Harry Potter (no spoilers, I hope)

I just spent the past 2 days reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I can't say it was a gripping read all the way through (there are afterall 607 pages of it) but at some points it was very very hard to put the book down even just to eat.

It was absolutely fantastic. I was quite disappointed after reading Book 5 but 6 was bloody good and this was amazing. There is about 100 pages of not muchness, which was at least easy to read, but the rest more than made up for it.

About 1/3 the way through it it occurred to me that that was the last time I will be discovering a new Harry Potter book... from here on out it is all re-reads and I will always know what happens. Even if I don't read the books for 10 years and come back to them later on, even though I will have forgotten the details I will know what happens at the end.

Potter fans from here on out will never again have to wait breathlessly for another book to come out, never spend years wondering what's going to happen, re-reading the books that have appeared, teasing out new details and putting together new theories of who and what and how.

I hope there are other books that can excite people the same way the Harry Potter books have, becuase I can't think of anything else that has turned at least Britain's attention the way these books have. Speculation in the media, queues outside bookstores at midnight, costumes, how everyone knows who Harry, Ron, and Hermione are without having to read the books, how you can say "I've finished reading it!" and everyone will know what you're talking about.

I'm not ashamed to say that I joined in the queues at midnight - I wanted to be a part of the excitement, wanted to experience this phenomenon that has taken Britain. It was, afterall, only going to happen once. I spoke to other fans, posed for pictures for strangers, took pictures of strangers, discussed plot points and theories with people I didn't know the names of, led a group verbal attack against a chav who came around saying "Harry Potter dies!" (the 109th person to tell us so) and generally had a great time.

I doubt it will be something people will talk about for years to come, but if any further generations of readers ask, I will be proud to say I was there. Hell yes.