Nerve Endings Firing Away

The world is waiting for Friday midnight when the final book in the Harry Potter series releases ending months of speculation of the kid wizard’s fate. There are plenty of theories floating around, not to mention some creative fan fiction too. But in perhaps the most extensive security beef-up over a book release, one copy has seemingly slipped through the cracks. It appears that a photographed copy of the original book has been doing the rounds in the P2P circuit. I am neither offering a link nor trying to download it but if you so wish, you can hop over to the various Bit Torrent sites such as Pirate Bay and download it. Mind you, the book is in a PDF format but contains images of the book pages. Some offer only 494 pages whereas the book clocks at over 750 pages but some claim to possess all the pages.

Whatever the version, it will be very difficult to read off the blurry screen and definitely real fans of the books will not be doing so. But the problem is that those who want to spoil the fun for others purely out of spite will be more than willing to spill the beans on the ending. It seems that you might have to stay away from all social media sites where such spoilers might even make it to the front page. Of course, it doesn’t help that Bloomsbury, the book’s publisher is not willing to confirm or deny the allegation which in plainspeak is actually confirming the news.

But personally, I would advice you to stay away from downloading the copy or even promoting the links because I’m sure the authorities will be going after the perpetrators with full force. For once, I am with them. In fact, since the images were captured digitally, it is quite easy to catch the person responsible because he/she forgot to remove the EXIF data from the photos. The camera’s serial number is easily obtained. Also, Potter fans seem to be a vicious lot. The Torrent Freak site was brought down by a hex and remained unavailable for a long time after they posted the links to the spoilers.

Although I was a Muggle long before the world got caught up in Potter mania, I must admit that I am looking forward to series finale too. Although we have pre-ordered the book, a trip to the local bookstore to simply witness the joy on the kids’ faces is too hard to resist. I had visited a bookstore last time a Potter book released and clicked some photos. You have to witness the mania firsthand to see the frenzy that J.K. Rowling had whipped up in a generation obsesses with video games and the Internet. Harry Potter lives in a world of magic but the effect of his tales is no less than magic in our boring world too. Currently, Ash is plowing through all the previous six books and is already halfway through book five after two days. I was less ambitious and simply re-read book six just to get up to date for the book seven. Of course, it doesn’t help that I am at various stages of reading three other non-fiction books and not to mention, other academic research articles (I know, I am developing signs of ADD…someone help!)

On the other hand, some even claim that the Potter mania has signified the death of reading, there are merely speaking for the ivory tower that they sit in. Intellectural snobbery or just plain ignorance hasn’t kept the Potter fans from enjoying themselves and leak or not, I’m sure they are looking forward to a long night of reading on Friday. But do not mistake the Potter fans for being screaming kids who just dress up and amuse bystanders, although they do. It is said that, it would be the first time more adults than children will read the latest book. You can even prime yourself by reading up on some deep analysis of the story’s characters and origins of their names in order to predict the ending. Now, that is the kind of leak I am willing to read. And I hope you do too.

If you are still insisting on reading the leaked ending, then here is a Harry Potter spoiler generator. If you believe the spoilers, you are truly a Muggle.