I think I feel the same way, or at least I'd describe it that way. I was never entirely invested in the books to the point of actual desire to read them and know what happens at any cost. I read the first few quite casually as I got them, asked what the heck was up with Quidditch, and waited for the next one to come out. With the last two, it's been a race to read them quickly so I can experience the books rather than the commentary and spoilers that inevitably follow quickly. I hate when people like something that much, because the more everyone else likes it, the less wholesome it seems to become. We were in the bookstore last night looking at all the merchandise that's sprung from the movies (I doubt anyone would have merchandised the series if it had remained exclusively in book form and JKR had refused to let anyone make a movie), and it just made me want to forget that Harry Potter had ever existed. People BUY this junk because they want to feel closer to the story... it's chess sets and fake wands! You can get that stuff, minus the Harry Potter logos all over it, for half the price.

My hype-bitterness aside, as it should be, I enjoyed the final entry in the series more than most of the others. Most of the trappings from the earlier books that I didn't like (*coughQuidditch*) were absent, there was much more excitement (even during the freakishly long soliloquy and explanation segments), and I thought the ending worked. Aside from the "hey, let's throw another dead body on the pile" syndrome, mainly felt when a certain character was carrying a certain other character's body and went back for another one, I felt everything from the earlier books came together pretty well. But I hate reading critically and just read to enjoy things, so I'm easy to please superficially. *shrug* I'm posting my own thoughts in two posts, one of which is already up.