500 Pages In...

My early impressions of the Half-Blood Prince: The books are clearly formulaic. Something significant happens in the beginning (before school starts), a few more things happen during the school year, and then a HUGE BIG MASSIVE AMAZING thing happens at the end of the school year. (I’m not up to that part yet, so am not revealing anything here. But it’s June at Hogwarts and the pace is definitely picking up rapidly.) In between, though, it’s just Harry and his pals hanging out and continual references to Harry trying to figure out whatever puzzle it is that the previous incidents have brought to light. Can I say... yawn? I get the feeling that J.K.'s editors are too awed by her success to wield the editor's axe and cut out some of the filler. Or, they know that a longer book will sell better, or it's what the readers expect, or it keeps the kids/fans reading and immersed longer in her world so that they feel satisfied despite the long wait in between volumes. I don't know, but it's not hard to see how you could cut one of these 700 pagers down to a 2 hour movie.

That said, I am enjoying it – but it was only this morning, on page 500 or so, that I felt that I had to keep reading and couldn’t put it down.