Thursday, July 26, 2007
Reading is Magic
So I'm about 200 pages into the latest Harry Potter book. Before you go thinking my lips move when I read or something, I should clarify that I didn't get the book until Monday, since I'm borrowing it from Guest Blogger Kathy. Plus I work, and it turns out they don't like it if you read under the desk while you're meeting with clients. And I'm still putting aside a certain amount of time to bathe, eat, and sleep, so my progress is somewhat hindered. But so far it's pretty good with (SPOILER ALERT!) lots of magical stuff happening to whimsical British people. I hear the surprise ending is J.K. Rowling sitting on a huge pile of money.
I have never really felt so much pressure to read a book quickly, I have to say. Everywhere I go, it seems like people are talking about it, loudly, with no sense of the potential ruination they may cause for others. I have had three separate people tell me that they don't read the books but read only the ending so they could lord it over other, more interested parties. Even my own family members have been racing to the finish. This is not a pressure one gets with say, the latest from John Updike. A sense of contemporary urban isolation is hardly a twist ending.
So I'm about 200 pages into the latest Harry Potter book. Before you go thinking my lips move when I read or something, I should clarify that I didn't get the book until Monday, since I'm borrowing it from Guest Blogger Kathy. Plus I work, and it turns out they don't like it if you read under the desk while you're meeting with clients. And I'm still putting aside a certain amount of time to bathe, eat, and sleep, so my progress is somewhat hindered. But so far it's pretty good with (SPOILER ALERT!) lots of magical stuff happening to whimsical British people. I hear the surprise ending is J.K. Rowling sitting on a huge pile of money.
I have never really felt so much pressure to read a book quickly, I have to say. Everywhere I go, it seems like people are talking about it, loudly, with no sense of the potential ruination they may cause for others. I have had three separate people tell me that they don't read the books but read only the ending so they could lord it over other, more interested parties. Even my own family members have been racing to the finish. This is not a pressure one gets with say, the latest from John Updike. A sense of contemporary urban isolation is hardly a twist ending.
