July 22, 2007
I went to a big Harry Potter party on Friday night, then traipsed over to my favorite Borders to wait in line for my copy. Got home at 1:00am, read two chapters, then went to bed because I had a very busy day on Saturday.
Which meant that I didn't get a chance to pick it up again until 11pm that night (after wresting it from my 9 year old's hands after he finally fell asleep) (I think the only thing that kept him from staying up all night to read it was because he'd just returned from camping and was overtired).
Got home today after church and was blissfully left alone for hours (miraculous, really) to curl up and finish it.
I loved it.
I was satisfied with all of it, and although it wasn't the same kind of feel or adventure as the other books…it fit. It worked. There were lots of things that had to happen and be worked out. I took my time reading it, refusing to let myself race through to see what was going to happen, particularly in those scenes where one really wanted to race through.
But now that it's over, I'm grieving.
So, a few questions for the house:
1) how long did it take you to read it?
2) did you get it at midnight?
3) did you peek at the epilogue?
4) were you right or wrong about Snape?
The second installment of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles takes Victoria to Venice and Rome.
My novel, 
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:56 pm
1. Read a couple chapters when I got home at 1, finally fell asleep. Woke up the next morning, dragged the chaise lounge outside and read, and read and read. Got up to stretch, eat, I texted a bit, washed the kitchen floor (can you tell I was stretching it out?) and read it in bed. Got up this morning and finished it by 930 AM.
2. Yup!
3. NO!
4. I WAS RIGHT!!!
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:26 pm
1. I started it at 10pm last night and finished it at 6 am this morning. I was very tired for Church.
2. Yes
3. Only the last sentence.
4. Right.
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:54 pm
1. Started at 1am Saturday, Finished Noon on sunday. Probably would have finished it Saturday night if I hadn’t taken so many breaks saturday afternoon to clear my head.
2. Yes. The Ann Arbor Meijer had a mile long line, but I waited. I had nothing else to do!
3. I glanced once when I was seeing how many pages there were. (I’m OCD and like to calculate the exact middle of a book when I get it)
4. I was right.
Next big Harry Potter event for Me: HARRY AND THE POTTERS playing the Ann Arbor District Library! Be there or be square! The best Wizard Rock band ever!
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:18 pm
1. I ordered mine online and I got it at 10 am Saturday. I started reading at 11 am and finished Saturday evening at 9 pm. Read straight through without stopping.
2. No.
3. NO!
4. I have to say I hadn’t totally made up my mind but I was definitely leaning toward good guy.
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:42 pm
1.Haven’t touched it yet. Teenage son grabbed it. It’s been calling to me from his room, but I have so much to do, if I give in, I’m sunk. I just finished reading Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman last night. Not a new book, but a beautiful one. Ah, from one magic frying pan to a longer, magic fire…
2.At 2 a.m. my eleven year old daughter and I finally stumbled up to the cash register, book in hand. It was a HUGE crowd.
3.NEVER!
4. Don’t know yet! Oh please, oh please, oh please don’t kill him. My daughter heard me wail from my desk the other night,”I don’t want to read it, he’s going to die!” She came running in, jumped on my lap and said,”Don’t worry Mom, Alan Rickman is an actor, he won’t die.” This is the same child who said at 12:01 as everyone cheered in the bookstore,”The whole room has changed, it’s my birthday!” It was.
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:52 pm
1. We got it for our youngest and he read it in roughly 6-7 hours. Hard to tell, since he read during the car rides to and from a swim meet and then locked the door to his bedroom to finish, so the reading was staggered - but he read it pretty quickly.
2. Kiddo wisely went to bed at a reasonable hour; he sleeps hard so we never leave him in the house alone and hubby went to fetch.
3. He didn’t peek.
4. He says he was right about Snape.
And, in case you’re interested, I do plan to read them all someday, but I don’t mind knowing how things are going to end.
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Easiest quiz ever.
1.milliseconds since i didnt read it
2.no I watched the goobers on TV instead
3.nope
4.Snape? whats a Snape??
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:30 am
1) I wandered by the shop at midnight (after watching OotP in the cinema, again) but the queue was so very very long that I went home.
2) Bought the book at around 1 the next day, finished it just after 6.
3)No way.
4) Yes!
