Why I just bought my first Harry Potter book

Yes, it is true...two weeks ago I bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.


No, I didn't stand in line for 8 hours at a Barnes & Noble to snatch up a copy of Deathly Hallows the moment it was released. Nor did I dress up like Dumbledore. And never fear, I did not pre-order book 7 to be FedEx-ed to my door the morning of the release. But the fact remains: I bought the book.


So how did I go from never reading a Harry Potter book (and only watching the movies), to owning and obsessing over Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?

reason #1. Without saying too much about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the latest movie left me wanting more. As I said before, I have seen all the previous Harry Potter movies, and each one felt like a chapter from Harry's life. But the latest movie felt more like a snippet...a slice...a mere placeholder for the better movies to come. I left the movie theater entertained, but wholly unfulfilled--I wanted more.

reason #2. I knew book 7 was coming out soon. And with book 7 would come the end of the series.

reason #3. I knew that with the way the internet and news media work these days, the public would know the end of book 7--and thus the conclusion of the Harry Potter series--within weeks.

reason #4. It will be four years until Deathly Hallows will be released as a movie. I predicted that by that time, my interest in the lives of Harry, Ron, and Hermione may have waned.

So, to avoid this anti-climatic end to Harry Potter, I decided to avoid all media stories about book 7, buy a copy of the book, read it cover-to-cover, and enjoy all the plot twists, magical spells, untimely deaths, mystical creatures, and whatever else J.K. Rowling had in store. I wanted to approach the end of the Harry Potter series the way it was supposed to be approached.


Well, almost the way it was supposed to be approached. I must face facts: I have committed a cardinal sin in the world of Harry Potter. I have not read book 1-6. Worse yet, instead of reading book 6, I just went to Half-Blooded Prince's Wikipedia page to get the quick synopsis.

You see, by buying book 7, I jumped to the end of the series and used the movies as a pale and inadequate facsimile of the actual books. But you have to understand something: while I consider Harry Potter to be good storytelling steeped in an intricate world of rich and dynamic characters, the books aren't a part of my life--they're not what I grew up on.

Nevertheless, despite not reading books 1-6 (and thus facing reading book 7 with far less gusto than other Harry Potter fans), two Saturdays ago I went to buy Deathly Hallows. As I said before, I did not stand in a line for 8 hours to get the book. I just went to Best Buy at 10am. Why Best Buy? Well, I wanted to avoid a large Harry Potter crowd, and I figured no one would think to go to the "computer/tv/music store" to buy a book. Not only that, but a relative gave me a $20 gift card to Best Buy. In other words: "Two birds, one stone."

Now, for some reason I assumed that my local Best Buy opened at 9am. Well, when I strolled in at 10:05am, I realized that the store actually opens at 10am on Saturdays. "Great" I thought, "I'm here five minutes after they opened to buy Harry Potter, I look real cool right about now." As I walked through the doors, and exchanged "good morning" pleasantries with the security guard, I turned straight ahead and saw a very prominent Harry Potter display. We're talking a big, yellow display with a cardboard Harry Potter standing next to it.


"What to do," I thought. "If I just waltz up to this advertising monstrosity, grab a copy of book 7, and walk over to the cashier, people may think that I'm about 30 seconds away from breaking down in a hysterical, tears-of-joy, Deathly Hallows conniption." I had to make this shopping trip as nonchalant as possible.

So, what would be "nonchalant"? Oh, randomly meandering throughout the store, that's what.

Yeah, I somehow found myself looking over Best Buy's vacuum cleaner selection, and comparing their washer & dryers. About 30 seconds later I was in the computer section. After that, headphones were staring me in the face.

So, after about 2 minutes of bouncing aimlessly throughout the store, I had to face the truth--I had nothing to do in this store except buy the damn book. Well, at least I avoided the whole "run up to the book, snatch the closest copy, high tail it to the cashier, and scurry off to read the book in one sitting" scenario.

Well, once I decided just go buy the book, I knew the awkwardness would be over. Or so I thought. I got my copy of the book, walked to the cashier, and placed the book on the counter. The cashier, who had probably been on the job for about 7 minutes by this point, said "oh, Harry Potter" with equal parts "oh yeah, this came out today" and "oooohhh, you're one of them." Now, as you can tell, I wanted to avoid all perception that I was a crazy, obsessed, un-balanced fanatic (petty, I know), so I quickly responded "oh, I'm not one of those people." And the cashier's response to my rebuttal? "Uhuhh, sure you're not."

*Grrrr*

I flirted with the idea of explaining my reasoning for buying book 7...thought about stating that this was my first Harry Potter book purchase...thought about saying anything that would disapprove his assumption that I had a life-sized cutout of Albus Dumbledore at home.

But, to avoid a "methinks the lady doth protest too much" situation, I just shut up and let him scan the book. And then, it was time to pay. And it was here when I remembered how I was buying this book--my gift card.

Great! Suddenly, without warning, I became an apparent self-hating Harry Potter fan-in-denial, using a gift card that my grandma probably bought me, buying the latest Harry Potter book as soon as the store opened. You know my mission to buy this book as nonchalantly as possible? Yeah, consider that mission a failure.

But you wanna know something? As I got back in my car, and drove off, I realized that I had the last book of the Harry Potter series in MY CAR. Right there, about two feet from me, was how it all ends. I felt like I had Texas gold; I couldn't wait to start reading.


Two weeks--and 759 pages later--I have finished the book. I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that book 7 was a superb read that delivered everything I expected and more. Yes, it's true that I did not stand in a line for 8 hours, or read each and every Harry Potter book cover-to-cover, but that doesn't really matter. I threw myself head-first into Deathly Hallows: I dedicated myself to the book, and I soaked in every word along the way. So now count me amongst the legion of fans who shoot evil-death-eyes at anyone who has disparaging remarks about the book, the plot, the author, or anything else having to do with Potter.


And if anyone can get me a Cloak of Invisibility, that would be great.