NO SPOILERS your book-picking-up experiences HERE!

[* amanda]

I'm all pumped with adrenaline because - well - I got my priorities straight and got the book at midnight. I happened to walk out of my party at 11:51 pm - had no idea it was that time til I got in my car. I was driving towards home, and I got to the fork where I could either go left and go home or go straight and go downtown.

I went straight.

So, let me just say release parties here are NOTHING LIKE IN THE STATES. Americans, are, quite frankly, far better prepared. The three main bookstores in downtown had LINES STRETCHING 2 BLOCKS from each store. (No wristbands, numbers, or any order of any kind.) Impossible to even come close to the entrance of the stores, much less enter. Police were everywhere. Furthermore, and I'm sorry, but let's just say these weren't the friendly mom-dad-tots release parties that I went to in the Midwest. These people were... shall we say... "unique."

People were screaming. Some seemed to have had too much butterbeer. A lot of people were opening the book straight to the ending (I hope none of you heard any spoilers!) T.v. cameras and media everywhere (I think I caught a glimpse of Rita.) I didn't see anyone under age 17 or over 25.

Anyways, here's what I did. I've lived in Montreal for 5 years and I know my way around after walking everywhere most of those years. I 1) knew where to find a parking spot on the busiest night in of the week in Montreal and 2) knew where the open-late newsstands and pharmacies that would sell HP are. Yes. After seeing the lines, I beelined to a news stand and slipped in just as they were down to their last 8 copies. No line, although I paid the list price (gag me... $45 CDN). P.S. The newsstand store I was in actually had to LOCK the doors by the time I paid for my copy, because people were pushing and arguing to get into the place once they realized they had books and no line. Helllooo... open your eyes a bit earlier!

Anyways, I was in and out of downtown in less than 45 minutes which was probably faster than just about anyone in the city tonight. Let's just say reserving a book would NOT have helped (those were the people in the lines) so all's well that ends well!

I've got it, it's here, the funny thing is, after all that hooha I'm probably going to konk out after a chapter or two!

Hope everyone had exhilarating and Potterific times picking up their books!

P.S. the British cover is even uglier in person.

[arabella]

Well, I have taken a well earned break, and decided to check if anyone had posted about the book. Amanda, the Weasleys and I had a much better experience than you. Brian thought if we went early we might be able to register, get a number and go back closer to midnight. Alas, this time our Barnes and Noble decided to just give arm bands.This meant we had to wait in line from 8 o'clock until midnight. The good news is we were only fifth in line when the books were finally given out. Needless to say we were out by 12:05. We then made a mad dash to The closest Wal Mart to buy 2 more books, one for Caitlyn, who decided she couldn't wait for Lisa to finish her book, and one for Brian who had ordered the cds but decided he want to read the book also. Thankfully we were in and out there in a few minutes though. I was only able to read 5 chapters before getting a few hours sleep. Great party at Barnes@Noble though. I wouldn't have missed it .

[arabella]

One of the best things about the party, were the costumes. The guy dressed in a batman mask, tights,cape, and wearing depends was by far the best. He had a bag of treats and was giving them out. Lisa tryed to get a picture but he didn't turn around in our direction.

[sapphire]

Hiya MUGWUMPS.
Things worked out very well for me in getting the book. I got to B&N at 6, got in line early enough to get in the first group, got wristbands just after 7, returned home until 1115, back to B&N, stood in a humongous line which mysteriously disappated due to some ferocious employees checking wristbands and had my book in mere minutes. I sped home, read until 2 am when my eyes just refused to open, and am back at it as of about 830 this morning.
I feel as if my eyes are about to pop out of my head. My sister called to see if I had finished and was scandalized to learn I wasn't even half way! Currently I am about to start Chapter 19. I haven't peeked at the ending, or even read through the chapter titles, but am sorely, sorely tempted. Well, back to it--just needed a MUGWUMPIAN break.

[Fins]

I was a little disappointed. I ordered the book thru Amazon and that had been successful for OotP and HBP inwhich both were delivered by 9am on Saturday by FedEx. This time, however, I noted that Amazon shipped via UPS so it concerned me a bit that the process has changed. My plan was that if it didn't show by 10am, I would go down to Borders and buy the book.... and that is what I ended up doing. At 10am, I had not received my delivery... so I 'hurried on down to borders' and bought my copy. Its a good thing as the delivery didn't come until 1pm, which by then I was well into the book. Oh well... I read all day and into the wee hours of the morning. By 3am I decided I needed a little rest so I slept until about 7:30am this morning. I got up and read another hour and a half until I was done.

[Richard]

I slept a couple of hours Friday night, before going to the bookstore (waterstones at Gower Street, close to my hotel) around 11:30. I was very surprised at the line, which was at least 400 meters (that's 1/4th of a mile). I got in (it was around 11:45) and the wait started. Thankfully there were some nice people around me (some American girls and family with 4 kids whom the American girl compared to the WWeasleys, the youngest was the only girl and two of the brothers were like twins even though they weren't).

Anyhow, it took me around 1.5 hours to get in the shop after midnight. Thankfully, I had already paid for it Friday morning, so I could go out pretty fast and almost ran back to the hotel to start the read.

Richard

[kats]

My son and I went to B&N. It was probably the worst midnight party we've been to. Crowd control was not good. I'm glad we were in the third group because I'm not sure that they were able to keep it organized. They kept letting people through with the wrong letter. We were out of the store by 12:20. My son wore his IPOD out of the store but I didn't bother. Unfortunately, an idiot teenager said something to me that I did not wish to hear. Although it was only partially true it kept entering my mind as I read. It lessened the pleasure to be thinking of that kid. I would have given him a piece of my mind except that my son would have removed his earphones to see what was going on. I didn't want it ruined for him.

[* amanda]

Oh no, kats! I'm sorry to hear that you heard something like that. It's true that you're distracted from the book the entire time, just thinking about what you heard. It's nice that your son didn't hear.

I actually didn't think people would have the nerve to shout out spoilers but from what I saw, I was wrong. I miraculously managed to avoid them despite the entire downtown of Montreal being flooded with giddy teenagers with HP books. There were quite a few looking to the end and shouting out things, but the only time someone shouted a spoiler right near me, she was speaking such slurred, slangy French that I didn't understand! From the reaction of others around here, she apparently ruined it for her friends. Talk about spoiler - that can spoil the night for everyone!

Did anyone go to a party where promised games, prizes, etc. were actually accessible to the vast majority of partygoers? The day after the book was released I read some pre-release articles about what the Montreal bookstores had planned for the parties, but from the looks of the massive crowds and out of control lines, things had gotten way out of control long before midnight so I doubt the activities went over well around here.

[Richard]

When I was in line near the entrance of the book store, a girl walked out of the store and looked at the end. She saw many scandalized looks from the queue and some people shouted warning that she shouldn't spoil anyone. She then said: 'Harry is a transsexual!' I couldn't stop laughing!

Richard