I went down the hill at 11:30pm last night to see what the lines for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the local bookstore were like. There were probably 200 people anxiously waiting for the stroke of midnight, so I took some pictures. One of the interesting things to me was the scarcity of little kids; most of the crowd was teenage and up. Does that mean this group was made up of those who started with the first book when they were nine or ten? Who knows?
Forgot: Solonor was dragooned (he says, but I think he volunteered) into emceeing a similar affair at his local bookstore, and he has photos here.
In Olympia, there were tons of kids at the 6pm line to pick up priority bracelets but at midnight not so many under the age of twelve. I think that parents and others showed up to buy the book itself.
My neighborhood mall Borders Express (n?e Waldenbooks) might have been an exception. The big Borders a few miles away was featured on the 10:00pm news with hordes of anxious children, although few were in costume.
I was squinting at the pictures looking for Deb, but then I remembered she was at Waikele. She said loads of kids there were in costume — she’d debated dressing up but decided against it, then was sorry she hadn’t.
I love that all this hoopla is over a book!
The kids are alright. (Who, 1969) It’s their maltreatment that causes many of the problems in the world — suicide bombers, fetish religious fanatics, military lunatics, Cat Stevens’ abandonment, etc.
For a cure, check out “Rarity from the Hollow.” Robert Eggleton, robert_t@charter.net
Got mine (thank you Amazon). Too jet lagged to concentrate for long.
The library assistant in my dept. says her kids are too little (7 and 9) and not interested. She may be right. The group at the library for games and readings looked like undersized 10 to 12-year olds.
The children’s librarians all dressed up, some of the 50+ kids and parents, too. I could only stay for the trivia game, which was very competitive.
19 yo son got his copy Sat. morning, and is reading, reading, reading when he’s not working or out with friends.
10 yo wasn’t interested until right before the fifth book came out. Then, when I told him he couldn’t see the movies or get the toys until we’d read them, we got all of the first four at once for Christmas, the fifth for his birthday. We started together Saturday night, but I admit I’m reading ahead!
Hubby was in North Jersey at 5am to film the “crowds”. There was no one for 2 hours. One of the cameramen said he would stand in line (insert laugh here). About 8am someone showed up.
The foodstore had a ton of them, and no one was buying….
I enjoyed the pictures, Link. It’s good to see a blogger out doing some reporting. I need to do more myself.
Now…should I read the book or wait for the 12 year old to tell me all about it?