REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK:Chasing Potter mania

Whimsical parties ended in laughter and, in many cases, tears last weekend as Harry Potter fans said farewell to their favorite book series.

Those who live under a rock may be surprised to learn that book seven of the bestselling kids’ (cough, cough) book series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” was released at midnight Saturday, resulting in record book sales and many sick calls to employers and summer schools on Monday.

Local booksellers rode the wave until the very end, with release parties that blew away everything planned by megasellers.

“We had a blast,” said Laura Silver of Laguna Beach Books. “Tons of people dressed up, and we made our own batch of Polyjuice Potion.”

Attendees took part in Quidditch practice in the back hall and answered questions like “What is You-Know-Who’s full name?” for prizes.

Another activity was a Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Bean-tasting contest.

“I thought pickle was delicious,” Silver said.

The store sold 158 books in less than 24 hours.

Silver herself finished the book on Tuesday night.

“I was a little teary,” she said. “I was kind of sad that it was all over.”

“Someone asked me about the phenomenon recently,” said Melony Vance of Latitude 33, which also held a Potter release party. “Reading’s a solitary thing. But this is not just a reading group; this is the whole world talking about it. It’s exciting.”

One of the bookstore’s employees baked Cauldron Cakes, and they served butterbeer (root beer, in this case) to the masses, which swelled into the store.

Store owner Tom Ahern related that when bringing books to the counter from the back room, he had to go out the alley and through the front door of the shop because it was so crowded.

“We could not have put in one more person,” Ahern said. “We estimate that there were more than 125 people present “” the overflow was on the street in front.”

“We’ve all grown up with these books, which have really evolved with the audience,” Vance said. “The coolest thing was that everybody was talking to each other.”

Vance has had her hands on advance editions, galleys and first editions of several of the texts, which she gave to middle school reading club members in the first days of Pottermania.

My own Potter story goes like this:

I first became infected when my cousin gave me the first book shortly after its release as a Christmas present. I ignored it for a while, then tried reading the first chapter and gave up on in. I finally picked it up again shortly before the second book came out, and became hooked.

My best friend (and now husband) and I stuck through the entire series. I attended one midnight release party in New York, and we’ve attended movie opening nights as well.

We eagerly rehashed our theories for the last book, and reviewed every book before the release of “Deathly Hallows.”

For the last book, we held a Potter party at our house, complete with Potter cardboard standees gifted from someone on Craigslist (thanks, Elks Lodge!) and an assortment of licensed Potter candies like Chocolate Frogs and Acid Pops.

I waited in line early in the morning Friday at the local megaseller (shame on me) to get a wristband which would allow me to wait in line late that night to wait in line again to get first crack at the book.

While in line the first time, I met and was touched by a girl who will depart for U.C. Berkeley this fall. She told me the Potter Decade began for her while she was in elementary school; the last book’s release marked, she said, the end of her childhood. She looked with trepidation that morning at the thought of having no Harry to look forward to.

Another popular topic of conversation in both lines was whether kids who discover the books in the future will have the same zeal for them as those who grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Of particular interest was what everyone would be wearing that night. No, not what the five-year-olds would be wearing; what we professionals, college students and physicians would be wearing.

It seems a lot of people have trouble with the notion of dressing up for events like the Renaissance Faire and, yes, the Star Wars convention.

As my friend Jenna put it earlier this week, “People who dress up for stuff like that freak me out.”

However, I did my darndest to find a suitable Rita Skeeter costume, so that I could imitate the poison-quilled journalist of the books. (Little did I know at the time what a damning effect she would have in the seventh.)

Some in this town may find my imitation to be closer to home than I feel is accurate, but I did have fun scouring the dollar stores for acid-green reading glasses, and donning a green tweed pencil skirt that I haven’t worn since my intern days in Washington, D.C.

When we arrived to the usual zoo known as Borders that evening, we hovered in a corner near the cash registers, as we were told by a store manager that the line would begin there.

But we were thwarted, and a literal mad dash through the store took me to the promised land: the lineup of folks who would get their books first.

We all held up our books (and free exclusive posters) as we received them with something like pride. Kids stood there in the store, or out in the parking lot, too eager to read the first chapter to even go home, let alone sit down.

One of my sisters-in-law hadn’t reserved a copy, so we went to the local Ralph’s grocery store, where there was no line and a cart full of copies.

Both sisters stayed with us at our house until past 4 a.m. reading that night, while we played the audio book aloud.

Terrified of being ambushed by kids wearing t-shirts that spoiled the book, or Myspace pages and blogs that blasted the ending as soon as the book came out (as happened after Book 6’s release), I “” and many thousands of others “” chose to tune out from society, avoiding television, Internet and even the world outside.

We liked to imagine that all stores and public areas were empty that Saturday “” tumbleweeds rustling down Moulton Parkway, that sort of thing “” but we knew better.

And being a grown-up meant that, for the first time, I couldn’t read the entire book through; obligations got in the way.

Hubby and I initially planned to experience the whole thing together “” I read while he listened to the audiobook “” but by Monday morning, he realized that his pace was slowing me down, resulting in considerable stress on my part at being “spoiled” at work, where CNN is always on.

So he granted me free rein to finish at my own pace, which I did during lunch break that day.

He finished the next night, while I was outside the Hurley fashion show at Laguna Art Museum.

Let’s just say he wasn’t pleased with the ending.

I was surprised at it, myself, but not particularly upset.

It is, after all, a children’s book, not “Kill Bill.”