up your architecture.

In my eagerness and passion yesterday I forgot to mention one of, if not the most important literary event of most people's lifetimes. The final installment of the Harry Potter series came out this morning at 12:01am. Now, I want to underscore that I initially (read: before I read any of the books) thought that this was just another fad, something pithy based on selling kids toys rather than getting them into books. I have my friend Jessica Miller to thank for making me read the first four books and hooking me on one of the most entertaining and well composed fantasy book series of all time.

But first I had to get the book.

My friend Kristen picked me up around midnight and we headed to the local Books-A-Million. Knowing that we didn't have much problems getting in and grabbing books last time so we didn't pre-order books anywhere figuring that a 12 million copy run in the U.S. alone wouldn't leave us without books. Unfortunately, this is the South and apparently the local booksellers feel as though everyone should have pre-ordered their books and recieved their obligatory wristband or pass to get them into the midnight sell.

Here is where our story takes a strange and unexpected turn. You see, when I came back down to Mississippi, I decided that despite it's convenience I would keep my visits to uber-corporation WalMart to a bare minimum. But at 12:48 am I said that desperate times call for desperate measures. At 1:03 am we walked in the door of the D'Iberville WalMart hopeful, but not totally optimistic. Let this be said loud and clear...

OH EXECS OF WALMART, IF YOU ARE OUT THERE READING THIS, I WILL NEVER DOUBT YOU AGAIN.

A few short moments later we strode in the door. In the midst of clerks sorting out returned items into nearly 20 shopping carts marked with paper signs designating areas of the store we wandered through the store and then there it was... it wasn't surrounded by throngs of people, there were no long lines, there was nothing but a huge display of Book 7 of Harry Potter. My heart nearly lept through my chest.

Needless to say, the next hours of my life were consumed by the Deathly Hallows. Without giving anything away, I can honestly say that it was one of the best reading experiences I've had and totally fulfilled the expectations I had for the final book of what I think is one of the best fantasy series of all time. I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did. I've already lent my copy to my friend Sam so as to pass on the PotterLove (tm) and I urge you to do the same with all of your copies. If Jessica had never lent me her copies I would have missed out on something truly amazing.

To Anderson, Staci, Troy, Erica, Adam, Karin, and everyone else out there including Kristen down here and Jessica up north... to all my fellow Potter fans. Happy Reading!

P.S. if you'd like to share your thoughts with me on what you thought of the book, I'd love to hear from you! Send me an e.mail at james.wheeler@gmail.com!