Jamie and I went to our local Bor­ders tonight to wait for the release of Harry Pot­ter and the Half-Blood Prince at mid­night. We got to the store around 9:45 pm. There were quite a few people already in the place, but not as many as the last time we did this.

All the staff were very much in to the spirit of the event with lots of cos­tumes and hats. They put on a little enter­tain­ment includ­ing a Harry Pot­ter quiz. At eleven we had a read­ing of the last chapter of the fifth book, Harry Pot­ter and the Order of the Phoenix so we could remem­ber our place in the saga. Has it hap­pens, Jan, Jamie, and I have all re-read the fifth book in the last couple of weeks.

Around 11:30 the queue had star­ted form­ing and I decided to stake my place so as to not be too far down. Jamie joined me about 15 minutes later. I must say, stand­ing in a queue for 30 minutes without mov­ing is rather dull! We did get talk­ing to a nice chap and his daugh­ter who were just in front of us.

The Bor­ders staff had been announ­cing reg­u­larly the time left before the ‘arrival’ of the book. At five minutes to go they star­ted announ­cing every minute, then 30 seconds to go, 15 seconds, then a count down from 10. There was a round of applause and two head high palettes, encased in black plastic wrap, were brought from the back of the store to the front of the queue. Without any more cere­mony, the wrap was removed, the boxes inside opened, and the staff star­ted hand­ing out books at a frantic pace.

We got our two cop­ies quite quickly and we were out of the store and on our way back home by a quarter past mid­night. Now Jamie and Jan are both in bed fever­ishly read­ing the book; I have to wait for the first one to fin­ish — again. If Jan fin­ishes as quickly as she did two years ago, I should be able to start it by the end of Sunday!

Update 16/07/2005 17:00 Jamie fin­ished the book a short time ago!

Fur­ther Update 16/07/2005 11:00 Jan fin­ished her copy around 10:30. I start read­ing it tomorrow.