2 days till the last Harry Potter book! Woo!

Until then, get your fill of Harry Potter by seeing the newest movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. You can even read an interview with the director here.

I would definitely recommend this movie. Before I get into why though, I have a confession to make. This is really hard to admit, so go easy on me. Deep breath ... OK, here goes. I, a Weekly Reader editor and strong advocate of both reading and pop culture, have never read a Harry Potter book. Never even had an interest to do so. I thought it was for kids, and was dragged kicking and screaming to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which I enjoyed. I became hooked on the movies--but never picked up one of the books. I know, I'm so ashamed! On that note, I get a little confused sometimes by plot points in the HP movies. I don't even remember all the characters' names. So please, keep this in mind, and bear with me.

So back to the movie. If you were hoping for a colorful game of Quidditch or some of those fun bean things that have all those weird flavors, you're out of luck. This movie is a lot darker and more serious than the other films. But, rightly so. After all, Harry Potter is now a teenager, and as we all know, there is no darker time than when one becomes a teenager.

At the start of the movie, Harry is expelled from Hogwarts because he performed magic in front of his horrible Muggle cousin. But it was in self-defense! Harry must go on trial in order to get back into school. He is also introduced to the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society that is fighting against Voldemort.

However, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, doesn't want to believe Voldemort is back. He installs a new professor at Hogwarts: a chipper, pink-attired cat lady named Dolores Umbridge. Despite her cheerful persona, she causes havoc at the school, and as she gets more power, takes more away from the students and faculty. The students are not even allowed to practice defensive magic!

Well, after some moody protests, Harry is convinced to start Dumbledore's Army, an underground band of students who practice spells in secret. Will they be able to stop Voldemort, who we all know is back, and is sneaking into Harry's mind to control him? Will Umbridge destroy Hogwarts? What will come of the prophecy "either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives"? Just who is Bellatrix Lestrange? What's with that girl who can change her hair color (no, seriously, I was really confused)? Well ... I'm not going to tell you. There are spoilers all over the Internet for the new book, and I'm certainly not going to be the one who's responsible for spoiling the movie for you. Go see it!

Seriously, go see it. Despite being dark and scary, there are also tender moments of sweetness. Harry gets his first kiss, Ron and Hermione cast unrequited looks at one another, Luna Lovegood provides deep thoughts among her wide-eyed stares, Harry learns to count on his friends and cares deeply for his godfather Sirius Black. It's chaos planted in familiarity, scary and tender, dark and yet somehow hopeful. Just like being a teenager.

That's right, baby! Only 3 days to go!

There's Today
There's Thursday
There's Friday

And then there's Harry Potter day! Yah!

Can you handle it? If I can offer up a little advice, you should probably just take it one breath at a time. And then... after only about 60,000* breaths or so Deathly Hallows will be in your eager hands.

Me? I've got about 200 pages left now in Half-Blood Prince. Can I tell you that I have a love/hate relationship with the way Ms. Rowling writes ALL her books? On the one hand, I love the mystery of it all. I love how we never know what's going on behind the scenes until Harry, Ron, and Hermione know. It's like, we aren't readers, we're wizards-in-training, right there with them every step of the way. When Harry gets under his invisibility cloak, our hearts beat just as fast. When Hermione and Ron start slinging hurtful insults at each other because they can't deal with how they really feel, we want to step in and show them how dumb they are being. We ride the broomsticks, too. Don't we?

And yet... I absolutely cannot stand the fact that I have no idea what the heck is going on! What's Snape really up to? What's Malfoy been doing this whole time? Why is Dumbledore's hand burned? When is the next Voldemort encounter going to jump out at me and scare me to death? I can't take it! I need to know! Turn the page! Turn the page! Turn the page!!!

I gotta go. I'm taking this thing way too seriously. (Or not seriously enough??)

 *Totally a made up number. What do I look like, a Doctor?

Oh my!

With only 4 cruel July days to go, Muggles everywhere are freaking out! Everywhere I turn, it's Harry Potter this and Harry Potter that. Things are quite different than they were just a couple of weeks ago when I posted this. Now, there are all sorts of magical stories in the news.

For starters, the new film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix cleaned up at the box office over the weekend. Anyone who has read this book knows it is darker and more intense than its predecessors. Actually, things really stopped being "fluffy" at the end of The Goblet of Fire. Let me tell you something, that scene in Goblet where Harry confronts Voldemort and about a dozen death-eaters is probably one of the scariest things I've ever read. But I digress...

In China, there are "Harry Potter knock-offs" floating around. What are they exactly? They are poorly written books that use the characters of J.K. Rowling's epic series and place them in unbelievable scenes. They are counterfeit novellas full of phony plots that in no way at all are affiliated with the real Harry Potter. From what I've heard though, a lot of people over there in China really dig 'em. So I guess they aren't bothered by the whole copyright infringement thing. Me? I'm a purist. I need my books authentic. There's just no substitute.

I'm about halfway through The Half-Blood Prince right now. These kids have really grown up, haven't they? Ron's making out with Lavender Brown but really, he wants to "snogg" with Hermione. It's sooo obvious, Ron! Even Harry sees it! Of course, Hermione seems like she's got the hots for Ron as well. Meanwhile, Harry's wandering eye has landed on Ginny, Ron's younger sister! Uh oh Harry. Don't you know it's "pals before gals?!" I hope this doesn't get out of hand. But ahh ... young love. The heart wants what the heart wants, does it not, my friends?

On an unrelated note, our dear old blogger friend, Sandhya told me about this new fad called "wizard rock". Rather than trying to explain it to you, you can read the NPR article on it by clicking here. It seems pretty wacky and I like it.

That's it for now on the HP front. Wish me luck in my quest to finish book 6 by Saturday.

Peace.

OK, Word-watchers, in an attempt to give you a non-Harry Potter entry before the big day, I thought I would offer you a ginormous riddle. Ready? Here goes. What do crunk, speed dating, DVR, and sudoku have in common?

Answer: They're all words that have been added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Every year, the editors of the dictionary go through thousands of words to figure out what new words should be added. This year, these bad boys were among the ones that made the cut.

It's pretty awesome when slang becomes official. But it also makes me a little jealous. What about my made-up words? (I have a habit of adding '-ified' to the end of nouns. I also add '-ish' to times--it gives me a couple of minutes leeway.) What, do I have to start campaigning, ala Stephen Colbert? He got 'truthiness' to be recognized last year. I want one of my words to become immortalized in the dictionary! The fame, the glory, the ability to not have to spell-check my work ... yeah, that would be sweet.

So do you agree with any of the entries from this year? Do you have any words that you think should be added to the dictionary? I'll vote for your words if you'll vote for mine ...