Merlin's pants!

Got the much long awaited book at 7.10, (I think), and continued reading sporadically throughout the day. Managed to finish it by 4.30 a.m., thank god. I was nearly asleep three quarters through - didn't have enough sleep during the week mah - but the last few chapters really picked up the pace, and Hallelujah!, so it ended.

Nope, not going to review here. Might write about it on LJ, under the cut, so as not to give away the ending to those who prefer me not to. Really, really sorry to the person I nearly gave away the ending to yesterday - I thought you had finished it, or I wouldn't have said anything!

All in all, it was good. And the last few chapters sealed it as AWESOME. Loved it.

And yeah, the whole fiasco about the price wars. I was talking to a college friend just now about this, and her answer was pretty simple: If they had been true Potter fans, they would have pre-ordered their books beforehand. Yep, agree with her. And the minister can sod off about being happy about this whole thing.

I'm not angry or anything about the withdrawal by the major bookstores, or even the decision to sell at a cheaper price by those hypermarkets - it's just that, after all the wait and the anticipation, this whole mess had to happen and spoil the fun. I mean, there could have been games and everything, but no, it's just...anti-climactic.

And those bastards who leaked the book and wrote those reviews - I hope you die in Voldy's moldy pants. Wikipedia reports that Bloomsbury lost quite a lot...

The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows wiped more than £151m from the stock value of Bloomsbury, Rowling's publisher, as investors believed the publisher had lost their most significant product. [another report here]

It's not about the money though - it's just that...I mean, we've been waiting for this book for YEARS, and some idiots HAD to spoil the fun. Of course you can not read the spoilers or the scanned pages of the book before July 21st, but then...

All right, The Star ran a report about the leaks several days before the release. The report had the "supposed" opening paragraphs of the book, which it said wasn't genuine because of the language or style or something. And then on the first page of the book, screaming at me when I opened it, was the first few paragraphs I had read in the report.

Wouldn't you be angry now? WOULDN'T YOU????

Thank goodness that Mugglenet and the Leaky Cauldron had decided a month before the release that they would be absolutely spoiler-free. And it was amazing, how many theories from Mugglenet's editorials I had been reading showed up in the book...

No, don't worry, they weren't the popular theories you've been hearing everyone talk about for months. Just the minor theories that I haven't encountered elsewhere but in Mugglenet...except maybe in fanfiction.

One thing though, Hermione did NOT end up with Draco. Ah well, I knew it was purely wishful thinking all along :P Just kept hoping and hoping, you know? Anyway, Rowling denied anything between them before the book was released, so I guess it wasn't such a big loss. Except that...what would fanfic writers use as back-up information and coincidences in their future stories then? And Customer Satisfaction was never finished, so...I guess that's that. Though I have this feeling that despite the book, those fanfic writers would still find a way to get round Rowling's plot. You'll see ;)

So anyway, this is it. The End.

I think I'll post a short review up on my LJ...