No Spoilers Here

I worked from home today, because I'm still sick, but I did still accomplish something important this evening. I finished book seven, The Deathly Hallows, in the Harry Potter series. Why is this such a big deal? I managed to do it and found out what happened in the end by reading it with my own eyes. I'm not one of those people who glances at the end of a book to find out what happened early either.

When book seven came out, last July, I was in Princeton, NJ, heading back from Boston. I had only read the first four books, so I was not optimistic that I would get to the end of the last novel without finding out which wizard prevailed. When I started reading books in fifteen minute increments, I didn't think it would help too much, although at least some progress was better than none. I still like the fact that I've been savoring each novel almost as if I were eating a single piece of a dark chocolate bar every day. Oh, wait. I do that, too.

On at least two occasions, I had to cover my ears and make panicked noises in order to avoid hearing about the ending. One other time, I thought that a friend had inadvertently revealed at least part of the ending. She felt guilty, thinking that everyone knew, because it was on Good Morning America. Well, I've been spared from almost all entertainment news ever since I quit watching almost all television and quit listening to non-NPR radio, that has made my avoidance easier. The fortunate thing is that what my friend revealed to me actually happened in book six, so it was still a surprise.

Since I've been sick, I've picked up the pace on the final book just a bit. I probably read the last two thirds of the book while I was sick. The Harry Potter books are perfect reading for when you're already feeling a little fuzzy. In the past several months, aside from my brief morning wake-up reading, I've been mostly reading while I'm eating. The only problem with that is that when a book gets particularly exciting, your soup gets cold.