Howdy.  My name is Mercury (Merc, to my mates), and I’m a Potterholic.  A true-blue, dyed-in-the-wand, honest-to-Hufflepuff Pinoy Potterholic.  And proud of it!

How much of a Potterholic?  Well, needless to say, I have all the books that comprise the HP canon (not just the 6 novels but also the 2 schoolbooks Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch Through the Ages).  I see the film adaptations at advance screenings or on opening day at the latest, and have watched them again many times since on DVD (original ones, of course) and HBO. 

I have all the HP videogames, in PC and PS2 non-pirated versions, and have spent hours immersed in them running through, creeping under and soaring over Hogwarts castle and grounds.  (And I plan to get a Wii just to be able to play HP5 using the Wiimote controller – as a wand!).  I even have the official Harry Potter Trading Card Game (from the same makers as Magic: The Gathering).  Naturally, my cell’s tone for incoming texts is Hedwig’s Theme, um, since 2001 (the first version was a monotone I encoded myself using my phone’s composer feature). 

A large part of being a Harry Potter fan (as with most fandoms nowadays) is the community experience via the Internet.  I was enrolled in an online Hogwarts simulation for 2 years, where I interacted daily with fellow HP nuts from all over the globe.  I was sorted into Hufflepuff where I became a Chaser on my house’s Quidditch team (Muggle translation - HP trivia team).  For running a HP trivia tournament for a big bookstore’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince release event I got my second copy of Book 6 for free as part of my fee (my first copy I had pre-ordered from Booktopia).  Both of these experiences were personally rewarding as I got to share and connect with so many other people who are passionate about these books… and all of this thanks to one woman’s imagination and genius.

Like millions of people around the world (likely, this includes you, as you must be a fan to have read this far) I’m counting down the days (and hours and minutes!) to July 21, when the seventh and final installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, hits the stands.  Over the next week, I’ve been invited to journalize my thoughts on this blog.  (Fortunately for me, but maybe not for the readers, it wasn’t specified that said thoughts need to be publication-worthy!)  So I hope you’ll bear with me as I share theories and memories, raves and rants, and other random ramblings about any and all things Potter. 

 –Mercury

Security is very tight to ensure that no part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released to the public before July 21.

As she is writing it, only J. K. Rowling has a copy of the book. On her visit to the United States for an event with Stephen King and John Irving, she was asked to check in her manuscript but she insisted on taking it with her on the plane and she was granted this request.

As she is working on the cover and chapter illustrations, Mary GrandPre keeps her copy of the finished manuscript in a safe and speaks of it to no one. Her family and friends do not even ask her about it.

Everyone involved in producing the book, printers, distributors, and others, are required to sign confidentiality agreements. Booksellers like ourselves have our own agreements to sign which essentially says we will not distribute the book before midnight of July 21, London time (7am here). The books and even the cartons they come in cannot be photographed before the release date. We must ensure that the books are placed in a very secure location as soon as they are released to us on a date we cannot reveal. We would not want any part of this book accidentally leaking out as we know it will take away from everyone’s enjoyment.

Gingerbread Girl, Stephen King’s new 21,000-word “long story” is appearing in this month’s issue of Esquire magazine.  The novella is the story of Em who runs from her husband to a secluded place in Florida where she makes the mistake of running into a neighbor inside a Stephen King story.

Another novel that previously made its first appearance in Esquire was Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  The magazine’s website includes an excerpt of the novella.

UK bookseller Waterstone’s is sponsoring an online petition to Save Harry. Their aim is to gather one million signatures by July 21. They will send the signatures to author J. K. Rowling to urge her to keep the magic alive and continue writing Harry Potter novels although Rowling has already said before that she will never write another Harry Potter novel again.

The author has also said that two characters will die in the last book and many speculate that one of them will be Harry Potter himself. Should Potter die at the end of the seventh novel, Waterstone’s insists he can be brought back to life, if he doesn’t, then writing another novel would be even easier. They cite Sherlock Holmes as one fictional character who was brought back to life by his creator. Arthur Conan Doyle killed Holmes in The Adventure of the Final Problem in a struggle with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, and then brought him back after eight years in The Hound of the Baskervilles due to public demand.

We’ve tried signing up to see if the site will tell us how many people have actually signed up, but signing up doesn’t show you this. We also did not receive any e-mail after signing up so I guess we’ll have to wait for July 21 to find out if they successfully gathered the signatures they needed.

Click on the link below if you want to join the petition. It will indeed be sad to see the series end and even illustrator Mary GrandPre has said she felt sad after reading the last book, but fans have mixed feelings about the petition. Some want to let it end as the author meant it to end; for them forcing the issue may just result in less enjoyable stories. Others simply want more of the world of the boy wizard as there is so much material Rowling can expand on and write about like Dumbledore’s past, the original Order of the Phoenix, etc. Only J. K. Rowling can decide — What do you write next after the phenomenal Harry Potter?

The petition can be found here: Save Harry!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is just a few days away.

Make sure you’re getting the best deals on the most-awaited book of the year!

* Avail of our low price of P1,450.

* If you live in our neighborhood — and by that we mean: Acropolis, Bagumbayan, Corinthian Gardens, Eastwood City, Greenmeadows, Kapitolyo, Libis, Loyola Heights, Ortigas, St. Ignatius, Valle Verde, White Plains, etc. — we will deliver to you for FREE on July 21. Our owls will start delivery by 7am, the official release time for the book.

