I was going to do a retrospective of my experiences with Harry Potter. Something along the lines of what Lisa at Bluestalking Reader did. You know: how I discovered it through a friend in 1999, went whole hog by that Christmas, but how we didn’t really get into the hype until the 5th book, which we picked up on the publication date (rather than waiting), but really really didn’t get into the whole lets-all-read-this-book-on-the-same-day thing until last time, when Hubby picked it up at midnight on the pub day, and we both devoured it in about 25 hours.

But then, I saw this in the morning paper, and thought it was much better than anything I could write.

I’m not going to the midnight release party; I enjoy my sleep too much. But Hubby and M are off at about 9:30 tonight. Hubby’s planning on diving right in once they get home, and hopefully finishing it soon enough on Saturday so that I can have my turn. And we reserved a copy at the library (we’re number 88, and they’re getting 100 copies, so we should get one tomorrow!) for M to read, since she was unhappy with being third in line.

See you sometime early next week with my thoughts on the book. Have a great Harry weekend!

Overheard in Target the other night:

Teen #1: “Harry Potter is so, like, overdone!”
Teen #2: “Well, it is like so popular, with the books and movies and everyone reading them.”
Teen #1: “Yeah, but it’s on everything. Look: there’s Harry Potter pens and bags. I’m so sick of Harry Potter!”

And you know, in a way, Teen #1’s right. It’s one thing to sell a book or a movie, but the world is totally saturated with Harry Potter stuff. From low-end items like gift bags with Daniel/Emma/Rupert’s faces splashed on them, to the higher end stuff, like the Triwizard Champions wand set, which sits proudly in M’s room.

So, in honor of there being only two days left until the end, I set out to find the most unusual, most unique Harry Potter kitsch out there.

In my looking, I found lots of the usual stuff: t-shirts, posters, bags. This was my favorite:

Amazon had a whole four pages of Harry Potter watches. And if you aren’t a Gryffindor fan, there are shops for Ravenclaw, Sytherin, and Hufflepuff houses, too. They’re even pandering to the parents who want educational toys for their kids, but still want Harry Potter toys (there’s this one, too). It’s never too early to get Halloween costume ideas. You could try McGonagall, Flitwick, Hooch, or Dumbledore this year, instead of the usual Harry/Hermione fare.

Though, I have to admit, this is rather frightening:

The merchandise isn’t limited to the tons of costumes or Lego toys out there. Love Harry so much that you would like to have him around all the time? Try the Dumbledore’s Army throw pillow:

(Throw Pillows not your style? Try the Marauder’s Map wall scroll instead) Even better: have Daniel Radcliff right next to your head every night!

Under the category “completely impractical but probably collector’s items somewhere”

And, hands down, the thing that made me laugh the most (found on Ebay, of course):

Try that one on for size. I’m done being saturated.

First, a story (geez, I’m sound more and more like my dad as I get older!): Last year, for our family reunion talent show, we convinced M to get up in front of the family and declare that she could answer any question asked her about the Harry Potter books #1-6 and movies #1-4. Amazingly, she did. From the easy ones (What class does Snape teach?) to the more difficult (What portrait hangs over Dumbledore’s desk?). I’m sure she’s not the most versed person out there, but she was pretty impressive.

She was also the inspiration for today’s post: Let’s talk trivia!

Test your own knowledge of Harry trivia with the Harry Potter Mega Quiz.

Or, take a stab at our library’s trivia questions:
1. What wood was Harry’s wand made out of?
2. Whose hair was Hermione supposed to get for her Polyjuice potion?
3. How many people was Sirius Black accused of killing and with what spell?
4. In the Tri-wizard tournament’s second challenge, what charm did Fleur use?
5. What are the name of the creatures that pull the carriages that Harry can see but Ron can’t?
6. According to Dumbledore, what is Voledmort’s sixth Horcrux?

If you think you’ve got a good question, you could try to stump M. Any question posed, she’ll answer (without looking it up, I’ll make sure… if she looks it up, I’ll let you know ;).

At the very least, it’s a fun diversion for a hot summer’s day.

As for M, she’s spending her day memorizing the Sorting Hat Song and “studying” for the trivia contest at the Grand Hallows Ball on Friday night.

Well, maybe not a bonanza, but I liked the way it sounded.

I confess that I’m borrowing this idea (and some of the videos) from Fuse #8. Giving credit where credit is due and all that. She has a mini-HP Video Sunday post here, and another video to watch here.

In the interview department, you can see one with JK Rowling (on the Jonathan Ross show on the BBC) here. It’s fun (and a little risque), and she keeps things pretty close. It interesting, though, that she lets slip that Deathly Hallows is a “bloodbath”. Hmmm….

