Harry Potter (spoilers cut-tagged)

I have boggled one of my co-worker's minds by telling him the simple truth - I went to a midnight madness party (heavy on the midnight but mercifully low on the madness) and read the entire book the next day. Hey, I'm a fast reader, and it's not a difficult read, y'know?

Also - props for Barnes and Noble. I've been hearing horror stories about Borders, to the point that I'm wondering if their management had a "101 ways to hose our customers" meeting before Friday night. On the other hand, Barnes and Noble were marvels of efficiency. Go in, check in, get a wristband per book (different colors for preorders and walkins, but they had so many that they sold to all comers.) Get option of a giveaway pack or elements thereof. I arrived at 9:45 and the line - one single one - had started. For those who couldn't sit still, there were readings and a wand-making table and stuff like that. By an hour to showtime the line quietly snaked through the building; nobody was outside in the steaming heat. They did PA announcements every 10 minutes until they coaxed us all to shout "10 - 9 - 8 - 7..." and exactly at midnight they started the line. There were 5 sellers and 1 guy directing traffic; I was around 20th in line and walked out the door about 10 minutes later.

No insanity, no hysteria, no wailing kids, and to the best of my knowledge, no one turned away. And we only paid $17.99 regardless of when (or if) you ordered it.

( My one comment on the book )

And now a whole bunch o' links for the interested. ( Links for fans gone wild! Or more accurately, a fringe fandom going 'round the bend. )

On a much more serious note, garlandgraves has some really thoughtful things to say about this book regarding what we think vs what might be true, and digs up some hints in the past books regarding #7.

And tchwrtr has has a writer's view of the whole thing: "There's a typo on page 10."

The mind, she boggles

The Harry Potter hysteria continues - the prize gobsmacker so far is the unpublished author informing JKR how to write. From the condescending "I wish you the best of luck for the continued success of the series" at the beginning to the rather hypocritical call for people to boycott the books at the end, it is a marvel of pretentiousness. My favorite line is As far as the role of women in literature, you have done inestimable damage.

And what inestimable damage is this? Not going for the poster's favorite 'ship.

The mind, she boggles.

I'm going to officially post something that got bandied back in private email. IMO, "My 'ship uber alles" is just as bad a pox on fandom as MarySuedom, and possibly worse. Why? Because Mary Sues just infect fandom itself, while the people who focus on their ship to the exclusion of all else are taking their grievances right to the creators. This accomplishes two things: dividing the fandom (which inevitably leads to wars) and, if they pay attention at all, pissing off the creators.

What's the point? What does it win, ever?

Ngah. Trying to come up with a really rational rant on this, to put on fanthropology.

Reviewing the Evidence

Single review this week at Reviewing the Evidence - Dance of Death, current winner for "fastest turnaround time."

Also, points for the last sentence in the Big Over Easy review.