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:55 am
Oh Colleen, I have to wait for the Harry Potter book until November. I don’t wanna read the English version, so I have to wait
I’m so sad because I know that everybody will talk about it and then I will know how it ends. But I do my best not to listen or look it up at the net 
I hope that you had a good time reading it!! Oh by the way I’m reading Gardella 2 now
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:15 am
LOVED it!!
1) how long did it take you to read it?
Started it at noon on Saturday- couldn’t read straight thru because I was with my Gramma- BUT I read from noon til midnight when I could- at which point I had 200 pages to go, then finished on Sunday.
2) did you get it at midnight?
Nope 10:30 AM on Sat. thru Amazon.
3) did you peek at the epilogue?
NO! Unbelievably I resisted the urge!
4) were you right or wrong about Snape?
My gut went with what Rowling eventually wrote, but I must admit to wavering during the first chapter of book 7!!
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:15 am
1. I started at 10 a.m. Saturday, and finished it at about 10:30 that night. I took lots of breaks. Something about being a mom…
2. We did pick it up at midnight. Hubby stayed up reading it (with about an hour of sleep), and finished it by 10 Saturday morning.
3. No. I never read the ending of a book first! (11 yo did, though.)
4. I was right about one crucial point: Snape loved Lily, and that was the key. I never went as far as saying that’s what made him Dumbledore’s man, but I should have.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:11 pm
1) started at 10 AM Saturday, finished 10 PM Sunday, 2 naps, a movie and breakfast all in there.
2) yes, checked out at 1:50 AM!!!I can’t remember ever staying up that late for something! But the boy loved it.
3) NO!!!
4) YESS!!!
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Well, from when I started to when I finished was 13 hours. I had a few breaks in that though. I did pick it up at midnight. Our BAM was packed.
As for Snape, I was right and wrong.
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I pre-ordered mine and had it 9 am Saturday. But, I’d already finished it by then. I couldn’t wait after I heard that someone had posted it online already.
1. Took me roughly 8 hours.
2. Nope
3. In the end, yes. I have to admit that I did have some doubts early in book 7 though.
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:00 pm
1)I finished it at 3.30am last night
2)I ordered it on Amazon and got it on Saturday at around 11am.
3)I am very proud of myself that I did not peek
4)I was right about Snape. Dumbledore trusted him, so I did, too
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:43 pm
I did go to the midnight release party, my first time to do so. My B&N did a good job, and even though I didn’t arrive at the store until 11:20 p.m., I was out with my reserved book by 12:45 a.m.
There were a couple of lines that made me laugh out loud, but now I can’t remember them. I’m pretty sure one was by Ron, and one by one of the Weasley twins.
I started reading Saturday afternoon around 3 and finished this morning. That’s good for me — I’m kind of a slow reader.
I was right about Snape.
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:51 pm
1) Until Saturday, 6 pm.
2) You bet! Well … it was actually 1:45 am.
3) You got me!!! Okay, just a teensy bit, ONLY to see if Harry was alive or not. That’s IT, I swear!
4) Right, technically, but the whole Snape bit was a little weird now, wasn’t it?
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Colleen, it was wonderful to meet you at RWA in Dallas and to hear you talk to PRO about publicity. Thank you for your wonderful advice!’
Now, on to your questions.
1. I started the book Saturday evening and read for about 3 hours. Then I settled in again on Sunday and read for about 3 hours and finished the book.
2. No…I ordered it online but silly me forgot to change my delivery address from work to home. I didn’t figure that out until 3pm Saturday. Luckily, I was able to pick up a copy at the local B&N Saturday afternoon.
3. No…and then yes. I’m horrible and usually read the last chapter or at least the last few pages of a book first. But I tried very hard to not read the end. When Harry ended up at King’s Cross, I had to jump to the end to ensure he still lived. It was too stressful not to.
4. 100% right, even about Snape & Lily. Hehehe!
July 24th, 2007 at 9:41 am
1) Less than a day
2) No, I walked into Sam’s the next day and there it was waiting for me.
3) No way!
4) Right!
July 25th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I read it in little over 4 hours. I LOVED IT! I bought it Saturday afternoon. And I was right about Snape. Yay me!
I just wish that Sirius had shown up in some way/shape/form. What about you?