Erica Noonan of the Boston Globe describes the reason she and her husband plan to buy two copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince instead of sharing one. “We both really, really want to read the book. Now.”
Trying to share one copy of the book is an invitation to serious domestic unrest. . . . One of us tries to read while the other loiters around, periodically begging for a paragraph or two to be read aloud. When the reader tries to take a quick bathroom or snack break, the noncustodial spouse grabs the book and darts into a locked room. The rightful reader is forced to disassemble the door, wrestle the book back, and reclaim his or her space on the couch. The Potter-less spouse continues to pester and whine and is finally ordered to take a walk, watch a movie, or, for Pete’s sake, just go somewhere, anywhere, else and leave the other alone.