Potterdamerung

[andrewducker]

Dinner with Ellie and Suze ce soir, then drank Suze's lovely Raspberry Vodka before heading out to "Bert's bar" for more drinks.

And then wandered into town so that Ellie could pick up the latest Potter opus. We passed the West End Waterstones, which was queuing up the street and around the corner, and were two thirds of the way to the East End one when we passed an open "The Works" with no queue at all, and dropped in, to find them selling the book for exactly the same price. Ellie bought one and I wandered onwards to find that the East End one had even bigger queues. So I laughed to myself and carried on homewards.

My copy, of course, arrives tomorrow morning. I hope.

Comments

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

we were intending going to waterstones but instead the 6 of us crammed in Russ's car went to Asda at chesser and all paid five pounds per copy and were back in the car en route home by 12.25! A perfectly executed military precision exercise.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I bought it this morning. The shops all had hundreds of copies. I don't quite understand why people felt the need to get it at a minute past midnight. I presume because if you hype a book/film like that, more people want in.

If you were worried about spoilers, you'd just have to buy it today. Anyone who was up all night reading it after buying it at midnight would be in bed so wouldn't be able to spoil it for you.

[andrewducker]

The leak meant that there have already been spoilers in various places. MeFi, LJ comment threads on news and Slashdot have all had outbreaks.

And some people will read it and then post spoilers before going to bed. Because they're bastards.

I can understand the one minute past midnight thing - being part of something big/special attracts most people.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I rememember people lining up to buy things for 9am. The minute past midnight thing is more the manufacturers/sellers creating the "special" feeling by changing the way they're selling the thing, rather than the buyers themselves all bonding together in an awesome display of fan spirit.

I haven't even seen anything with spoilers in it. But then, the internet forums I read are somewhat moderated and any spoiler comments would no doubt be moderated away swiftly. Although, being honest, they're not the kind of communities that -would- have spoilers for something like that, for the most part. I'm not sure if I'd want to be a part of a community that did. Not because I specifically care about this one book, but because people who deliberately spoil something in a way like that are just being wankers.

[andrewducker]

Oh, I agree that it's a publisher-driven thing. But that doesn't stop it being perfectly valid. Nobody has to turn up at midnight to get it - but give them the opportunity to get their Potter and they'll be there to get it. With a pointy hat on.

And yes - I avoid places like that when possible. The MeFi comment was apparently moderated into oblivion quickly. And I read /. on a filter level of "3" to avoid all the complete nonsense. Well, most of it anyway.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I don't know what MeFi is, I wouldn't read Slashdot, and I don't read comments on lj news/penny arcade posts etc for fairly clear reasons.

I heard on the news that if you didn't turn up at midnight, and only turned up at 9am, you weren't really a fan AND you'd probably have someone spoil it on your way to buy it.

[andrewducker]

MeFi = MetaFilter.

I didn't even know that penny arcade _had_ comments.

LJ News comments are only worth reading because staff respond to the ones that have reasonable questions in them, with clarifications/additional information.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Penny Arcade's LJ feed comments are a cavalcade of "first!" and that sort of drivel.

If there was a filter to get rid of the staff fanboys, drivel-spouting morons and offensively bigoted facists, I'd use it. But I guess I wouldn't see my comments then, except I wouldn't be making any so that's fine.

As an aside, I used to spend a lot of time sending emails to the IMDB, since their plot summaries of films used to cover the -ends- of films too. Every single summary was a spoiler ;-) They STILL have "twist in the end" as a fucking keyword.