Partly

Nope, still not done.

In my defense, I am reading it out loud. And the audio version of the book has 17 discs and that comes out to around 20+ hours of listening time. So, I think I'm doing fairly good. We have about three chapters to go. We called it quits a little before midnight last night because we both had to get up early(ish) this morning. Fortunately we came to a (somewhat) good stopping point.

Myr keeps yelling at me when she sees my eyes wander too far down the page or -- worse -- to the opposite page. And she laughs at me when I stop in the middle of a sentence and make some total non sequitur about what I think may be coming. And we can stop and compare thoughts on whatever it is that is happening.

And do you have any idea how hard it is to continue reading aloud when you are choked up? How hard it is to see the page when your eyes are all full of tears? And how much harder you cry when you look over at your daughter and see tears streaming down her face? I will point out the total ridiculousness of a book that I cry over. I don't cry over books. Gads. Yet I tear up just know thinking about some scenes.

Found this on the sales of the book: It was the richest going-away party in history as "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final volume of J.K. Rowling's all-conquering fantasy series, sold a 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale in the United States, according to Scholastic Inc.

No other book, not even any of the six previous Potters, has been so desired, so quickly. "Deathly Hallows" averaged more than 300,000 copies in sales per hour - more than 5,000 a minute. The $34.99 book, even allowing for discounts, generated far more revenue than the opening weekend of the latest Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which came out July 10.

Sales of a 750+ page book. A book that will be read. Say what you want about the series, love it or despise it, but it does get people reading. Our local library has 8 copies of the book and there are 201 requests/holds on them. It has 2 copies of the audio and they have 51 requests/holds on them.

Heh. I should buy another copy for my library those people will have to wait forever.

I've read every book aloud with my daughter, never reading ahead or knowing any spoilers, and that's how we're going to do this book. (Keep in mind that this is my 14-year-old daughter who is looking foreward to do this, and you understand how important this is.)

So far, I'm not having any problems avoiding spoilers.

Of course, I'm avoiding everyone who has read it already. And I don't click on the links on LJ. Or for news.

Oh... and I'm not watching the news. Or reading it. Or listening to it.

If the world ends before midnight Friday, I'll never know.

(Idea stolen directly from allisnow, banner from <lj user="quietsanctuary" via allisnow.)