End of an Era?

Tonight David and I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

If you're a friend or a blog follower (or both), you know how much I love this series, both the books and the movies. I actually noticed that I have a Harry Potter "tag" for blog posts! (For the record, this post makes #4 in my posts about the Boy Wizard.)

I personally felt horribly bittersweet when I finished the series. I wasn't ready for it to be over but I was so happy to find out the ending.

Now I feel the same way about reading the books with David. He is 9 years old and a very well-read child. He loves to read, and would stay up til all hours of the night reading if I'd let him. He knows that he can read much faster on his own than I can read to him out loud, but I adamantly insisted that the Harry Potter books had to be read out loud together.

But now it's over. And I feel bittersweet. I'm so happy to have shared these books with him but I'm sad that this compulsion to read together has ended. He's just not as excited for me to read anything else out loud...he'd rather read it to himself. He didn't need Harry Potter to instill in him a love of reading but it was certainly a fun part of his reading history. I'm so hopeful that for the rest of his life he'll remember how we read these books together.

(Side note: I'm that crazy mom who absolutely insists that one should, if at all possible, read the book before seeing the movie. Any book, any movie. David is beside himself with delight that he will be able to see the final Harry Potter movie in the theaters this time. He's finally caught up to Hollywood. I can't wait to take him! And I hope I've taught him the important lesson that the book is (almost) always better than the movie.)

On the bright side: soon Sam will be old enough to read these books with and I can start all over again at the beginning! And then Yael! And then Solly....so it's not quite over yet....