does anyone else find reading Harry Potter aloud exhausting?

I'm going to become even a bigger advocate for teaching one's kids to read early on in life. *mop of the brow* How does AGE TWO grab you??

I've been intermittantly reading the latest Harry Potter novel "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince" to eldest brownlette (7), since it came out in July. If left to my own devices, I'd have devoured the thing within the first week, because I'm constantly left tantalized, wondering "what happens next??" and I want to read ahead, but I just can't bring myself to, since...well, I'm supposed to be reading it with her. And if I already know what happens, I'll probably fall asleep, because reading this book aloud is a frikken WORK OUT.

Dammit,couldn't JK Rowling, with her multi-million dollar empire and her new baby, and sprawling estate in the English countryside, find it in her heart to make the books just a bit more...orally friendly? sheee-it! I stumble over pronounciation, I try to keep up with appropriate inflection, whilst keeping the storyline straight for those inescapable questions about what happened 4 chapters back, while maintaining momentum and excitement, and...it's just all a bit much.

Maybe there should be a parental advisory on the cover. "This is a great book but regardless of all the hype, with the Hollywood movies and all, be sure your kids are at a reading level at which they can read this book to themselves, or your 'Time to Yourself' after the kids are in bed will be spent in re-coup mode, to a greater extent than usual. Oh, and we recommend chammomile tea and zinc losenges for your parched throat."

I'm going to make tea.