We decided it would be fun to see what a Harry Potter party at the local Borders looked like. So, we got a babysitter and at 10:30 went over. We arrived and checked in (I’d reserved a copy some months before online) and were the 181st people to check-in.
The store was a complete zoo. Of all the bookstores I’ve been in, this particular Borders, in Sterling, is generally the messiest I’ve seen. I’ve never not seen shelves in disarray, items out of order and, in the kids section, books all over the floor. Perhaps we’ve always gone towards the end of a busy day but I’ve never seen this at any other store, Borders or not. But given how crowded the store was, filled with parents and kids in various costumes, it’s probably excusable.
At any rate, we wandered around waiting for midnight when the book went on sale. Around 11:30, they had the trivia contest of 21 questions. Having just read all four books, we aced the test (as did most of the kids there) but did not win any of the prizes in the random drawing. Which is as it should be. I’m glad only kids won.
At midnight they started calling up people to get in line in groups of 50. Being in the fourth group, we didn’t actually get called into line until sometime after 12:45. The actual process of being in line and getting up front to buy the book went very smoothly and was well organized. It’s too bad the rest of the event wasn’t. As one parent was complaining, they could have done so much more with the event. They had a store full of kids and parents all there to spend money but the cafe was serving the usual. They had nothing set up for just the kids (and the line was so long that it took Ann just as long to get us drinks as it did for me to make it all of the way around the store from the very back to buy the book (over 100 people in line ahead of me when we got on line).
Kvetching aside (I am very tired this morning) it was a lot of fun. The kids were very cute in their various costumes and some were even rather good. Some of the kids really did look like Hogwarts students.
We got home shortly before 2 and took turns reading the first chapter. After we both read the first chapter, Ann went to sleep and I realized that I wasn’t at all tired. So, I proceeded to stay up and read until I fell asleep.
By 4:30, I’d read the first five chapters.
Wow.
It’s good.
Ann’s now sick in bed and I’m barely functional (though I did just make pancakes for Jack) and I’m going to do the bad-parent thing and plop Jack in front of the tv so I can either doze. Then again… Chapter six looks good…