Thoughts on Our Eagerness for Harry Potter's Finale

Where will you be on July 21, 2007? Will you be at the bookstore at midnight, running your hands over Mary GrandPre's beautiful cover illustration? Will you be eagerly awaiting a shipment from Amazon, courtesy of your [hopefully] smiling U.S. Postal carrier? Or will you be going on with your everyday life, shaking your head in wonder at the phenomenon that is Pottermania?

I'll be in the second group. I have young kids, so midnight openings are in my past, at least for the time being. And I must admit, the discount that webstores like Amazon and Overstock offer is worth the few hours' wait to me. After all, I'm a very fast reader, so even if my mail carrier comes mid-afternoon like he did two years ago with Book 6 (argh!), I'll still finish it before I hit the hay that night. It'll be annoying, but I'll survive.

And why will I be so annoyed? How is it that Pottermania is as huge as it is? I can recall few things that compare. The re-release of Lucas's remastered Star Wars films in the 90's comes to mind. (Along with memories of waiting for two hours in the theatre to get a good seat. I was in college, so I had the time way back then, and, yes, I'm a geek.) As do the releases of several gaming systems. What sets J.K. Rowling's series apart has to be its breadth of appeal. 8-year-olds and 60-year-olds alike eagerly await Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. You don't have to be a fantasy fan to cheer Harry, Hermione and Ron. To root for Arthur Weasley in his verbal sparring matches with Lucius Malfoy. To wish, even for an instant, that you'd gotten a letter from Hogwarts on your eleventh birthday, too. What began as an apparent children's book series has proven to be a saga for people of all ages and backgrounds.