Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I've never been as big on the movies as I have on the books.  I can remember waiting for the midnight release of the books in the Paris Wal-Mart at least three times.  When Deathly Hallows came out in summer of 2007 I was working at Wal-Mart.  I had worked until 10 pm the night the book came out.  I went home, ate, and was back at Wal-Mart by 11:30 to wait for Deathly Hallows with Mom and James.  We got home with our books soon after 12.  I remember telling Momma that I wouldn't be up too long reading - I had to be back at Wal-Mart at 8 the next morning for work.

It was a total lie.

I read all 759 pages of Deathly Hallows in 7 hours.

And then I lied to Mom about it.  (Sorry Mom!)

I told her I had stayed up until around 2 (or some other time) reading and then went to bed.  I pretended that I didn't finish the book until the next night.  Mom and James were so good about it too - they didn't talk about Harry Potter with me until I said I was done reading it.  I did feel bad about fudging the truth, but I had promised Mom.  Then again, it also wasn't the first (and probably won't be the last) time I've stayed up all night to read a book.

Four years later I finally feel comfortable telling Momma that I lied to her about Harry Potter.  I think she would have understood that I had stayed up all night reading the amazing final installment of this wonderful series, but working as a cashier at the only Wal-Mart in town on a Saturday morning?  You don't get a break - a good nights sleep is a serious requirement for that shift.

Regardless, the movies have never had the same appeal to me as the books have.  Yes, they are this magnificent series, well produced, amazingly casted, and they have the same ability to draw you into the story and leave you wanting more, but books.  Books are just something else.  The reader is still able to use their imagination.  Maybe my Hermione Granger is different than Emma Watson.  (She isn't really).  Maybe they're the same.  But to have my imagination play out the scenes as I'm reading?  That's awesome.

No matter what though, I wish I had a ticket for the midnight showing of Harry Potter.  Even though I don't know the last Harry Potter movie I actually saw at midnight, it's the final installment of this amazing series.  Mom and Dad are at a theater in Paris waiting to see it, James has a ticket for the double feature here in Lubbock.  And I'm at home typing this blog post.  I'll most likely see the movie tomorrow, and I'll see it again on Saturday or Sunday with one of my good friends.  But to be at a theater for the midnight showing of Deathly Hallows Part 2?  That would be amazing.

I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good.  (That book will always be my favorite one - and the movie, eh, it's my second favorite.  Will probably be my third favorite after I see Part Two.)