Of the end of an era.

So, as most of the civilized world knows, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 movies comes out on July 15 (5 days after my birthday!!), marking the end of not only a pivotal movie saga, but also an entire generational phenomenon. After this final movie, there will be nothing left to look forward to in Harry Potter-dom: no new books to follow Harry through his exploits, no new movies to bring our favorite stories to a whole new medium. It's finished.

As an avid Potter-head, I look forward to this day with both uncontainable excitement and a sense of dreading. What will happen when the final scene plays out, and the names start to scroll, and then it's over? I've grown up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione: the first book came out when I was only six years old. We've grown together through these books and movies, and now it's really all coming to an end. It's a sad time to be a Harry Potter fan.

In preparation for this most magical and devastating day, I am going to re-read all of the Harry Potter books (which, okay, would have happened pretty soon anyway regardless of the movie). There are about 6 weeks until the movie comes out. As I finish reading each book, I will write an entry for it. I won't review it so much (because who am I to "review" one of the greatest stories of all time, and because it would mainly consist of "I LOVE HARRY POTTER OMG I LOVE HIMMMM!!!!") but more just sort of discuss it: how things early in the series foreshadow or emphasize themes we run into later, my thoughts on certain sequences, etc. I will do this same thing for each movie in return (though it will probably be more review).

I will also post in each entry my seven favorite themes/moments/scenes/etc. from that BOOK (book only for now). Seven times seven is 49; in a final post before the movie comes out, I will name my one favorite thing (whatever it may be) to be number 50. This "thing" does not have to be on any of the previous lists. It will just give my list a nice round number.

In addition, either before or after (well, gotta be one or the other, right?) the movie comes out, I am going to try to make a video talking about my five favorite aspects of the books that were translated into the movie (i.e., what things I think the directors/actors got right on the nose), and the five worst things that were either omitted in the movies or just not translated well enough that I think may have impacted the movies negatively. I think this will come before the movie premiere, but I'm not sure yet.

Instead of posting all of this in individual blog posts, I will have a post announcing that I've written the piece on this page, but I will create another page (see left) where all of this will be in one place and at easy access.

That's all for now; I've gotta get reading!!

Have a magical day!