* If you work in a company that will order the book in bulk or if you can get your officemates to reserve the book with us, we will give you a 10% discount.

Riches in Foreclosures: Buy Your Own Home, Get Quick Cash or Create Passive Income! (Signed)
By Dinna Revilla
Foreword by Atty. Alex Lacson, 12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country

If you have read Think Rich, Pinoy!, Larry Gamboa’s practical and successful interpretation of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you probably know Dinna Revilla. She was the mentor that Larry Gamboa spoke of. Now Ms. Revilla has come up with her own book based on her experiences in the real estate business. The book is now available at the store at the introductory price of P99.

Buying your first home? Want to make money? Want to create passive income?

You can buy and hold, opt to get quick cash, or get passive income from the properties you’ve had your eye on.

Dinna Revilla, the “Action Woman” and mentor of the Cash Flow Group tells you how you can do it.

This book documents 30 real life transactions, 17 of them are shown with the pictures of the moneymaking properties.

Discover the secretes of negotiations and deals. Get to know about the perks you can get from banks. Know how easy it is to buy foreclosed properties. This book tells you all about it.

This book will give you an insider’s perspective on the real estate business. Take pointers from someone who has done all these transactions and has been right at the heart of the market herself.

Here is a recap of the seven important questions asked by Scholastic Books (American publisher of the Harry Potter series) in preparation for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Choices that received the most votes are marked with “***”. The winning choices (which are likely a reflection of what readers want to happen — check out Question 4) may surprise you.

1. Who will live, who will die?

*** Harry Potter
Lord Voldemort
Snape
Ginny
Ron
*** Hermione
*** Neville
Hagrid
Draco Malfoy
Someone Else/Other

2. Is Snape good or evil?

Good and still a spy for the Order of the Phoenix
*** Good but in too deep with Voldemort
Evil and has always been a spy for Voldemort
Evil but only because Voldemort is back

3. Will Hogwarts reopen?

Yes
*** Yes but Harry, Ron and Hermione won’t go back.
Not at all

4. Who winds up with whom?

Harry and Ginny
Ron and Hermione
*** Harry and Hermione
Lupin and Tonks

5. Where are the Horcruxes?

Diagon Alley
Hogsmeade
*** Hogwarts
Only with Death Eaters
*** Godric’s Hollows
Ministry of Magic
Azkaban
St. Mungo’s
Among Muggles
*** Elsewhere

6. Will Vordemort be defeated?

*** Yes and he will die
Yes and he will live
No way
There will be a truce

7. What are the Deathly Hallows?

We’ll find out right away
*** We’ll find out in the middle
We’ll find out at the end

On the Road, Jack Kerouac’s novel about Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty (characters based on the author and his friend) and their trip across America, was published fifty years ago in 1957. It was actually written six years earlier in 1951 on a scroll. Amazing, isn’t it? Kerouac wrote the original novel in three weeks on ten scrolls each twelve feet long and taped together. The Kerouac scroll was auctioned off a few years ago for $2.2M.

To celebrate the novel’s 50th year in print, friends and fans of the author took turns reading the book cover-to-cover at Narupa University in Boulder, Colorado. The reading took 12 hours.

A picture of the scroll taken from the University of Iowa website.

Volume 2 of The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories was delivered to our store a few days ago and with the rain in the background, I thought today was a perfect time to do some reading.

It was an afternoon well-spent. We have to congratulate Kenneth (the editor and creator of the magazine) for getting over the second issue hurdle (which can sometimes be more difficult than getting over the first one) and giving us another digest of entertaining short stories by Filipino writers.

You’ll find that some things have changed from the first, but all the good things mentioned in our first post about the digest were kept intact: author profiles, comments from the authors on the writing process, a writing contest, etc. (One thing I did miss from the first one though was the front-to-back cover art spread since this volume has the art entirely on the front cover. Not a big deal, I just thought the cover art looked very nice as a full spread.) My favorite story this time was a mystery in a Philippine fairy tale/mythological setting called “Beneath the Acacia,” by Celestine G. Trinidad. I liked it because I thought it was funny and I enjoy mysteries.

It has to be said that we also love the magazine’s “sincerity.” The magazine truly does exist to showcase local talent, to give us an affordable and entertaining read, and ultimately to contribute to the effort to get Filipinos to read. As someone who has delved into the risky, romantic, and rewarding business of bookselling, this is something I understand and appreciate.

We have a feeling that the digest is going to be around for a while now that it actually has sponsors! Don’t worry, the ad pages will not take away from your reading enjoyment. The digest is available at Booktopia for P100. It’s very handy so you can put it in your purse or fold it into your pocket and whip it out anytime you need an enjoyable read.

Scholastic, publisher of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is posting 7 Deathly Hallows questions on their site as part of their publicity campaign.  They have just recently posted the second question and are expected to post a new one every two weeks until a few weeks before the release on July 21.

Here are the questions so far:

1. Who will live, who will die?

Harry Potter
Lord Voldemort
Snape
Ginny
Ron
Hermione
Neville
Hagrid
Draco Malfoy
Someone Else/Other

2. Is Snape good or evil?

Good and still a spy for the Order of the Phoenix
Good but in too deep with Voldemort
Evil and has always been a spy for Voldemort
Evil but only because Voldemort is back

We will be posting the questions as they come.  In the meantime, check out these bookmarks; there should be one for every question.  (The files are in PDF format and are about 1Mb each.)
Question 1 bookmark
Question 2 bookmark