Last Stop on the Hogwarts Express

With great anticipation I am counting the days and hours until the July 21st release of the latest and final book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

To help me cope, I decided to re-read the prior book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince but I finished that last night and needed to find additional ways to satisfy my eager anticipation. (BTW, I was amazed by how many details I had forgotten! If you are also a Muggle dedicated to D.A., you may want to re-read the Half-Blood Prince).

Another source that has helped appease my anxiety was this podcast, the Secrets of Harry Potter. The podcast is produced by Father Roderick Vonhogen, a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Utrecht, The Netherlands. It is by far the most intellectual and truly fascinating podcast on the subject of Harry Potter that I have found. Their podcasts delve deeply into the “secrets” of Harry Potter by exploring the symbols and meanings hidden within the text.

A recent NYT article discussed the flurry of speculation and the elaborate security measures that the publishers have implemented to prevent any leaking of information about the book. Click here to read the full article.

To my knowledge, Harry Potter is the only “children’s” book that ever hit the NYT bestseller list and upon the creation in 2000 of a separate children’s list, it will remain the only one to reach the “adult” list. As Salon discussed back in 2000 Potter’s hold on the top slots of the list for a year motivated the NYT to create a bestseller list for children’s books. This led to some controversy including questions about, Is Harry Potter (or many “children’s books”) only for children?

OWL has five hard-cover copies on order and two copies of the unabridged audio CD. If you haven’t already, reserve your copy!

–Ann Marie

Ann Marie is the Library Director of the OWL.