Note - this post not only doesn’t contain any spoilers, I don’t even review the book.
After juggling Friday night, a bunch of my juggler pals and I went to a bookstore in Davis to participate in the midnight Harry Potter book buying frenzy. We went all the way to Davis because Kim has a friend who works in that bookstore. I figured since we all hang out late on Friday night anyway that we could just stay up a little later and be part of the semi-literary semi-hip geek crowd at the same time.
All in all, there were about a thousand people just at that one small town bookstore waiting until midnight so they could buy the book. Also, there was another bookstore in town that had blocked off a street and was showing Harry Potter movies on a giant inflatable screen in front of the store. The whole thing was kind of a carnival atmosphere - only the participants were the sort of introverted nerds who stay up until midnight to buy a Harry Potter book, so it wasn’t exactly all that wild.
Because we didn’t reserve our books ahead of time, we were at the end of the line and we didn’t get our purchase rung up until around three in the morning. Still, we had fun chatting, watching the people, and just generally being part of the mob.
I finished the book (760 pages) a couple of hours ago, so tomorrow I can get back to my regular life. Whether or not Harry Potter is the best book ever (or even the best fantasy series ever), it was kind of fun to get swept up in the hysteria.
