Then we went home and started reading. My fiancee, my 13-year-old daughter, and I were all spawled out in the living room at 12:30 in the morning reading our books. It was quickly evident that my fiancee was going to finish first: at our first page-check she was 50 pages ahead of me and my daughter was about 40 behind me.

But it's not a competition. :)

It was a good book, and a fitting end to the series. Because the characters don't go back to Hogwarts for their final year of school, it doesn't get to be an HP-formula until about midway through (and how any of these three graduate without attending their senior year is--well, I guess that makes them like most American students, actually). I went into it fully prepared for Harry to die, since Rowling has been (and probably still is) worried that someone else will try to pick up where she leaves off, but I wasn't disappointed that he was spared. Dumbledore's character makes an appearance late in the book, and although he's probably my favorite character in the series I'm kinda glad he's not in a lot of this. As many bloggers have commented already, it would have been just sad for the kids to be running back to his portrait every ten minutes to ask another question. I was also prepared for Snape to be a good guy (relatively speaking), though his crush on Lily being the motivation was something of a surprise.

Harry's conversation with Dumbledore near the end reminided me a lot--unfortunately--of the last episode of "Magnum, P.I." He gets shot, walks through the clouds a bit, comes to a decision, and goes back. I guess "Quantum Leap" did the same thing, really, with its finale. Come to think of it, this "you're not quite dead yet, you must go back" device isn't terribly uncommon.

I could have done without the epilogue, because it's kind of cheesy and superfluous. I suppose my bigger problem with it is that there are now younger kids once again introduced, leaving room for bad knock-offs. (I remember an old rumor that floated around for years that George Lucas had purchased the movie rights to The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy just so that the movie would never be made. My point is this: if you're going to end it, end it. Don't leave room for more if it's done. Moreover, if you're going to write the epilogue, at least tell us who the new headmaster at Hogwarts is.) The epilogue, however, was inevitable, for we must remember that this was originally written for young readers and that demographic needs a lot more closure. Yes, we can all remember when the craze started, and many of the adults were hesitant to read a book (published by Scholastic, no less) and expect to enjoy it. Rowling did acknowledge a growing adult readership by making the last few darker and killing some people off, but this was originally written for the kids, and so I don't blame Rowling for epilogue.

Overall, a good book. I conked out about 3am and finished the rest after I woke up (all told, about ten hours). My fiancee had it done before I woke up--she went through the whole thing at once, six hours or so. My daughter didn't finish until well into Saturday night, and I made a point of reading the last three chapters aloud to her (it's something she's used to; I do the voices!). It was fun to get the book and stay up reading.

(I haven't seen the fifth movie yet, but I've read mixed reviews. Having read the books, the movies almost seem like reruns to me. I'll see it at some point, but while I'm doing a Harry Potter post I may as well include this: I had a discussion about the casting of the characters with a few people, and ideas that were thrown out for Slughorn included Stephen Fry and Bob Hoskins. I still maintain that Michael Gambon, while a good actor, was the wrong choice for Dumbledore, especially since we all got addicted to Richard Harris in the role. I thought a better choice for the new Dumbledore would have been someone tall, thin--almost gaunt-looking--with big eyes and the ability to be a calm sort of figure. Someone like, . . . I dunno . . . Hugh Laurie.)

I'll say this, though: no matter what the statistical reports may suggest, J.K. Rowling is responsible for engaging millions of young people in reading. For that alone, Rowling has my respect. It's one thing to engage young readers, but quite another to keep it going for seven books and finish with this big a response at the finale.

* I thought this movie quote was fitting. It's the last line of "The Truman Show," once the only-watched TV show comes to an end. Given that the Harry Potter books have been so much literary heroin to so many, I wonder what the public will do now.