Harry Potter

No, I do not own the latest Harry Potter book. And I certainly was not one of the hundreds of people queuing for hours to get their grubby little paws on one of the first copies who promptly went home and read it from cover to cover, even though it meant staying up until 3.30 in the morning.

I had the misfortune to be at The Warehouse (big K-mart / Walmart type store for those non-Kiwis amongst you) five minutes before the release this morning. There were hundreds of people mobbing the poor woman in charge of the first box of books. They counted down the last ten seconds ... there was a huge roar ... people got their books ... yippee. People actually seemed proud they had stood in line for three hours to get their copy (they made the front page of the local paper ... was there really nothing else newsworthy happening ???)

When I left the store half an hour later there were no queues ... and still shelves full of books. Now personally I'd rather wait until the crowd was gone ...

I'm not quite sure how to tell you this .... but it's a book people !!! And I can't help thinking that there must be something awfully important missing from a lot of people's lives if the release of a new book is the highlight of their year.