Although I bought the book on Sunday, I didn't start on it since I knew I don't have the luxury of uninterrupted time. I had to wait till Wednesay night before I could start reading.

And it was definitely a mistake buying the book when I wasn't ready to read. My hubby saw it on the coffee table the first night. He picked it up and immediately flipped to the last page. He asked "You want to know whether Harry lived?". I ignored him and muttered under my breathe, "Tell me and I'll divorce you." That's how seriously I take Harry Potter. I had to suffer 3 days of "Do you know who died?", "You sure you don't me to tell you?" I wish I had a wand then. Asparagus! Expelliramus!

Spoilers Alert You might want to stop here if you haven't read the book yet.

I finished the book in two nights. Deathly Hallows has a good ending and answered many questions (although there are still some unanswered ones). But I can't help feeling that it has lost some of its Harry Potter magic. There's no way this can be a stand-alone book unlike her earlier installments. JKR struggled through the middle when describing the never-ending camp trip. I mean, Frodo & Sam had an even longer journey in LOTR but it wasn't painful reading it.

And the final battle at the end of the book? I find it rather confusing. Who's fighting who? Granted, I went through it fairly qucikly so I may have missed the subtle points. It may be better once I read it again. Which I'll be doing once I re-read Half-Blood Prince. But I can't feeling it's kind of rushed. Too much happening in too little time. But I can see potential CGI effects in the future movie. So many spells & curses flying through the air. whoa!

Of course there're parts that I really like.

I love it when Dudley shake hands with Harry.
I love it when Hermione, Ron & Harry are together. (except for the part when Ron deserted them for a while).
I love it when Dumbledore is not a perfect saint.
I love it when Snape is not a perfect evil.
I love it when Neville became a badass leader figure.
I love it when Kreacher became a friend.
I love it when everyone turn up for the final battle at Hogwarts.
I love and hate it when Dobby died saving Harry. It was the saddest part in the book even though there were other deaths.

Speaking of deaths, I thought Fred's death was totally unnecessary. Tonks and Lupin's deaths, orphaning Ted, had that Harry-growing-up-alone feeling all over again. Lupin & Pettigrew's deaths were rather anti-climatic too. Given that they were the last two remaining members of James Potter's gang, more ought to be said.

Snape's love for Lily was well-written and explained perfectly why Snape behaved the way he did towards Harry. It has been said many times that Harry looked like his father and his eyes were just like his mother's. Imagine! Seeing the eyes of your most-loved in the face of your most-hated. I like that part when the dying Snape asked Harry to look at him and then he died after one last look into Harry's eyes. Snape saw Lily in those eyes.

The part about Pertunia & Lily was kind of strange too. They were obviously quite close when they were little girls. I can't understand how could Pertunia bear so deep a grudge against Lily just because she couldn't enroll into Hogwarts. Even after Lily died, Pertunia continue to dislike Harry? That seemed rather extreme.

I don't know about you, but somehow I'm not warmed to the tying of Harry & Ginny. Something's lacking. I can't feel the chemistry between Harry and Ginny. I felt more rapport between Ron & Hermione and Luna & Neville. The latter two seemed to get along pretty well. I wonder if the two finally got together.

So how do I like the book? Overall I still like it. It's nice to see a happy ending for a lonely boy who had slept in a closet under the stairs. It's a good closure for the story that began 10 years ago.

And JKR is smart too. She ended the story when Voldemort died and then added a epilogue of the trio 19 years later. She doesn't have to write anymore and she could make a further fortune by selling rights to others to write their stories to fill in the years in between.

I got my copy on Saturday. Didn't pre-book. Just walked into a little bookstore and bought it right off the counter at about 10.00am. So i wonder why are people pre-booking and going as early as 5am to queue for the world-wide launch at 7.10am. And it's not like there's a limited prints.

I was looking forward to the book, yes, but not at the expense of losing a couple more hours of sleep! I read in the newspapers that a family actually book a hotel room right across Borders so that they could be the first (or among the first) to get the book. wow.

Anyway back to the book. I finished it on Sunday morning. Although it's not as riveting as the first four books, it was definitely better than book 5. Book 5 has way too much anger. This has a good mix of humor, adventure, romance and of course, death. No spoiler here. No worries! It gave much more in-sight to Voldmort's early days. Yeah.. it's ok. But book 4 is still my fav.

Hmm... and what's with the children edition and adult edition? The difference is only in the cover, right? All the while i've bought the children edition, am i missing anything?