Are you ever going to read the new Harry Potter...?

I must be manic depressive. Sometimes, I get a real hair up my ass to just churn out a lot of stories and post them here. Other times, I need a break and I let the site suffer. I know that I should be posting here every other day to maintain some sort of fan community (all 5 of them so far), but I get distracted. Maybe I have Adult ADD?

Anyway, I've been a little distracted by a new book idea that I've been working on (my third book idea in a years time) and the new Harry Potter book, 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'.

I never got the whole Harry Potter phenomenon when the first four books came out. I remember reading about them when the third one came out and Harry Potter mania was starting to hit in the United States, but it still didn't compel me to do something about it. It was only after the fourth book was out and I was picking winter movies for our Box Office movie pool that we do every summer and winter when my brother, Bill, chastised me for putting the first Harry Potter movie low in my top 5. Bill insisted that it was going to be huge because the books were really good. Intrigued, I mentioned to my friend, Jim, that I was interested in checking out the Harry Potter books. He lent me the first one, which was great because it was in time for a 3-hour road trip for a work-related software installation road trip. I started to read and I read and kept reading and by the time we were almost to Lincoln on the return leg that I had the whole thing finished.

I came to work the next day and asked Jim for another. He gave me the next two book, which I quickly finished. Bill let me the fourth one. By this time, I was hooked. It's hard to explain. They're long, but the read is very friendly and fast. The characters are compelling and the plots are suspenseful. The fifth book came and I got it the first day and had it finished in a week.

This July, the book came out and I rushed to Target the morning it came out and I snagged it up. Bill also bought a copy at Sam's Club. He said that while he was picking up his copy, so guys snagged up their copies and one of them quipped, "First edition!" Bill was thinking, "Sure, if most of the 10.5 million first run copies get destroyed, this might end up being worth some money!" I guess people can dream.

So I poured through my copy in a few days, which was easy to do because I take a commuter bus to work while I'm selling my house. The drive helped me finish it off quickly. Without revealing too many details, someone dies and there are a few plot twists. I kept calling Bill up every other day when I was reading it and after I finished it. I always had the same question.

"Have you read it yet?"

Bill would reply, "Not yet."

I kept asking, "Have you read it YET?"

Bill: "Not YET!"

Finally, after a week of this, I call Bill up yet again and ask, "Are you ever going to read the new Harry Potter?"

Bill chuckles and says, "I am!"

"When? Next month?"

He laughs. I continue talking, "Yeah, I know what you mean, I'm going to RUSH out to buy the new book, but (with sarcasm) I'm not going to read it just yet. I'm not really ready. I ONLY had to buy it on the first day!"

Bill said he was going to start it this week, but that's one of the distractions I've had to deal with this past couple of weeks. I actually have a few stories almost finished, but the distractions and the fact that I keep coming up with new ideas without finishing them doesn't help either. Damn work and family priorities.