Ali Karim, Shut Your Eyes or All Pottered Out

Warning: This is January Magazine’s obligatory 11th-hour Harry Potter post.

This piece should be sprightly and interesting but, frankly, enough already. Even though (forgive me, Ali) I’m as much a fan of the magical orphaned imp as anyone (well ... maybe not anyone) the media saturation of the past week has left me wishing for the good ol’ days when we just complained about too much Paris Hilton. Heck: right this second, Hilton feels like a media wallflower when compared with ol’ Harry.

So, OK. There are many things I should/could be sharing with you on the off chance that you missed hearing about it somewhere else. For instance, I could have let you know that Scholastic, Potter’s US publisher, has slapped a lawsuit on an online retailer that shipped a whackload (perhaps not the official number) a full week before the on-sale date.

Or I could have let you know that Canada’s National Post has managed to join the hoopla with an eco-smart piece on the greening of Harry.

And it would have been fun to tell you about how “Harry Potter’s Israel launch pits wizard vs. rabbis.” (All they needed was the octagon.)

But, honestly? I don’t feel like it. However, I will tell you this: our reviewer is standing by, itchin’ and twitchin’ to get her hands on (a legitimate) copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She’s going to read it as quickly as possible (try n’ stop ’er!) then share the results of that reading with you.

Our review will not be the first one you see. We’re not even trying to get our hands on a bootleg copy (we don’t play the game that way) and, when we do get our for-real copy, it will actually be properly read before being reviewed. All of this takes time.

Meanwhile, I can’t imagine that this will be anything but our last post on all matters Potterish until we actually have a review to share. If you’re Jonesin’ for more, however, it’s out there. GalleyCat has been doing a great job with its daily Harry Potter roundups. Also, The Guardian has put together a pretty comprehensive page on useful (!?) Potter links.

OK, Ali: you can look now.