July 18, 2005

• "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

  Overall, I felt it was very well done, and am of course, already
  awaiting the next one.  I wonder how long we will have to wait?

  Yes, I finished it in a day.  Here's how the weekend went: 
  Friday night we stopped off at Hastings, having sort of forgotten that
  it was Harry Potter release party night.  We were looking for a
  good map of the local county.  We got our map, enjoyed the kids
  and adults all dressed up, got me a new stuffed animal.(Babo by http://www.uglydolls.com/)  Yes, I am a sucker for smooshy stuffed animals.  Besides, I had reserved my copy at Borders.

  I thought about staying up until midnight to go get my copy, but I had
  to be at the gym at 9:30 on Saturday, and I knew I woudln't be staying
  up at midnight to read the book.  So I went on Saturday morning
  before my Pilates class to go over to Borders.  I checked in and
  they gave me a magic ticket for my book.  They had boxes of books
  right behind the registers and no line on Saturday.  Got the book,
  but then had to go to the gym (and you cannot read and do Pilates at
  the same time). 

  After the gym, hubby asked if I wanted to go look at some property out
  in Rathdrum (we'd been trying to find this property since the day
  before, but when we drove up in to the mountains on friday, we did not
  have the address, hence the need for the map.)  Of course, none of
  the houses up in the mountains there have addresses anyway, so it
  didn't matter that I had looked up the property via the local property
  records.  We still couldn't find it.  And then we had to go
  home and shower because we had a 2:00 appointment to go look at a house
  in another part of the county. 

  So we went home and showered and then left again.  And the book
  still sat unopened on my side table.  After looking at the very
  nice, large, lakeview, more than we can afford house, we got better
  directions to the mountain property.  And we were off again, back
  up into the mountains.  We finally got home at about 6:30 on
  Saturday.  By that time I was so tired from driving around and
  also had a headache,  that I was able to read for less than an
  hour. 

  I finally got to relax with my book on Sunday morning.  In fact, I
  was so excited to read it that I woke up at 6:00am on Sunday. 
  That NEVER happens.  I hate to wake up early on the
  weekends.  And then as I was sneaking out of bed, thinking I could
  go upstairs and have some breakfast and some uninterrupted reading
  time, hubby woke up and had a powerful craving for an omelette. 
  And we were out of eggs.  So we went to a local breakfast
  place.  Finally returned home at 7:30, and installed myself on the
  couch with a big glass of water and THE book.  I finished it on
  Sunday afternoon about 2:00.

  WARNING: HARRY POTTER SPOILERS AHEAD!!

  Oh no.  I cried.  I know, I know.  It is just a
  book.  And a kids' book at that.  But, really, it is much
  much more than its critics believe.  And this one - so sad. 
  Dumbledore dead, and at the hands of Snape.  While Harry stood,
  immobilized under his invisibility cloak.

  Is Snape really a traitor?  It certainly looks that way. 

  And Dumbledore is really dead.  I knew it when his portrait appeared on the wall in the headmaster's office. 

  And I cried.  I believe Dumbledore was my favorite character. 

  Now Harry has to face Voldemort without any adults to run
  interference.  He's got his friends to help, and I understand the
  Spiderman-esque reason that Harry broke up with Ginny...but damn.

  Draco's an idiot.  But what else is new.  And at least he isn't a complete monster like his parents.

  And Snape is the Half-Blood Prince.  Some of those spells he came
  up with were interesting, but I am confused - why is it that Harry can
  simply recite an incantation and it works, without him knowing what the
  spell does?  I mean, it seems from all the other HP books that you
  have to know what the result of the spell is so you can put your mind
  to achieving it before it will work.  Hmmm...

  I did really enjoy how much more mature Harry seemed to be in this book as compared to the last one.
  
  

  • 12:59 pm
  • 2 Comments