You have book 7 in your hands, what now?

[Annemehr]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Sue Wartell <swartell at ...> 
wrote:
>
> 
>  "Lee Truslow" wrote:
>  >I'm going to read the end first
> 
> 
>  Eggplant wrote in reply (in part):
> I think that is a terrible idea! ...Reading the ending first will 
certainly not take all the fun out of the book, but I would estimate 
it would reduce it by about 30%
> 
> 
> Sue:
> <snip> When I'm reading a well-written story, I'm so totally 
involved that I don't think about what I "know" is coming - that 
information is not part of the story at that time, so I'm not "aware" 
of it.  

Annemehr:
Hee!  Well then, you may as well *not* read the end first, right? ;)


Sue:
> I didn't read the end of Half-Blood Prince before I started (or in 
the middle), but I haven't decided about what I'll do with Deathly 
Hallows.  For me the joy is in the journey, not the destination, and 
so I'll do whatever I need to do to make the journey the best it can 
be.


Annemehr:
Sure.  As for myself, I *never* read endings first (even though, like 
you, I enjoy *re*reading my favorite books very much).  Similarly, I 
never try to find out what my presents are going to be ahead of 
time.  Just the other day, my son told me exactly where he'd stashed 
my birthday present so he could be sure I wouldn't look there.

On the other hand, I've recently come to the conclusion that for the 
end of DH it matters much, much less to me whether Harry lives or 
dies than *what JKR is communicating* by the story and its 
conclusion. This is handy, because at least the book won't 
be "ruined" for me should the life/death spoiler happen to leak.

And I've spent time in both the "Harry lives" and "Harry dies" 
camps.  From the beginning until some months after I read GoF, I 
always just assumed Harry would win - and live - in the end.  But 
then became perfectly sure that he would sacrifice his life to defeat 
LV in a way that would echo Lily's death.  I actually did my mourning 
then.  Then again, at some point between OoP and HBP I swung back to 
the "Harry lives" camp -- for no better reason than gut feeling, and 
even though I still think the ending will personify Lily's death in 
some way.

So for me, it'll be: get the book, get comfy, and read straight 
through (but not too fast; it takes me a while).

Annemehr