dramatic.
I was pleased with the end of the series. When I finished I felt mostly satisfied (although the epilogue left me with more questions than it answered). I was honestly quite surprised by how everything got tied up in the end. I was surprised that most of my own personal theories (never discussed in real detail with most people so not spoiling anything) were utterly wrong. Ha! So much for the usual rightness of my inner geek. And from what I've been reading on the internet, most people feel the same way.
Kinsi at Spirituality and Sunflowers live blogged it. No spoilers and just enough reaction to what was being read to make you really want to read it. Chalice Chick started to live blog on Saturday and then finished on Sunday. (Note: second post contains mild spoilers to some and links to an article that also contains some spoilers.)
Binary Moon posted a mostly spoiler free review and asked that people keep spoilers out of the comments (there a few mild spoilers all surrounding very popular theories).
I think Brains on Fire said it best with the post Harry Potter and the Little Hole in my Soul: "And yet… it’s all a little bittersweet. What are we going to do now?"
I don't know the next time that I'll hear of a midnight release party for a book let alone be tempted to attend one. I don't know the next time that people around the world will be on countdown to the release of a book. I don't know the next time I can expect to see people of all ages dressed up for a book release. One of the things I've loved so much about this series is how it unified people across age groups. Sure, there are people who don't like the series and there are those who did everything they could to post spoilers before the books were even released. But this story unified people of all ages. It got people excited about reading. And there's no word for that other than magical.
Contributing Editor Sassymonkey also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
