Originally Posted July 22, 2007

Twelve years ago when I first became internet active, the World Wide Web seemed to be a vast wasteland of uselessness. Web sites were either personal "Look at me I have a web page!", commercial (generally a repeat of a company's current magazine campaign), or just straight up porn. Finding useful information was usually a futile effort.

Thankfully, this has changed.

I found myself with a problem. I was one book behind in reading the Harry Potter series. When "Half-Blood Prince" was released in 2005, I dove in head-first, only to find that in the 2 years since "Order of the Phoenix," I had forgotten much of what had happened. So many events in the early going of Book 6 referred to Book 5, that I found Book 6 nearly unreadable. Not wanting to go back and re-read book 5 just to read book 6, I set it aside. Of course, within a few days, some blabbermouth on TV revealed the big ending of "Prince," and to say I was pissed off is an understatement. I was now one book behind, with no motivation to read it since I knew how it ended.

This posed a problem as the release of the final book approached.

My plan to get caught up was to wait until the Book 5 movie was released, watch it, then quickly read Book 6 in the week prior to the release of the final Chapter, "Deathly Hallows." A good concept, but poor in execution. The "Phoenix" movie is not nearly long enough or detailed enough to cover the information I needed before reading "Prince." I was stumped as to what to do. Re-read Book 5, then read book 6, and do it all before book 7? This would be an insurmountable task for someone who is gainfully employed.

And then I discovered this:

http://tinyurl.com/aaqw37


In 38 pages, a complete summary, including links that will clarify specific people and events when needed. A better solution to my problem cannot be found.



Twelve years ago THIS is the kind of thing I had always thought we should be able to access on the Web. And now 36 hours after discovering this information, I am further in to book 6 than I had ever gotten before. I should be finished by Monday, and dive right in to the final chapter. Before some fucking 11-year-old big mouth blows the ending for me. Again.



Thank god for the Internet.