Last weekend my friends and Betsy came to visit me. We often spend much of our time together talking about books and movies, and, of course, the media has been abuzz about a significant juncture of the two - the final Harry Potter movie.
I started reading Harry Potter in sixth grade and loved it. I was so excited when my seventh grade English teacher told us we would be reading the first book in class. The books captured my imagination and I was right there in Diagon Alley or eluding Fitch with Harry, Ron and Hermione. Unfortunately, the release of the books was too slow for me to maintain interest and Goblet of Fire, the fourth book of seven, was the last I read for years.
Five years ago I tool a college-level British literature course from a teacher who was wild about Harry Potter, so much so that she assigned book six, The Half-Blood Prince, for our modern literature book. I was ambivalent at first but quickly got right back into the story. After devouring book six, I went back and read book five to see what I had missed. This time I was seeing the amazing craft and bigger themes that J.K. Rowling had included - references to history, mythology, classic literature.. My mind was blown.
The last book, Deathly Hallows, was still to new at the time for our prison library to have a copy and I didn't know anyone who had it, so I had to stop again. When I arrived here the library had a copy, but I was always finding other things to read. I promised my self I would get to it eventually.
Sandy and Betsy both mentioned their excitement about the movie release. When Betsy heard that I hadn't read the last book, she said in her choir teacher voice, "Whatever you're reading right now, put it down and read book seven. You have to." I did as I was told.
I finished the book today and the first thing I did was sit down and write a letter of gratitude to Betsy for waking my senses. Deathly Hallows is a perfect culmination of events from the first six books. I've been talking to my friend, Lee, about it all week - the layering and significance of little bits, parallels to Scripture.
Now I want to go back and read them all again... and maybe I won't put it off so long this time.
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