I knuckled under this afternoon, with time a-wastin’. I first stopped at a (smallish) Barnes & Noble (nee B. Dalton) at 6th & 8th. Foreboding started when I didn’t even see a copy in the window, and I figured that a lot of the Barnes & Nobles would be in the same shape. Thank god for the publicity-shy, advertising- (and air conditioning-) free Strand - they had no more than 12 left, and I snagged one.
I’m up to page 730.
Eat your hearts out all of you. My Library received the unabridged auto book on 6-17. We couldn’t put it out for Patrons, but since we’re employees.
I read the first four in the trade paperback edition because by the time I had decided I wanted to read them the trade paperback edition of the first one was out and I decided to go for the cheaper edition. Since I’m mildly compulsive about having matching editions of any books in a series, I’ve always waited for the trade paperback edition. However, I almost broke down for book four because of the wait between editions, and I’m not sure I want to wait that long to read book 5, particularly because I’m going nuts trying not to read the umpteen million spoilers about it.
Of course, if I do buy book five in hardcover it will break up the symmetry of my bookshelve, and eventually I’ll probably go out and buy the first four in hardcover (assuming they’re still available).
LurkMeister, I’m like you - I need symmetry in my books dammit! Luckily for me, my sister has bought all of the books and got Order of the Phoenix the day it came out. She reported no hassles - the bookstore kept all of the Harry Potters behind the counter and people just walked up and asked for them.
Her copies of Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix are in hardback and the others are in paperback. Every now and again I look at them and twitch at the dissymmetry.
I’m in the position of debating whether when this one comes out in paperback, I should go ahead and order a paperback kid’s version (like the first four I have) from the UK. I’m already going to have the hardback, but it messes up the symmetry. At which point, among my immediate family, we will have bought FOUR copies, for three of us to read. I hope Rowling appreciates the money!
Am I glad I’m not the only one who worries about this.
Tinkertoy , your library could get in a lot of trouble for doing that. There were a number of postings on the PubLib listserv (a listserv for public library librarians and staff) this week about this. Many libraries received their shipments early, so that there would be time for any necessary processing to prepare the books (or audiotapes) to be put on the shelf. However, in all cases the items were shipped with specific instructions that neither patrons nor staff were to read the book early. In most libraries (that posted to Publib), the books were kept locked up to prevent any early reading. Some folks on the listserv said that the language was such that if the jobber or publisher found out that you’d done so, there could be fines, etc.
Wow all the Borders around the country must suck except for mine. I went on Sat afternoon and got two copies. When I was leaving they were putting out even more copies, there must have been at least 100 extra copies that late in the day.
You know you’re going to, so why bother with the internal debate at all???
That would be the schadenfreude bonus, Fenris. 
I caved and finally mailed in the damned Purple Certificate (just a glorified receipt, actually) to the publisher knowing I’ll have to wait weeks, but fed up with the bookstores and all their pomps.
So the very next day (today), my neighbor calls up and says, “I saw it in Sam’s at half price and bought you a copy!” That was really nice of her. Now my kids are finally reading it. When the copy I paid full price and waited weeks for arrived, what am I gonna do with it? WTF.
I read the fine print at the bottom of the Purple Certificate before mailing it in, and it said: “A portion of the proceeds of this book when purchased at Scholastic Book Fairs goes to benefit the school where it was purchased.” So that was the whole point of it?
Jomo Mojo, I bet there’s a school in your area that could use a copy. A lot of schools have virtually no library budget.
I ordered mine through Amazon.
Then right after I hit submit my brain thought: *Great, you are not going to receive this book until thursay or Friday. *
I walked around on vacation seeing people carrying their copies, kids reading HP:V at the beach and I was envious.
Since I was gone for the weekend, you can imagine my delight
( ok, utter and complete rapture) when I found it stuffed in my mail box on Sunday.
Thank you AMAZON!
Hijack
Oh, and isn’t it interesting that Walmart pulls Maxim and other soft porn mags from their magazines, but sells Harry Potter: Intro to Devil Worship.
Walmart’s message:
Sex is bad
Devil is good.
Yes, I know they have a right to sell what they want, but I see a confliction here. Morals or Profit? Hmmmmmmm.
Hmmm - I must have skipped over the parts that discussed devil worship. In fact, I don’t seem to remember worship of any kinds. It seems to me that HP & Co. promote agnosticism more than they do any particular religious beliefs.
Ha! They had it at my local supermarket!! This is a downscale kind of place that doesn’t even stock any books! But there was a big ol’ rack of 40% off Harry Potters right by the door. I bought it because I was still waiting for my B+N copy to come it. I called the B+N to tell them to take my name off the list, and they sounded rather annoyed. Oh well. It was nice of me to call, so they can bugger off.
Again, I’d love to know why the big bookstores didn’t get enough copies when places that don’t even sell books got them!
let me assure all that yes, the first four books are still in hardback.
and yes, as I also haven’t finished book 1, and have 1-4 in PB, I also will be waiting for the PB. Maybe by then, I’ll have 1 finished. Or the movie for 4 will have come out & I won’t have to read any of them- just display them on my shelf L
Ours came Straight from Ingram with no warning. I unpacked the boxes and found nothing but a packing slip with the whole order of books listed. If they didn’t include a warning that’s their problem.
Okay, today I’m biting the bullet. The WaldenBooks next to my office has OoP at 30% off, plus my 10% Preferred Reader discount. Since I have savings certificates up the wazoo from past purchases, it’s not going to cost me any real money anyway. Maybe I’ll even see if they have the second movie on DVD, which I still haven’t seen.
This just makes me love my bookstore even more. We had a midnight release party…you could buy the book there if you hadn’t pre-reserved it. We only received 800 books (and they’re not even gone yet if you can believe it, but then we’re not a chain store). On Saturday we had people running in saying we were the only ones left with the book.
I think some of the problem with the pre-order dealies at the chains was this: Scholastic required all Harry Potter orders to be in in April or thereabouts. Bookstores basically had to guess how many they’d need (this book did a lot better than even the last one). I mean seriously…I would have never thought that 10,000 would be pre-ordered at whoever’s bookstore that was! So Scholastic took the final orders in April so they’d know how many to print and that was that, no more after that for a little bit. That’s why the delay.
That being said, the stores should have warned people - I know I’d be pissed as hell if I got there at midnight and nothing said that it was only for pre-orders.
And what the hell kind of party is that? At our midnight release we had activities - a guy making potions, poster giveaways, free soda and the like.