browser life

So ends "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". I finished reading it last night, much earlier than anticipated, for a few different reasons. One was that my mouth was bleeding from Tuesday's dental work, and I didn't dare lie down until it stopped, which was somewhere in the time frame of 1:30AM, and by then I was down to the final chapter, so I knew I wasn't gonna get any sleep anyway until I reached the conclusion.

Another reason was all the medical/dental appointments of late. I brought the book with me for entertainment in the waiting rooms. It also gave the various practitioners something to chat with me about.

And of course there were the SPOILERS. Everywhere. On the internet, TV, my local newspaper, and the other day, an "Entertainment Weekly" arrived in the mail, a special Harry Potter edition with the words "Goodbye, Harry" emblazoned at the top.

Not that I wasn't dying to finish it anyway. Every time I forced myself to put it down and save something for the next day, I kept thinking about what I'd just read, what was gonna happen next, and how easy it would be to just become one with the furniture and polish the story off. It was like having fresh baked cookies in the house and trying to content myself with just smelling them.

But there was a point, right around chapter 18, where the story got so depressing that I began to wonder if it was a good idea to be reading it while preparing for a biopsy for breast cancer. My concerns vanished with the amazing chapter 19, and from then on, I was pretty much glued to the pages. I lost track of how many times the "wow" factor kicked in after that.

I intend to do a more comprehensive review for But You Don't Look Sick, probably starting tomorrow after my doctor appointment (for yet another medical problem that I am hesitant to mention in a blog). For now, though, I feel very much like I did when I finished reading Stephen King's "The Stand": satisfied with the outcome, yet a bit bereft, like parting with an important friend. And as with "The Stand", I imagine I'll be reading "The Deathly Hallows" many times over.

So, yes, goodbye Harry.