Monday, July 23, 2007

Important weekend business

Yesterday I persuaded Will to drive me to Big Ben Bookshop to pick up a certain book I had on hold. This involved driving through the construction zone along the riverbank, then navigating tourists and tight streets. Will thinks it is nearly criminal to take a car downtown, but he drove with a minor modicum of fuss because he knew how much I wanted to go, and because I’ve had mono for a month. Getting downtown by foot won't happen for a while.

So there I was on a sunny, sleepy Sunday afternoon, three blocks from Old Town Square, on a quiet street surrounded by Prague’s oldest buildings. Only one store’s shutters stood open. Its proprieters found my name on their list and I made my purchase. Then I walked back to the car across the empty cobble-stoned street, swinging my book in its paper bag and feeling exhilarated and nearly as guilty as Will for driving in an almost pedestrian zone, for having business in this most touristy of spots, for being on the brink of reading the first page of the last Harry Potter.

I read the first page in the car. Then family intervened, and friends called for dinner. Night fell, the house was asleep. I started again and read the next page and the next, reading on the cool floor of the bathroom until it was 5 in the morning. At noon today I finished it.

How did you read your Harry Potter?

3 comments:

Jess said...

I biked to work on Saturday morning (before the library opened) to pick up my copy on hold. So I can say I worked up a sweat getting it! Then I read it at my other job, keeping an eye out for customers. Mostly read it in bed, and finished over breakfast on Monday morning.

Karla said...

I'm behind on Harry Potter by a book or two. So, fortunately, I don't have to deal with the rush to get the latest one. But I'm looking forward to catching up!

(Mono??? what the heck? well, and of course then there was my parvovirus or whatever it was and however I caught it, which was also a drag though mono seems like it must be worse.)

Julia said...

It's been the summer of odd viruses here too. But I'm back to nearly normal now, thankfully!