Finished

It's done. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Such a storm. Already itching to get my hands on the final book. Horrifying to think about another 2 year wait for the seventh, and last, installment. What would we do in a world without another Harry Potter book on the horizon? HBP is shorter than Goblet of Fire, but longer than Azkaban. Not bad--I started the book yesterday at 1pm, finished at 8am Sunday. Kevin lets me read it first because I'm so fast, allowing him to finish at his leisure.

But there is always a new book to anticipate. Next is the sequel to Eragon, by Christopher Paolini. Eragon came out in 2003, but the author is at university, so we've been stuck waiting. John Michael, don't make your big sister nag you to read this before I start force feeding you other books!

And while there is no word on the next Dan Brown book, rumor has it that it takes place in Washington D.C. with the Masons. I wonder if publication was delaying due to the release of National Treasure, the Nicholas Cage movie with a similar theme? If you've read The Da Vinci Code (Tim, get cracking! Grace sleeps occasionally, don't she?) then take the Da Vinci Code challenges, some good hints will be your prize.

And for anybody who likes mystery, science fiction, time travel, alternate universes, literary inside jokes, or just a damn good story, read anything by Jasper Fforde. His Tuesday Next series starts with The Eyre Affair, but a different series The Big Over Easy, comes out the end of July. And I still have to wait for the next (hee hee) Tuesday story. AHHHHH.

And God only knows when Tom Robbins will grace us with another novel. Villa Incognito came out in 2003, making the shortest wait between books a mere three years. The longest wait was six years on two separate occasions. And Katherine Neville, whose book The Eight is on my short list of books everybody should read. She's only published three novels, and her first book, A Calculated Risk, is on the rusty side. I don't even know if I'll finish it because the main character is so unlikable. But The Eight is a gem. And she's writing a sequel, but similar to Dan Brown's books, an enormous quantity of research is involved. Again, I wait.