Goodbye, Harry

Some nine years ago in Ann Arbor, I bought the first Harry Potter book in a Barnes and Noble store along Washtenaw. It was a one-storey building back then, and I remember the store as a rather dimly-lit one, with green and brown furnishings to match the company's colors. The book tables were brown, and upon one sat a pile of books with a boy and a broom, with a unicorn in the background. The unicorn caught my eye, and I picked up the book to read the blurb. Boy wizard, wizard school...we all know what the book's about. A sign nearby said the author, J.K. Rowling, would read from the book and sign copies. I checked the date; I'd missed the reading by two days. I didn't mind so much then, since I had no idea who the author was and didn't know if I would like the book or not. Well, for nearly a decade after that day, I've bought every book in the series soon after it was released.

I haven't grown as much in nine years as say, the kids who started reading at age 10 and today are sophomores in college. But I've experienced a number of phases in life and believe I've grown in a different manner. Ten years is no small amount of time, even if you don't go through growth spurts (I'm not sure I ever had one though), and it's hard to believe I'm far from the 19 year-old I once was - a little lighter, with thinner glasses, considerably more naive and idealistic. Regrets? A few, yes, like missing out on that J.K. Rowling reading and signing session.

As I write, my copy of the seventh and last book is in transit. Mine is one of the 1,200 copies that Deepdiscount.com mailed out ahead of the official release date, an act which has now earned the company a lawsuit. Even though this doesn't mean I'll get my book ahead of everyone else, it does mean I will have to wait fewer days for the book to arrive in the mail. For many others, they've already had to say goodbye to Harry and his friends. I'm going to make mine a slow farewell.