Regarding Potter

As previously mentioned, I haven't read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yet, placing me, I expect, solidly in the minority in the Western world. And I won't be reading for at least a few weeks. But now I have a better reason to wait for it.

Nancy and I accompanied several family members to a couple of the big release parties last Friday night/Saturday morning. We also saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with her family on opening day. So we're pretty much in the groove. As we were talking about it the other night, Nancy said, "It kind of makes me want to read the books now." So she is. She started Book 1 yesterday. She'll likely start Book 2 tomorrow.

I currently own Books 1,2,3, and 6, the last of which Nancy gave me when it came out. We can probably find Books 4 and 5 at the library. So Nancy will make her way through the first six books, and when she gets to "Deathly Hallows", we'll buy it and read it together. That, I think, is well worth waiting for.

To review:

* Nancy bought me "Firefly" for Christmas when we were dating.
* She's bought me Seasons 1-3 of "Babylon 5", as well as the movie collection.
* She got really excited last week when we learned that the local club store is now carrying "Stargate SG-1".
* And now she's reading Harry Potter.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I have the coolest wife ever.

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While we're on the subject of Harry Potter, I should say something about spoilers. I don't mind them. I already know, for example, that a few of my predictions from the prior post were accurate (or at least close), and that a few were dead wrong. And I know that body count is much higher than I anticipated. I've got a pretty good idea who ultimately lives and who dies. And that doesn't bother me. Spoilers may give away the destination, but not the journey.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. In the first episode of "Babylon 5", Londo Mollari reveals that he's had a dream about how he will die: he'll be strangled to death by G'Kar twenty years or so in the future. The writer, J. Michael Straczynski, throws out that little bit of information right up front. He tells you, "This is what's going to happen." But you don't actually see it happen, at least not then. In fact, you don't see it happen until near the end of the third season, when one of the characters is momentarily transported to the future. And you have to watch all five seasons, plus one of the made-for-TV movies, to really understand why it happens. In this respect, knowing that Londo dies at the hands of G'Kar right at the beginning of the story doesn't really tell you a lot.

And that's how I feel about Harry Potter, too. Knowing what happens, without knowing the context of how and why it happens, isn't much of a spoiler at all.