#166 - Potter-mania

I'm nearly 50 years old. I shouldn't be getting this excited about a movie coming out. However...

I can't wait for Harry Potter 5.

It's interesting to me that I've gotten so into this whole Harry Potter thing. Ironically, the only reason I even checked into the books these many years ago was all the fuss being made by certain factions over the allegedly evil purposes of the series. J. K. Rowling, they said, was poisoning the minds of impressionable youngsters by introducing them into a world of witchcraft with decidedly pagan overtones.

Such reactions always stimulate my curiosity. Mrs. Woody and I hadn't been married very long when we first checked into the books. "Sorcerer's Stone" had been out for awhile by that time, and I believe "Chamber of Secrets" had just come out when Mrs. Woody first decided to read the books. She was suitably impressed enough to get me interested in giving them a read as well.

We were hooked.

Since that time we have breathlessly awaited each new volume. You can imagine that we are now sitting on tenterhooks waiting for the final volume in this magical world to be revealed this summer. Like countless others, we have pre-ordered Book 7 ("The Deathly Hallows." Oooh.) and can't wait to see what Rowling does with this larger-than-life hero she's created. Disappointment, for some, is inevitable, but I really want to understand what Rowling envisions as the crowning moment of this series.

It doesn't help that the extended trailer for the new movie is out now.

Mrs. Woody discovered it the other day. She let me know during my lunch-time check-in call that she and the Woodyettes had already enjoyed it three times together. Since I've been in team meetings all week, I wasn't able to see it myself until that evening.

(I should note here that the Woodyettes — particularly the older one — have requested that, perhaps, Mommy and Daddy should see the movie before they do. Just, you know, in case.)

Now I really can't wait.

This promises to be a banner summer, book-wise. With the release of the new movie coming about a week ahead of the last book in the series, we'll be on Harry Potter overload for weeks. Our tradition — even though it takes much longer — is to read the book aloud as a family. Daddy does all his best character voices, and we will read to the exclusion of nearly all other activities during that time. Certainly TV will bite the dust since all we'll have will be reruns by that time.

Then we'll breathlessly await the arrival of each new movie so we can lose ourselves in this wonderful fantasy world that Rowling has so lovingly created for us.

Long live (??) Harry Potter.