I just finished Deathly Hallows

Some of you may remember my ridiculous idea not to read the Epilogue, because as long as I didn't read it, there would still be new Harry Potter-verse canon that I could read.

I didn't get to a bookstore party last night - nothing was near me - and this morning I had a miserable dentist's appointment at 9AM and am still a little drugged out of my head from the drilling, but the Fedex truck arrived with New HP Canon! and while I am going to wait to read it when my son gets home and we can read it together (which I never thought I would be able to do with him and a new Harry Potter book, because when 7 came out he'd only read Book One and I didn't think he was ready yet for all the deaths in 4 - 7 anyway) I have now...
Read! The! Epilogue!
Yes, of course I was already utterly spoiled for all of the content, but I hadn't ever read JKR's own words, and now I have.

And, oh, whatever, it is what it is. Maybe I have enough distance from the series now that it just feels cute and somewhat pastede on yay but not in a particularly bad way. Maybe I'm so used to the character names that they don't throw me out of the story. It's woobie-fied, it's got some food for thought and plot, and I don't think it was necessary for the story, but it clearly was necessary for JKR herself.

In a few hours, I will open a box and decide which of the stories in Beedle the Bard I will not read. If I skip one - any one! - I will still have new canon to read whenever I want to. And if nothing new gets announced between now and then, I think I will save that last story for the hour I will spend standing in line for a ride in the World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, 12 to 18 months from now.

Oh, and speaking of Beedle, just a little azkatraz/HPEF reminder:

.go to your local Barnes & Noble, and use the HPEF Bookfair voucher or Bookfair number 352096 when you make your purchases. A portion of your sale will be donated to HPEF to continue our literacy endeavors. Use the voucher or number from December 4th through the 10th on all your B&N purchases, including books, CDs, DVDs, games, gifts, and even items from B&N Cafes. Help even more by telling everyone you know to buy with the voucher, too! And don't forget to check out your store's Holiday Book Drive benefitting children in need in your area. (Maybe you could even donate a copy of Beedle, using the voucher of course.)

More info here.

Ooooh, my deluxe Beedle smells soooooooooo good!

Am good mom. Am waiting for kids to all be home so I can read them fairy tales!

So, in the meantime...

The one who seduced you and fucked you over and broke your heart in a million pieces and laughed about it: Twin Peaks. In college I did a tv show *about* TP for our university tv station - I should find those videotapes in a box somewhere. I bought all the add-on books and tapes and read Laura's diary in the back of class and occasionally inserted "The owls are not what they seem..." into conversation. But the flashback movie was just not what I wanted, and Audrey was probably my favorite character, and I was a major Audrey/Coop shipper before I even knew what that meant so as Annie shoved Audrey to the side, I lost a bit of interest. Would've watched for a third season, though!

The old flame you don't see very often any more but whom you still really enjoy getting together with for a few drinks and maybe a pleasant nostalgic romp in the sheets: Heroes. I still look over the lists of fics and vids on the newsletter and I occasionally turn out another vid or crossover fic, but it's not like S1 anymore. Alas.

The mysterious dark gothy one whom you used to sit up with talking until 3 a.m. at weird coffeehouses and with whom you were quite smitten until you realized ze really was fucking crazy: Studio 60. I so desperately wanted to love this show. My husband and I watched it together weekly, I was involved in the comms about it, I read a lot of fic in the first three weeks, and then it went utterly pear-shaped almost immediately and became a giant ball of WTF. Oops.

The one you spent a whole weekend in bed with and who drank up all your liquor, and whom you'd still really like to fuck again although you're relieved ze doesn't actually live in town: Torchwood. I watch the show - but usually two or three days after it airs, unlike S1 when I stayed up until all hours to download it. I read fics - but only when they're recommended or by an author I already love. I still will buy any musical recording Barrowman ever does, and would kill large plants to get to the UK to see him live on tour. Oh, Comic Con when he and Naoko sang for a moment!

The steady: Harry Potter. It's Harry Potter! Harry Potter, Harry Harry Potter!

The one you repeatedly cheat on your steady with: Supernatural and J2 (especially AUs). Love the show, love the fan-creativity, love the cons, and given that I've already lived through pretty much everything in the HP fandom, the SPN fandom kerfluffles don't even make me bat an eye.

The one you find yourself too tongue-tied to do anything but stare at adoringly, clinging to hir every word: Hmmm, probably pundits. It's not so much a "cling to every word" but "major admiration for some of the talented writers".

The alluring stranger whom you've flirted with at parties but have never gotten really serious with: Doctor Who. Love the fics, love the icons, love the show more than pie, but the fandom is so old and large and hydra-like (in the sense of having multiple heads, not in the "actually deadly" sense) that I just sort of hover. And occasionally vid.

The one you hang out with and have vague fantasies about maybe having a thing with but ultimately you're just good buddies 'cause the friendship is there but the chemistry ain't: Chuck. Love the show, and have been inspired to do a little ficcing and a tiny smidge of vidding, but it doesn't make me go "OMG I MUST SYNC THIS EP TO THIS PERFECT SONG NOW!" and I sorta wish it did.

The one your friends keep introducing you to and who seems like a hell of a cool peep except it's never really gone anywhere: Sarah Connor. I enjoy the show when I can catch up on it, but it isn't Must See TV for me.

The one you slept with on the rebound who still smiles at you, yet you have no interest in any more: Um, nothing. I still have a smidge of interest in everything. Except maybe Studio 60 and I addressed that above.

The one who's slept with all your friends, and you keep looking at hir and thinking, "Hir? How the hell did ze land all these cool babes?": Bandom. And I have nothing against RPF at all - I vid it, I read it, I write it, I have and make icons for it - and while I like a lot of the music produced by the various acts who comprise bandom, I... I kinda can't keep all the players straight in my head (and no, I don't mean straight in that way).

The one your friend has fallen for like a ton of bricks and whom ze keeps babbling to you about on the phone for hours, and you'd be happy for hir except you just know it's going to end badly: Fringe. Ugh, creeps me out! But then again, I didn't like Lost either. Ever.

The one you're eying and saying 'Oh, maybe, just maybe - give me a sec, why don't you?' to: Merlin. Oh, I am so, so screwed. Aren't I?