According to the super-cool countdown clock on Zoot's blog there are just 73 days left until the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

I suppose I could go the boring route, like my mom, and pre-order it online. It would show up in my mailbox the day of release. But, no, I have a hankering to go to a midnight release party. To really do it up properly I would have to go spend the night in Oklahoma City, where they have Borders. I actually have an appointment up there on the 14th but I think I will call tomorrow and find out if there's any way of bumping it to the 15th. Then I could have my appointment, stay over and go to the release party that night.

This would be my first time at such an event, though I've been hearing about them since Book 3 was released. I did go out at midnight to get the last book -- hugely pregnant, I might add, as it was just two days before John-Zachary was born -- but that was only to the local Walmart, which is open 24 hours. There were a lot of other people there buying it but no parties.

Last time it took me I-don't-know-how-many months to finish the book. As I said, it was purchased two days before my workload increased from one child to two, and then number two turned out to be excessively needy so I didn't have a whole lot of free time on my hands at the very start. (Still don't, come to think of it, but I can at least grab a few pages here and there. I'm not saying I'm not in the can when I do it. You do what you've gotta do.)

Anyway, I'm betting, this time, I will put it away in a week or less. Or...maybe not. It is with trepidation that I look forward to the release of this book. I am, naturally, dying to find out what happens next. And yet when this book comes out that means there will only be one more left. I am way too emotionally attached to these people to be ready to let them go. Which is kind of pathetic....but it's me. That's how I am about books that I really, really love. I still mourn for the unwritten sequels of favorites that were published 70 years ago. So it's a big thing for me that, when I finish The Half-Blood Prince, it will mean I'm just that much closer to reading what will allegedly be the final Harry Potter story. And that? I am just not ready to face.