It's that time of year again, and I'm saving up strength for the Harry Potter marathon that will begin shortly. Yes, I am a Harry Potter freak. My mom got me into the books several years ago - she forced me to listen to The Sorceror's Stone on a drive from Salt Lake City to Palo Alto during law school. That was all it took.
I've since read each of the books three times: once for personal enjoyment and once to Scout and Isaac. I'll be reading them again to Greta and Lily in a few years. But starting at 4:00 AM on Saturday, I will be reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for 12 straight hours, or however long it takes. There will be no sharing of the experience with my children. They must fend for themselves in this nasty, brutish, and short first few days of the last Potter novel.
I have some precedent for reading binges. Back when I was an undergraduate student in London, I ran out of money two weeks before I was to fly home. To save money (and sanity), I read a Dickens novel each night, starting at 6:00 PM and reading nonstop until 6:00 AM. I finished a novel every night for 10 straight nights. I would sleep in until 2:00 or so, shower, eat "dinner," and then go back to reading.
I will not blog the secrets of the book, though I will be sorely tempted to drop hints to family members who prefer to sip rather than gorge themselves on the book. But let me just state my personal opinion, not having read any rumors or anything else about this last book: I believe Harry Potter is the last horcrux, and the only way Voldemort dies completely is with Harry's own death.
But that's just my guess. And now back to the regularly scheduled open source programming....