Harry Potter Fever

I must admit, I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I still remember umpteen years ago walking into Borders on a Friday night and spying the book on the new releases shelf. I picked it up and went to have some Chinese food across the parking lot and couldn't pry my nose out of the book until the wee hours of that next morning. I was hooked!

The whole Harry Potter series has been a literary phenomenon that I don't know will be repeated in my lifetime. Imagine, having SEVEN bestseller books that have inspired young and old alike to sit and read cover to cover. Before Katya was competent enough of a reader to read the books by herself, we had bought the books on tape. I truely believe that listening to all the books (repeatedly) has really helped her public speaking. She learned when to have inflection, when to pause, and when to possibly use another tone of voice. For years, I could see the influence in her choice of vocabulary for her stories for school.

I believe that this woman, J.K. Rowling, is a masterful storyteller. I have had many discussions at the end of each new book release with my Mom, aunts, cousins, friends and Katya as to why each character did what they did and what could possibly be the outcome of the next book. It is so nice to have literary banter with your kid.

Last night (or this morning technically speaking) at midnight was the official release of the last book. Michelle called me from Seattle as she was on her way to hang out at her local Borders until midnight to procure her copy. I talked to Beth and her and Doug and Pam were going to do the same thing at their Barnes and Noble. I was so sad that I couldn't be there with Michelle sipping caramel macchiatos, hanging around my most favorite bookstore ever, buying one of the first copies of this book and staying up ALL NIGHT reading it with her in coffee shops. Instead, I sit here anxiously awaiting the UPS guy to show up with my pre-ordered copy of The Deathly Hallows. I pre-ordered it months and months ago and I was hoping it would be here by 8am like the last book was when I was in Poway. But it isn't. And I'm bummin'!

Katya is currently on her river rafting trip. She will be so jealous when she sees it! She said she wanted to wait for me to finish my copy, but I believe that we will probably be making a trip to COSTCO tomorrow to procure her own copy.