Happiness has never looked so bookish

I’m about halfway through the sixth Harry Potter book. I preordered it from Amazon, and when I got home on Sunday night (from a massive 17-day vacation) it was waiting for me. Amazon had even made special boxes that fit the book perfectly, decorated in HP style.

I actually had to do work yesterday, so although I schlepped the book to work, I didn’t get a chance to read. Then, when I got home, I decided that if I started it I probably would forget to pick Jason up at the train station.

Then we played tennis until it got too dark to see.

So I didn’t start the book until last night around 9:30. I’d like to think this shows just how patient I can be. Last time, when Order of the Phoenix came out, I was at the downtown Chicago Borders at midnight, waiting in line with a bunch of kids. It was pretty cool, to see trains full of giant blue books in front of faces in every train on the way home, but I think I got a little too excited, and read the book entirely too fast.

So waiting until I was able to sit down with it properly did me good. I’m enjoying the book much more, and I think I’ll retain the details better.

I recently had a conversation with friends about the HP books. One friend mentioned that he thought that Harry wasn’t a good main character, because his adventures are concluded with either dumb luck or the help of his friends. In this sixth book, a character points out the same about Harry. So there you go, he isn’t a traditional hero. He’s a kid who’s managed to not get killed. Yet.

Here’s what I do like about this book: unlike the fifth book, where life went from normal to high terrorist alert, this book is post 9-11/Voldemort. Everyone realizes that the bad guy IS alive, so a lot of the frustrations of the kids knowing it but adults not listening isn’t there. I have to say, the whole “no one listens to kids because they can’t possibly know more than adults, but in reality they have discovered the secret/key/lair” thing really bothers me. Not the use of this concept in children’s literature, but more the concept in general. I find it incredibly frustrating. I hated that part about being a child, and it still irks me when I read about it.

Not that I knew any secrets that adults didn’t know (other than that spinning around in a circle is really really fun, but I think the Deadheads figured that out).

Now, if I can just finish up my work, I can get in a few more chapters of HP6.