If someone could drop me a note and let me know who dies in the Harry Potter & Half-Blood Prince, I’d really appreciate it. We got the book on CD at the library last week and I had a brief pang where I wanted to say “Please let me take it home, I’ll listen to all 12 hours tonight and have it back by morning!” but then I remembered I hadn’t liked the last book very much, and I’m suspicious of any book that sets off this sort of shopping frenzy (less merch this year though), not to mention these sorts of lawsuits. I’m happy that we have a literary celebrity in our other books’ midst, but let’s remember to try to parlay this love of reading this one book to learning to love reading for its own sake, not because you’ve been sucked in to the latest tween supernatural soap opera sensation. [update: thanks for the plot-summary emails, I think I’ve got it now] [ update 2: want more spoilers? check out thebookspoiler.com]