Whatever happened to nostalgia?

[Randy]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Mike & Susan Gray" 
<mikesusangray at ...> wrote:
>
> Kneasy muttered,
> 
> > Getting close to that stage with HP. It no longer engages, 
> > the characters seem less real than before, and I don't care 
> > what happens to any of them.
> > Now that's something I never believed that I'd say.
> > Unfortunately it's true.
> 
> Oddly enough, I've just discovered a really good way to improve 
the books:
> ignore them for a couple years. 
> 
> I just started re-reading the last three. I'd tried a couple times 
over the
> last few years, but it just didn't work - not even before Accio, 
to be
> honest. (That is, I read and enjoyed the new one and looked up 
patches in
> the old ones, but I couldn't get up enough interest to push past 
chapter
> two.) 
> 
> Anyway, I was talking about HP with someone at the U. last week and
> discovered that I couldn't remember whether it was Sirius or Lupin 
that
> bought the farm in OoP. And the really cool thing was that even 
more than
> feeling embarassed, I was suddenly, ravenously, overcome by the 
Lust of
> Reading. I didn't want to start OoP right off - I wanted to take 
it sloooow,
> so I turned down the lights, put on some soft music and began to 
carress the
> pages of GoF.
> 
> Haven't had so much fun reading in a long time. So leave 'em 
alone, and
> they'll come home, waving their tales behind 'em.
> 
> Worked for me anyway. YMMV It obviously depends on what you want 
the things
> to *do* for you.
> 
> Baaaaaaa,
> 
> Mike
>


I have enjoyed reading HBP to my middle son, Steve, who has read all 
of the other books.  We have enjoyed it, but that was the only 
motivation to read the whole book again.  I do enjoy looking up 
cannon to support my ideas and writing filks, but that has worn thin 
of late.  I felt the change of the internet mood in December and 
wrote that dumb song to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.  

I guess the change in mood is like realizing that you can never go 
home again.  However, just because you cannot be 8 years old again 
does not mean that you can't have fun visiting the old homestead and 
remembering the good times.

I expect a kind of reunion party here when the seventh book comes 
out!

Red Eye Randy