Speed reading
Fans reflect on culmination of Potter series
Harry Potter fans had 39 hours to read "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" before the first Web cast discussion of the book, hosted by popular Web site The Leaky Cauldron. Ike Swetlintz only needed six.
"I had to be fast, because my brother needed to read it, too," said Ike, 14, from Naperville.
(Beck Diefenbach/Staff photographer)
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Sunday's discussion will be made into a Podcast and posted on the Leaky Cauldron's Web site, www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/.
He had to share a single copy of the 756-page book with his 12-year-old brother, Nate, who finished in eight hours. The bookish Hermoine Granger would be so proud.
Melissa Anelli, Sue Upton and John Noe, developers of The Leaky Cauldron Web site and co-hosts of the weekly "PotterCast" Internet broadcasts, moderated the discussion at Naperville North High School at 3 p.m. Sunday.
About 100 people came to the 90-minute discussion. If their reactions are any indication, J.K. Rowling seems to have managed the impossible: delivering an ending to her epic series that stands up to millions of fans' theories and expectations.
"There were no-holds-barred in this book," said Upton, 43. "It was so emotional, I just can't get over the emotion of the book - not just what we brought to the book, but what happens in it."
Buoyed by post-Potter euphoria, the crowd untangled plot complexities and relived their favorite chapters, many already having memorized the page numbers of important passages. They moaned for the characters that died, cheered for those who triumphed, and passed around a microphone to ask questions of the Leaky Cauldron team.
"You guys know the book better than we do, especially today," Anelli, 27, joked, looking more than a little bleary-eyed after a month of touring with the Leaky Cauldron and, of course, a sleepless night of reading.
The audience seemed most surprised by which characters had and had not died in the book and what the Deathly Hallows turned out to be.
"It was not something I would have guessed," Anelli said.
What lies ahead for the Leaky Cauldron, and the Harry Potter fandom at large, seeing as there will not be any more books to discuss? Anelli, Upton and Noe argue the Leaky Cauldron is far from dry.
"Harry doesn't end," Upton said. "He goes on."
"If (people) read the book and the fandom still wants to talk about it, that's what we're gonna do," Noe, 22, said.
"We read the books for more than the ending, and each time we go back and read; it's for more than just the ending," Anelli said. "We enjoy our favorite scenes and spend time with our favorite characters, and that leads people to recommend the books to other people. If that happens, the series will live on forever."
Contact Lauren Sutherland at lsutherland@scn1.com or 630-416-5212.
