I Saw The Book

I just saw The Harry Potter Book today.

I walked past piles of them--they were like waves of orange and red meandering along the conveyor belt (BWI has a large processing facility with conveyor belts that snake throughout the whole warehouse).

For half an hour, I sat next to 30 of them as Charles, one of the other catalogers, prepped them for delivery. It's a curious sensation to know that the conclusion of everything rests within those orange and red covers, and how easily I could reach out and flip to the last page. Yet my reader's instinct stays the irrational thought--I remain (oddly) coolly distant, knowing how much more delight I will get from reading all 784 pages.

Mom says I'm obsessive.

But considering how infrequently I get excited about things, I think we can let this slide. I thought of all the children feverishly waiting for 12:01 AM July 21st, knowing how much harder it would be for them to see so many books and not be able to touch them--part of my excitement is on their behalf.