Soooo, we attended the Harry Potter Book 7 book release party at the local Barnes & Noble last night. It was reasonably entertaining, featuring potions demonstrations (ie. household chemical reactions), wand making (wooden dowels with a variety of fabric geegaws to attach), guess the number of Bertie Bott’s Beans in a jar, fortune telling, etc. etc. And of course, the costume contest. Silly me, a photographer, didn’t schlep along any camera other than the pitiful little one ensconced in my Dash (cellphone). If I’d known there was going to be such a kickass Sirius Black there, I’d definitely have reconsidered. He won most creative costume, and his friend as Rita Skeeter won best adult costume. A cute little guy absolutely drowning in a huge white wig and beard won for best kid costume (he moved too fast to be photographed).Everyone appeared to have a good time, the bookstore staff kept things moving, people occupied, and probably made a metric arseload of cash in coffee sales. The sorting and lining up began around 11:30PM, and we (in the sixth group) were out the door with book in hand by 12:20AM.
Today kindly provided ideal reading weather, with thunderstorms and rain almost all day. Finished the book about an hour ago and only have these things to say:
- I cried on page 661, page 700 and page 736. YMMV.
- It was perfect. Absolutely perfect.