The End Always Gets Me

I always find it very difficult to part from a good book. At times it is even emotional for me, like I want to cling on to its pages, savor every word, every syllable so that the last few pages will last as long as possible while I move to the destiny that is the end. Among all of the books I have read my favorites are Little Women (unabridged), The Lord of The Rings, The Memory Keepers Daughter, A Crooked Kind of Perfect and just recently the entire series of Harry Potter.

I was late to catch the Harry Potter wave. I never had an interest to read the books, nor see the movies until I won a copy of The Prisoner of Azkaban as a contestant on a radio game while traveling to work. A friend of mine had the two movies which preceded The Prisoner of Azakaban so I decided it only made sense to see those before tearing off the film of the third. Instantly, I loved the movies.

Still, it was several years after that when I came across an unread copy of the first installment, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. Tired, hot and pregnant I found refuge in the only air conditioned room in our house and dove head first into book 1, and found that with page after page I was soon starting book 4 and finding myself at the beginning of my last year of grad school and no time to read. It took a year to conquer Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Now, working full time teaching and being a mom of two, I find that still I have little time to read the way I want to.

A colleague and friend at school was kind enough to let me borrow the audio version of the unabridged Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Over the course of the last three weeks I have immersed myself in these stories, having them read to me with the same wonder and captivation of a child at a library story hour.

Tonight, my journey with Harry Potter comes to an end. Although I am glad to have finally experienced the end of Voldemort and the preservation of love and loyalty I admit that I am also sad. For Harry, Ron and Hermione have become like friends, and saying goodbye to friends is never easy. Teary eyed and satisfied I placed the last of the discs into its protective case and packed the set away.