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I’ve been doing this Harry Potter Book Club for the past few weeks. The idea is that we have all the books read in time for the release of the last movie this summer, and then go watch it together. We meet every couple of weeks to discuss the latest book. Tomorrow is Prisoner of Azkaban. I love that I know people around here who do this. I’m happy to be one of them.

I broke out the older books after years of not reading them. Inside the second one, I found this. The copyright date is from 1999. I sort of love that I still have this, still there from when I last read the book, over 10 years ago.

Back when things were going well for this store in ICT. I’m generally not a huge fan of the big chain stores (although I often shop for clothing at some of them), but I did like the Borders store here. It was a place to go and meet friends, wander around, drink hot chocolate, and browse for hours. I used to love doing that.

I went there last week, just to see. It was depressing. The cafe’ was closed. All the chairs and tables were stacked up. Dollies loaded with boxes were constantly wheeled out of the store, and most of it was empty. There were a few shelves that still had books, all near the front. I didn’t really recognize the place. I kind of wish I hadn’t gone. I know they’re opening a new store on the far West side. But it’s not the same.

It won’t ever really be the same as it was then.