The Amazon email ad for preorder is $18 and change.
Well, this can’t happen as long as the book isn’t leaked early. There’s going to be a worldwide synchronized release, so the idiots trying to spoil the book won’t know any spoilers.
American or Canadian though?
Either way I’m paying about the same, and I currently have a $5 off coupon for Indigo, and since I’m preordering about 3, maybe 4, books for my summer reading I won’t have to pay for shipping.
I never pay full price for hardcovers, especially since I prefer paperback and usual just play patient… but $45? Yikes!
Heh. I’ve got your spoiler, right here:[spoiler]The final Horcrux is a sled.
See, it’s easier when you make up your own spoilers.[/spoiler]
Yay! I did the midnight thing for the last three books (Goblet, Phoenix, and Prince) and I am equally excited and dreading the crowds for the last book.
For Goblet, it was invitation only and there were probably 40 people roaming around B&N for three hours playing trivia, dressing up, exc
Phoenix was absolutely NUTS. 600+ people in a mid-to-large sized B&N, and I only know that number because I was number 105, and they were on number 550 and still handing out number cards when I was buying my book.
Prince… well… the line was out the doors by 9pm. I didn’t even get the book till almost 3am. NO idea how many people were there, and kinda scared to know.
Dangit! Now Im all excited again!
I did the midnight thing last time around. Wound up spending two hours on line just so I could go home and go to bed. The next morning I had to run to Wal-Mart, and they had a bazillion copies selling for even cheaper than I had paid at 2am.
I think I’ll skip the midnight purchase this time around.
$45 is indeed ridiculous.
That said, I would probably pay $85.
And yes. I too have promised myself I’ll go to one of those midnight, dorkouts. Last book, I was on tour and Potter had been delivered to my house and I spent a week and a half manically avoiding people in other states as they whispered about the plot. It was horrible.
At the moment, HP is the #1 selling book on the US,UK and CA versions of Amazon.
I had half-planned to do the midnight buying party thing this time (for the first time), but reading this thread changed my mind. I can’t think that the experience would outweigh the irritation of standing in line for hours.
So I’ll do what I did last time – get up at 6:30 and head for my local WalMart and buy the book first thing (along with donuts: my local WalMart has lovely donuts); then come home and read, read, read.
I’m excited! I thought for sure it’d be at least 2008 before we saw that last book. I’ll be at Wal-Mart at midnight, standing in line.
Unless I’m at work. In which case I’ll send one of my crew to Wal-Mart to stand in line, like I did with OotP.
It’s good to be the supervisor.
I worked the last one at B&N and it was a blast. I peered into a crystal ball and told fortunes to an endless line of pint sized skeptics. I took their parents money and then stayed up till 4 a.m. cleaning up after 'em all. Loved it (mostly).
This year I’m staying home with my feet up, though.
Well now… an acquaintance of mine happens to be six-times winner of the World Speed Reading Championship. At the midnight launch of the last Potter book, she organised a competition between some of the students she’d been teaching at a community college. The winner finished the book in one hour, fifty-six minutes.
Now, obviously nobody involved with this event was an idiot, but if they’d been feeling just a little silly, they would have had plenty of time to drop by a bookshop on the way home and let drop the occasional salient plot point.
Hmm… I may just ask my friend what she’s up to in July…
They only Americanized the first book. The rest of them are published in the US exactly the same as they are in Britain, I think. My own copies are in another hemisphere, so I can’t double check.
What exactly does “Americanized” mean? Does it replace all the British slang with something more recognisable, or does it just change spellings?
Just the spellings, I think. Well, and the damned title of the book, of course. Personally, I’m not a fan of this and wish publishers wouldn’t do this, but apparently I’m in the minority. FWIW, I bought a book written by an American when I was in London and it was “Anglicized”.
It was more than spelling. Words were altered for the American market. “Sneakers” for “Trainers” and suchlike.
And here’s a site that does a side-by-side, for your amusement.
It’s a different date, but the exact same time. The last three books have all been released at the civilised hour of 11am, which means I can have a little sleep in and then pick up the book and spend the day on the couch, reading. Can’t wait!
I came in here to say YAY and chime in with the Support Your Local Independent Bookseller.
I should mark an X on my calendar of DO NOT DISTURB MAMA for this date and maybe a couple of days after.
I wish I had a timeturner…