No, I haven’t ordered the final book. I barely remember anything that happened in Book Six. I see here that I said, “I was very pleased with the identity of the Half-Blood Prince, which totally knocked me out. She set me up good. Never saw it coming.” Almost two years later, I didn’t even remember that was the title of the previous book, and I have no memory of the identity, much less the significance, of the Half-Blood Prince. All I dimly recall of the previous six books is a torrent of plot points whizzing by, and a general weariness as Rowling begins her dreaded Loose End Tie-Up Mode, otherwise known as the last two hundred pages of each book.
I guess now that I’m a children’s author myself, any dismissing of Rowling comes across as sour grapes.
Anyway, I’ll get to the seventh book eventually — I believe we are 75,891 on the waiting list at the library. In the meantime, here’s a roundup of some interesting Potter posts. (All of them spoiler free, as I believe federal law demands.)
One online store delievered their copies a few days early, causing chaos throughout the land. VodkaPundit was one of those who received an early edition. He promptly put it up on Ebay. He then, just as promptly, heard from lawyers. Read about it here, here, here, and here.
Daniel Radosh lays into the people who freaked out over the New York Times daring to run a book review of a book. Follow-up here.
Megan McCardle puts her finger on something that’s always bugged me about the world of Rowling: The faulty economics of magic.
2 Comments
I disliked Book 6 but loved Book 7, so don’t let the last one discourage you.
Last year I wrote a blog entry (I think) that listed some Harry Potter catch-up sites. They’re for people like you and me who have only a vague recollection of what happened. They provide the salient plot points, and I think things are edited after each book comes out, so if something innocuous happened in Book 3 that turned out to be important in Book 5, it’s included.
Anyway, those sites are extremely popular because I suspect there are a lot of folks like you and me.
Dan probably likes Book 7 because so many people die.