Potter Party

1:07 am, Saturday: Harry and I are ready to go home.

I had to brave hoards of children and loads of Flemish speaking adults (many of them in silly costumes) in a sleep deprived haze, but at 1:07 am, Saturday morning, I had my FIRST EDITION (!!) copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in my hands. The American Book Center in Leuven had a Potter Party with refreshments and entertainment (in Dutch) on Friday night, while people waited until the second they could get their hands on Harry. The ABC in Leuven is unfortunately smaller than the one we often went to in Amsterdam. They still had a fairly good selection of new releases and I was able to pick up a couple of mysteries I had been waiting for. The prices are a bit better than Waterstone’s and they also have a discount card for frequent shoppers that you can use on everything, even sale items. The only down side was that they seem to have a huge magazine selection, but it was closed off for the party.

Regarding Harry: Yes, I already read it. No, I will not say anything about it here. I’ll wait until more people have finished it. I didn’t have any indication of what was going to happen and I think that is the best way to read it. If you have already read it and want to comment, please e-mail me privately.