Top 5 answers coming tomorrow. 😀 Thanks to everyone for the suggestions! Keep ’em coming!

And becuase I really haven’t been able to think about anything else… some comments on the now infamous JK Rowling interview as well as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince itself (in list form, of course)…

So… the interview. I guess you can say I’m a *little* (ok, a lot) disappointed in JK Rowling. I don’t think I should have to re-read the books just because I’m a Harry/Hermione shipper. I acknowledge there are many obvious hints of a potential Ron/Hermione relationship but it was H/Hr that grabbed me and made me fall in love and I don’t understand how that’s wrong (or delusional). Books mean different things to the readers because our lives and experiences color our interpretation — and I just happened to find meaning in the little details rather than taking the text at face value.

Anyway.

Brief comments on the actual book (which I absolutely LOVED and could NOT put down, despite the ships)…

1. It was totally jarring not to start the book with Harry’s point of view. Not sure that I liked that at all. But maybe that was JKR’s intent? To kind of throw the reader off balance right at the start?
2. Dumbledore’s death made my heart ache. He’s grounded the books for me (him being the wise old wizard and such) and now that he’s gone, it’s like all bets are off. And the way he died? Gave me chills. Which brings me to…
3. Snape. He’s evil. Or at least I want him to be, if only because he’s treated poor Harry like crap since he first arrived at Hogwarts. AND he killed Dumbledore! Come on now. Plus, part of me wants to see what Alan Rickman can do with the role, lol.
4. Horcruxes. Loved how these gave us the opportunity to find out more about Riddle’s background. I know he’s the villain but Voldemort intrigues me.
5. BWAH at Luna’s Quidditch commentary! More Luna! And Neville! I thought that we would be treated to more Neville in this book (especially after OotP). His reduced part was a bit of a letdown. But was it just me or did it seem like there weren’t too many characters involved in the story in HBP? I’m currently rereading OotP and it’s like every imaginable character is in it. I suppose that’s because of the OotP and DA meetings. Nothing significant, just something I noticed.
6. The ships. I’m not surprised at all that R/H happened (doesn’t make me happy about it, though — at least I’ll always have H/Hr in fanfic!) but Harry/Ginny was unexpected. I had a feeling R/H would be canon so I didn’t think anything AT ALL would become of H/G. It’s just too convenient, you know? I did end up enjoying them anyway. In the end all I want is for Harry to be happy… (As an aside, I was just thinking of the movie that will most likely be made for HBP and does anyone else think the producers/director may possibly recast the part of Ginny? Bonnie Wright is cute but she didn’t exactly impress me in CoS.)
7. Trio Love at the end. SO GREAT. This is *THE* relationship of the books me for me (OT3, hee!) and it made me so happy to know that while Harry has a huge undertaking ahead of him, he has his best friends by his side. HRH4eva!!!11! But no Hogwarts in Book 7?! Wow.