Well, we received our Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows shipment, and we opened the carton, against publisher rules. (Honestly, we wanted to make sure they weren’t damaged. Really.) I suspect the same guys that come after you if you take that little tag off your mattresses will be showing up. If you see a Hearts & Minds employee–no names mentioned here—being led off in cuffs, you’ll know why. Sure beats tax evasion, though.
We are ready for a few locals to swing by, sans costumes, I hope, at midnight Friday night. Our oldest daughter, who works at a local library, had over 200 for their little party tonight, so we figured we didn’t really need another. Readers of our BookNotes blog will know our worldviewish, in-the-world-but-not-of it, Christ-transforming-culture, engage the issues, Isacharian (look it up, I Chronicals 12:22), love for literature schtick but you should know that we will take hits for stocking the magical book. It may seem silly to some of you, but we ask for your prayers. It seems each time we display the latest, amidst the media hoopla, some Christians are shocked that we have them.
For the record, if it were about witchcraft and advocating evil, we would, obviously, think twice before carrying them. We do not think about the Satanic lightly. (We do, interestingly, carry the seriously anti-Christian Philip Pullman “His Dark Materials” fantasy novels, and some very thoughtful Christian books that evaluate the hatred for the church that is so evident in this well-written novels. No body much buys them here, but we have ’em, and pray hard that we are honoring God despite the complexities of those stories.)
Harry, though: we love him. You have read here previously, I hope, that we have quite an array of books like the excellent The Gospel According to Harry Potter by Connie Neal or the very thoughtful Looking for God in Harry Potter by John Granger, even If Harry Potter Ran General Electric: Leadership Wisdom from the World of the Wizards and Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts There are others, too, and we are grateful for the chance (sorry if I sound like a boring broken record) to help nurture Christian discernment, Godly thoughtfulness, joy in common grace and the habits of happy reading. Or not so happy, depending on how the story turns in HP7.
So: here’s a little deal. I’ve got a couple of the very, very interesting set of rigorous Potter speculations called Who Killed Albus Dumbledore edited by the Orthodox Potter guru, John Granger. (That is, he is an Orthodox Christian, and a good, if perhaps unorthodox Potter guru. He teaches Latin too, which I suppose is neither here nor there. Or is it?)
The first couple folks who order Deathly Hallows from us here (at the sale price of $24.99) we will give a free copy of that along with the order. It is a $15 value, but we need to move ’em out, and would be happy to use it as an incentive to getcher Harry from us. Just ask for the free book.
While supplies last.
And, for those of you who ordered them elsewhere, I cast upon you the Bat-Bogey Hex.