Well, I did it. I finished reading the 7th Harry Potter book and (rather more impressively) managed to do it before some random idiot online spoiled it for me.
It was also just kinda fun reading what everyone else was reading. I mean, sometimes L.A. does this citywide "One City, One Book" thing -- but it never rises to level of pop culture phenomenon like this did. Get this: Saturday, around 1:00 (conveniently less than 5 minutes after I'd finished a review I had to write), my mail carrier buzzed me down to the gate to say, in heavily-accented English, "I have a package for you. Harry Potter." Like she ever calls for any other package. But, this, well, she just knows that the recipient is, y'know, waiting for it.
Read straight on until 1:00 in the morning, and then finished it off today (before heading off to theatre for a matinee). That, too, was cutting it close -- I told myself I'd stop reading at 1:00 (the show was at 3:00) and I ended up hitting the Epilogue at, like, 1:07. I was all set to give up and hop in the shower, but when I realized that there were quite a few blank pages at the end (so the Epilogue was only, like, 4 pages long), I figured I'd just get the job done.
At the end of the matinee, when the actors came out for their bows, two of them were holding copies of the book, pretending they were reading it. It was good for a laugh, but there was also truth to it. I mean, they hadn't just got those books as a joke -- I imagine they were reading 'em backstage.
Had another show at night today -- met a friend at the theatre. He'd read the damn thing yesterday, too. ("Breathed it," he said.) As I was driving away from the theatre, I realized I had a question about the book's ending. My friend was just walking down the sidewalk to his car, so I pulled over and asked him.
And while I did, it was the absolute certainty that many other people were having the same conversation at the same time.
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