The End of Harry

My youngest daughter, at age 26,  went to the 3AM showing of " Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" today.  The "Harry" party started after work with other Harry fans.  They met at a friends house to watch Harry on DVD and then went to the movie and then went to work this morning afterward.  She had posted on Facebook that being up for 31 hours was worth it.

Our Harry Potter experience started in 1999 when I read a small article in a magazine or a newspaper about the these books causing a big stir in Britain about this little boy that is a wizard.  They were hughly publicized here.  The third book had come out that year as well. So, for Christmas, my younger daughters got the first 3 books.  They were hooked. 

I'm not sure of the publish date, in 2000, of the 4th book, but in July,  Daughter #3 and Terry were interviewed by our local newspaper about Harry Potter fever. By then they girls were 15 and 17.  I thought they were on the older end of Harry fans, but I was wrong.

They convinced their Dad to read the books and soon he was hooked.  I needed more convincing but Harry soon grew on me too.  I became a fan because I saw children in lines at book stores and libraries.  I saw children in restaurants, in movie theaters and at ball games all reading Harry Potter. One of the Daughters took Harry with her to read, to the theater, before "Wicked" started and she was not alone.  There were other Harry books on laps there.  J.K. Rowling, single handily, got people, young and old reading in masses.  

A new book hitting the market caused book stores to hold Harry Potter parties, and to open at 12:01 am to sell books to the line of customers standing outside their doors.  I had never seen anything like it, since Daughter # 1 waited in line overnight to get a Garth Brooks wristband that would allow her to get in another line to get tickets fora concert.  (She did and we all went. Yeah!)  But, I digress.  I had never seen that happen for books.

Harry is not without controversy.  There was some protest concerning Harry being a Wizard and the books promoting witchcraft.  There are witches in Cinderella and Snow White.  I think the kids know Harry is not real.  ( Although, don't try to tell me that Camelot, King Arthur and Merlin weren't real.)  To me these books are very much like the Narnia books. Good vs. Evil is always a struggle.

One of my girlfriends  has a 16 year old son.  She posted on Facebook this morning that the two of them had gone to the midnight show, something they had shared since the first movie came out.  What a wonderful Mom and son adventure.

Somewhere after the newspaper article we "acquired" a male kitty that soon became Harry Potter. I can  truthfully say I  have reached Harry overload, but I still love that the books and the movies are fun, family entertainment.

I applaud J.K. Rowling.  Good job!

So Many Books, Too Little Time

Being an voracious reader, I have devoured an enormous number of books in my life.  I don't hesitate to say, in the thousands.  For most of my adult life, aside from the first year after babies were born, when you have to  figure out how to bathe to go to the bathroom with the little darlings, I have averaged about 2 books a week.

My earliest book memories are reading Trixie Belden (girl detective)  novels at about 10 or 11.   My sister, (3 years younger) says I never climbed trees or played outside with her because I was always reading.  I broke my leg at 11 while riding my blue Schwinn bike.  I was in a hip to toe cast for 3 months.  Books were my companion.  I limped for some time, which reminds me,  we moved  during that time and some classmates thought I was recovering from polio.  That was early 1960s so it was on everyone's mind.  We would line up in school, for the sugar cube with the polio vaccine on it.  Was permission from the parents even requested?  I somehow don't think so.   I think they just did it. 

During that move, we lived with friends of my parents while they were involved in the move.  It was at their house that I found Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and  Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk.  I was 11.  What was I doing reading Herman Wouk?   I'm not sure which came first, the books or the broken leg but after that I was a reader.

It's difficult to pen down a favorite or even a top ten list of my own.  They tend to change when I find a new one or I forget a good one.  Always in there though, is Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, and  East of Eden.  I would also choose The Thorn Birds, Gone With The Wind, and one I found this past winter, by Kate Morton,  The Forgotten Garden.

Surprising to me too, is that I have not joined the electronic book market.  I've not tried it, so I can't say I don't like it, but I think I wouldn't.  I like the feel of a book in my hands but I can see that those huge ones would be much easier to read on a Kindle or a Nook type thing.  I'm not so much a Stephan King fan anymore... say not for the last 15 years really, but his "The Dome" sounds interesting.  I even bought the paperback version and turned it in to my resale book shop.  The thing has to be 3 inches thick, looks like a textbook and weighs a ton.  So I guess I'll never know about that one.

All kinds of subjects interest me.  I will hit the best sellers, the top 10 lists, Oprah's books, biographies and non-ficiton.  I separate autobiographies/biographies from non-fiction because I have read some that I am sure took artistic license.  Then again, some of those tales, you can't make up.  I saw Meredith Baxter on Oprah yesterday and she broke my heart.  While she was filming "Family Ties" , looking like the perfect Mom, she was living in an abusive home.  Her on screen husband, Michael Gross was there too, along with 3 of her children,  so I tend  to believe this one.  I'm on the hunt for "  Untied: a Memoir of Family, Fame and Floundering".   I also collect First Lady Biographies and Autobiographies.

I always travel with a book in the car, to any appointments, on vacations, and to events.  When my daughters were little, they didn't have nap time, they had "Quiet Time".  They had to stay on their beds but they could look at books if they weren't tired.  They are all readers.  My grandsons sneak flashlights under their covers at night to read.  Their Mom says for that, there is no way they will get in trouble.  Their other grandma pays for baskets.touchdowns and home runs.  This Nana pays for books read and  every few months, I send them new flashlights.