CAUTION!!! NO SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD!

I have had dates the last several nights. . . with Harry Potter. I am slowly working my way through the final book as I have time. It has so far been a fantastic read, and it is very hard to put it down, but finding the time to just sit and read for a long stretch isn't always easy.

I am one of the 17 katrillion people who pre-ordered the book. However, I wasn't actually even able to find the time to open the box it arrived in until four days after it had been sitting on the stairs (my ceremonial dumping ground of things that need to go upstairs, but yet often get passed over because actually carrying them up the stairs would mean that I then have to do something with it.) I am apparently the slowest person on the planet to be working their way through the last Harry Potter book. Five days after the book was in my possession (and only one since I had actually unwrapped it), I received my Entertainment Weekly magazine that I was unable to read most of because of all the "spoilers" about the book contained within. I found I could scarcely flip through TV channels without finding someone talking about it. Afraid that they would give too much away and spoil it for me, I would have to change the channel. When I went to visit a friend a few days ago, her 9-year old daughter kept threatening to give away the ending and to tell me the characters who died. I cut my visit a little short for fear that if I stayed much longer, this little spoiler would reveal too much.

Will I make it through the book without anyone feeling compelled to reveal the ending to me? Only time will tell. Perhaps I should spend the next few days in complete solitude until I am able to finish it - - somehow, that just doesn't seem very likely. I should have seen this coming - - naturally, because of the almost unbelievable popularity of the Harry Potter series, one should only realize that everyone is going to want to TALK about it as soon as they read it. I am almost half way through with the book now, and I will probably push to finish it as soon as I can, which is kind of a shame. When I am reading a really great book, I love to take my time and enjoy it. This time though, I just don't want to run the risk that someone will tell me how the story ends. So, if you have read it and know what happens, just keep a lid on it - at least for a few more days!