I’m sure there’s more out there (isn’t there always?), but mostly I’m using this as an excuse to post our family’s favorite Potter video diversion: Potter Puppet Pals and the Mysterious Ticking Noise. (I dare you not to sing it after you watch!)

So, to celebrate today, I’m going to link to several HP posts I’ve found over the past few weeks. (Think of it as a HP carnival; if I missed something important, by all means, let me know!) Go, enjoy, leave a comment.

First, there’s hubby’s extremely popular Harry Potter predictions post. It’s what generates the most traffic for his site… wonder why? He says he’s going to put up another one this week, his second-to-last-HP-post-ever. If he gets around to it, I’ll link to it.

Erin, at Miss Erin, has been celebrating the release of Deathly Hallows for the past two weeks with a collection of Harry Potter quotes. My favorites have been the Luna days. It’s been fun to browse through.

You should definitely pop by Brooklyn Arden, and visit Cheryl, one of the few people in the world who have actually read Deathly Hallows (though she’s not telling!). Check out her post, in which she becomes incredibly(!) famous.

Ron Charles, book critic for the Washington Post, decries the HP series (and adults who read it) as cultural infantilism. Over at the The American Scene, they’ve posted a response. As has Kathryne, over at The Longstockings. Take a minute to read their other Harry posts, too. (found via A Chair, A Fireplace & A Teacozy, where Liz has her own post about HP bashing, too.) Oh, and Colleen at Chasing Ray also puts in her thoughtful two cents in defense of the books.

On the lighter side (I found this through the Bookworm Carnival — go visit that, too — at the hidden side of a leaf), Bob at bobarama dot com describes what he’s going to do to avoid being told the ending of Deathly Hallows before he reads it. (He’s also got a post about the movie, as well as other linky goodness…)

Alan Jacobs blogs for Books & Culture about his predictions and hopes for the seventh book.

I’m sure there’s more (I know there’s more, but I can’t remember where… ARGH!). Let me know, and I’ll post updates.

Update #1 (see… I knew there was more!) via Becky: Over at Say No to Crack, a very amusing comparison of Harry Potter and Star Wars.

Update #2: I said when Hubby got his HP post up, I’d link to it. He did, so here it is.

Enjoy!

I’m not a movie reviewer… I don’t have the vocabulary, or the discriminatory taste it takes. In other words, I like pretty much everything. I usually leave the detailed reviews to Hubby. 🙂 That said, I really liked Order of the Phoenix. No, it wasn’t perfect, but the good outweighed the not-so-good, and it turned out to be a good, tight, fun movie. And besides, it’s Harry Potter week, and I thought it might be fun to celebrate with a Harry Potter post a day. We’ll see if I can do it.

On to the movie…

The good: Luna was perfect. Just how I imagined her. Yeah, they could have done more with her, but I liked what they did do. The D.A. was excellent, too. Some of the best sequences of the movie. They managed Harry’s anger quite well — it came across loud and clear without being oppressing, which I often felt it was in the book. They slimmed and trimmed down the plot without doing much damage to the essentials, and kept most of the good stuff in. Fred and George went out with a bang, though I missed “Give her hell for us, Peeves!” Which leads me to Umbridge: she was perfect. Suitably prim and horrifying. Maybe not quite horrifying enough, but it worked. And while I missed the final moments with Dumbledore, the ending worked well enough for me.

The bad: Snape. They didn’t learn! This man is important, people, and they’re still not giving him his due. Sure, he had the Occlumency classes with Harry, but they weren’t intense enough. And, yeah, while they managed to get the pensive scene in (good for them), they missed out on a lot that they could have done to build up to Half-Blood Prince. I’m not sure how Snape is going to work in the next movie, or if it’ll even be remotely believable. Lupin also falls in the “they didn’t get enough to do” category: he was vastly underused, too.

The ministry fight — eh. Not bloody enough. Bellatrix wasn’t given enough to do (Helena Bonham Carter played her as deranged rather than really angry, which is what I thought she was), and I really wanted to see her grovel before Voldemort. Speaking of him, the final battle with Dumbledore was okay, and I liked how they portrayed his possession of Harry. Missed Dumbledore’s assessment of Voldemort: “You are quite wrong,” said Dumbledore…”Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness.”

And, Kreacher was there, but just lurking in the background. I’m curious to know what role he’s going to play in Deathly Hallows.

Still, I thought it was a good movie. Funny, too, now that I think about it. Lots of wonderful, choice little moments.

What did you think?