Getting THE BOOK

The main point of our trip to Edinburgh was to get the last (sniff, sniff) Harry Potter book by way of an authentic stay-up-till-midnight-release thing. Well, we stayed up till 11, then drove to the bookstore (which happened to be right next to the hotel that JKR wrote the last words in and wrote the secret message (something about "here I, JKR, finished the last Harry Potter book on .....") on a bust of Hadrian. Some people tried to make it connect to the book by saying that there was a guy in history whoose last name was Severus and who defeated Hadrian and therefore it was a clue to who was going to die (they thought it was Severus Snape)) We started walking to the end of the queue (line) and walked for about a minute, then turned the corner, walked for another minute, then thankfully found the end of the line. We shivered as draughts (drafts) came from the alleyway we stood next to, our 45 minute vigil only broken by the shout of "car!" occasionally, to which replied by squishing ourselves together to let the car through the alleyway. We were supposedly only going to have to stand in that alley for a half hour, since the store would open at 11.30, but it actually didn't open until 11.45, at which time we made it a couple yards forward out of the alleyway, but not to the corner.

At midnight the line started moving, but we didn't make it into the store until about 1.30. There was a pile of books just sitting there, and it all seemed far too easy. . . so I just picked up a book and could have started reading it then and there, but I felt that after the two and a half hours of waiting it deserved a proper ceremony. Even so, it wouldn't hurt . . . just the first few pages . . . . . .

Anyways, I was going to call someone while in line, and boast that I was getting to book 8 hours before you guys!!!!!! but my dad was out of minutes. oh well. Now I'm on Page 331 (halfway through the book) and plan to finish it today if my mom doesn't ban it and make us wait until the whole family can read it together (they're on page 100 or something, it's not going to happen). The book makes to reader like a werewolf, completely inconsiderate of even there friends, some who would bite their "best mate." Thomas and I are mostly civil about it, we switch turns after each chapter, but my mom is being unreasonable!