Reading Harry Potter

Lane and I have finished the the new Harry Potter book. I read the first one aloud to my boys when they were quite a bit younger. For the first three books I read them a chapter or two then would send them to bed and pick up whatever book I was reading at the time. The series hooked me on the fourth book. With it after I sent them to bed I continued reading and ran two bookmarks. We never worried about reading them right when they came out, we waited and bought them in paperback. When the sixth one came out I didn't wait for the paperback, but I waited until I could get it used at Bookmans. This last time though Lane and I drove to Hastings, fifty-five miles one way, to get it as midnight. They were having a release party so we went a couple of hours early to see what all was going on. For the most part it was pretty lame. I have seen pictures of other release parties that have looked like fun, but most of them were at privately owned book stores. It's not that a chain couldn't have a fun party. It is just that there is not the same incentive for a manager who is getting paid no matter how the party goes as there is for a small business owner who relies on local customers for his income. Whatever the reason though, this one was lame because the workers looked bored. A basic rule for a party is if the hosts are having fun everyone else will have fun. If the hosts are looking at their watch trying to kill time until midnight the guests will do the same. Lane and I ended up reading comic books until the line formed. I had to be to work by seven the next morning, so we grabbed spots in the front of the line. As soon as we had our hands on two copies, one for Fria Chica, we were out the door. Of course we stopped and grabbed a few groceries on the way out of town. We don't have a grocery store in our small town so we never head home without at least milk and bread. Lane put a half a gallon of chocolate milk in the cart to drink on the way home. He read to me on the drive home and wanted to stay up and continue, but I had to get some sleep.
The next day he waited for me to get home, luckily I only worked half a day.
We spent the rest of that day and most of Sunday laying around reading to each other. It was odd that it was only the two of us this time. Lee would have joined us but he is still in Europe. Jason is thirteen and really has better ways to spend his time than reading with his family. The fun thing about just the two of us reading was that we could stop and talk about the book whenever we wanted, Lee never puts up with this kind of behavior. I would be reading and feel him jerk next to me and knew something had made him think. We would stop and talk about something that had happened earlier that this had cleared up, or what we thought this meant for the future. When Sunday night rolled around we still had 150 pages left. I told him that I wouldn't mind if he read on without me and that I would catch up. He waited for me though and we finished together on Monday night. At one point he interrupted the reading to mention that that all of the Harry Potter geeks that were dressed up Friday night were probably crying right now. We laughed at them then continued. A few pages later I had to hand him the book and let him read to me while I cried. He ducked his head in shame and said I can't believe my own mother is a Harry Potter geek. We finished that night and all I will say is 759 pages is a hell of a lot to read out loud.