Tempted, But I Won't Give In

Unlike millions of other geeks who dressed in wizard robes with fake owls glued to their shoulders and stood in five-hour long lines, I waited till the day after to get the new Harry Potter book. That doesn't cancel out the fact, however, that as soon as I got off my shift this afternoon I beelined for Target, and made straight for the "literary" section (chick lit, brain candy abundance, spare me), barely stopped at the end of the aisle display to pick up the book, pivot-stepped to the shortest line and was reading it by the next stoplight. Yes, in the car, at the stoplight.

It was there, on Hiawatha and Lake, that I did what I always do with a new book. Urrrrrrrr...screeeeeech!!! No, I didn't cause an accident. I did the vastly unthinkable. I turned to the last page and began reading.

Wait a minute. Hold up a sec. This is the book that half the literate world has been waiting for, and that the author and publishers have implored major metropolitan newspapers to keep mum on. I can't read the last page. I don't care if I do do that for every book. (I'm not quite into the fourth chapter of Matthew Pearl's The Poe Shadow, but I know that Edgar Allen Poe was involved in some pretty heavy stuff there in Paris.) People have lost their jobs over leaking the end of this series (that guy with the blog), and yet, as nonchalantly as other car habits (singing, checking my teeth, scrutinizing my hair), here I was reading the end of this great mystery.

Unthinkable!! You have to understand though - I hate surprises. In life, books, movies, love, you name it. I am not a surprise kind of girl! (Just a word of warning, surprise parties are a surefire way to incur massive embarrassment and slight irritation. I know, I know, it's the thought behind it, and all. But really, I would much rather be able to control some element of a situation, or at least believe that I do.) Anyways, back to Harry Potter. I had to ask myself, there at that stoplight, as the book covers came smashing together on my finger, whether or not it was worth the o.c.d. habit, to read the end?

I decided, there and then. At 759 pages, this is going to be a long wait, but I think I can manage it. Wait, who am I kidding? This is going to take every ounce of self control I have!