Well… I have the book, in my hands, from the Cleveland Library system.
But I kinda, sorta broke rule #2.
Sorry, I guess I’m just not that good at self-denial.
And then, well, the books were kind of calling me, late at night …
MisterThyristor… MisterThyristor… We’re soooo lonely here on the shelf. There’s eight of us here at this branch, and we really would rather be somewhere where we’re wanted…
So I broke down and got one from the branch I mentioned earlier.
I was hoping to show how great the Cleveland system is, but I guess I just showed how well I am able to finesse the system.
Does it mean anything that the librarian said I would probably have gotten it within the week that I was predicting?
Cleveland may have a good system, MisterThyristor
but the one here in Columbus, Ohio is no slouch, either. I would have been 23rd on the reserved list at my branch library for HPATOOTP, but sadly, I had some (cough)NOTMYFAULT!(cough cough) ahem, outstanding fines on my card, which prevented me from checking anything out.
… So I walked into a bookstore downtown and plucked one off the shelf and chatted it up with Tonia, the manager. It’s great when one of your college alums are bookstore managers, idinit?
Well, I can’t blame you in the least for not holding out when you had a chance to get a copy right away–hell, I work in a library but I bought mine from Amazon!
Yeah, that’s what I told myself, but it’s kind of embarassing breaking a rule that I set up myself. :o
And it basically invalidates the whole purpose of the experiment. If I wanted to do it that way, I could have had it Tuesday.
I just checked the county system, and I am #386 out of 542 (with 700 copies in the system). I think it is about on track for the 2 weeks that I estimated, but I should probably release the hold. I was planning on releasing my reservation anyway when I received my notification, but no sense tying up another copy for even a possible day.
Cleveland allows you to check books out even if you have outstanding fines unless the fines are over $10.
Don’t forget that of those 1000 books, a pretty large number will no longer be around by the time the demand dies down. A good portion will be gone due to loss, damage, (sadly) patron theft, and (more sadly) employee theft. One of the board librarians (or others who work at a library) can probably tell you better what the typical losses are in a big release like this one.
And for those who asked, Costco was charging $15.99, IIRC.
Declan - I bought mine at Costco for $15.69. My sister works for Scholastic and eventually could get me a copy for about $6, but I didn’t want to wait.
OK, what do I win??
My snail mail hold notice arrived Friday, June 27. I submitted the request March 25.
Los Angeles County library system, no way to tell where I was on the list, no easy way to tell how many copies in the entire system, other than counting each branch’s copies one-by-one (I got up to 100 and was still in the C’s)
I just got the e-mail notice that my copy is waiting for pickup at my local branch of the Seattle Public Library. I really wasn’t expecting to see it until September or so when I saw how long the line was.
Ike The OP seemed was commenting on waiting to get the book from a library. I gave an idea for something to do while waiting, not as an alternative.
I don’t understand e-book. Paper is better for reading. As you can tell by my post count, I don’t sit in front of a computer for long. Having the text on the computer is useful in that you can quickly search it when questions come up on this board. Also, you can buy the book for not much more than the cost of the paper to print it on. try public domain stuff like Jules Verne of Sherlock Holmes and you will find that books are better than computer files.
The mp3 audiobooks are OK for learning how to pronouce the strange names. They are not that good in that they force you to follow (read/listen) at someone else’s pace. You can not slow down or speed up, which we all do as readers.
Either the text or the audiobook will get you started while you wait for the library book. You will want to read the book. If either satisfies you as an alternative to the book, you are missing the point of a book and should wait for the movie to come out.
Neither alterative I suggested is a replacement for reading the book. If you object to people reading books from a library rather than buying the book, complain to the library.
I bought one at Costco for about $15- half the cover price, and I got it within a reasonable time of the release Costco is where I got all my HP books, actually. Hardcover bestsellers cheap!
