Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Discussions about this latest chapter in the life of Harry Potter are flowing fast and furious here in my corner of the world.

Life in a technology age:
We have one copy of the book. My daughters took turns reading and and were going cross-eyed trying not to talk about it in front of me. They dashed to the computers and began a discussion through AIM, one daughter upstairs on her computer, one downstairs. From the sound of the rapid fire keyboarding, they were going at it.

When I finished it I was tearful and had to sit and just reflect for a time. Then I reopened it and immediately began to re-read it.

The themes of the tale continue.

• Love is the greatest power of all.
• You cannot slap evil, you have to crush it.

With the real events in London so fresh in my mind, reading of terrorism and fear in the wizarding world that is spilling over into the Muggle society made the book feel very current.

From the NYTimes:

Indeed, the achievement of the Potter books is the same as that of the great classics of children's literature, from the Oz novels to "The Lord of the Rings": the creation of a richly imagined and utterly singular world, as detailed, as improbable and as mortal as our own.