July 16, 2005
Harry Potter
Friday L.A. Times has the weekly FRY's ad -- the latest deals on computers and electronics that I neither need nor can afford but once in a while they manage to get me into the store -- last time was for a $30 WiFi Access Point. This time they were offering a hard cover book -- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. For $13.99, which apparently is a good price. So I get volunteered to go get a copy.
Wake up my usual 5am, have a cup of tea or two, get dressed and ride Thumper over to Fry's. Arrive 8:45 am, 15 minutes until opening. Am met by the huge crowd lining up to get a copy of the latest Harry Potter book. At least a dozen people!
Someone left a copy of the newspaper on the vend box, I pick it up and read a book review on, of course, the latest Harry Potter book. Appearently the reviewer was informed that she had to first read the first five books, which she did. She then read the sixth book and pronounced it as considerable darker than the previous five.
It's now 3 minutes to nine, and the crowd has swelled to three or four dozen with the line stretching halfway to my Bike.
Walk in the front door, pick up a copy of the book, check to see if they have any deals on another access point ($38, not low enough) and check out. Walking out I'm accosted by a gentleman asking me if that was my Thumper (must have been the black leather motorcycle jacket) and we had a short chat until his wife dragged him away from the bad influence. Ride home to find that I'm locked out -- left my house keys in the back door. Ring the doorbell, no answer. Sit down and start reading the book. It's interesting, seems as if all Hell is breaking loose with Voldemort alive and well. People are going to die.
Ring the doorbell again. No answer. DUH! The girls never answer the door. I call home, asked them to let me in. They find I've started reading the Half-Blood Prince and chastize me severly, taking the book away from me. It seems that one is not allowed to read the Harry Potter books out of order.
*SIGH*
Mike, 100 is a huge crowd, a dozen is a short line. :)
And no, you are not allowed to read the last book first, it's not star wars.
Posted by: Lynne at July 18, 2005 05:24 AMhttp://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=hyperbole
I was posting for the benefit of those who waited in long lines at midnight.
And yes, I am allowed to read books out of order. I also will read the end of a book first so as to be able to understand the beginning.
This stems from my childhood when one could walk into a movie theater at any time and start watching a film. The odds were that you would arrive in the middle of the film, watch it to the end, and then watch the beginning. If the end was good enough you would watch it again. You would also could stay and watch the movie several times -- especially if it was a hot summer day outside and the theater was air-conditioned. (This was before houses had air conditioners.)
Posted by: Mike at July 22, 2005 09:29 AM