Harry Potter

[dawnmaria]

I always had the thumpers come in and give me crap about the HP books. One proceeded to tell me how evil I was for not taking her return. Someone had give her child a copy of one of the HP's in hardback and had inscribed a message to the child in it. I wasn't taking it back. She lost her mind and proceeded to tell me how awful I was and she had to return this evil book and it couldn't be in her house. I also learned never to ask a little kid what they were going to be for Halloween in case their parents were thumpers. I got a great sermon about how Halloween was the devil's night and totally evil from such a benign comment as that! People are strange! And have you ever notice that the people that scream and holler about God the loudest are often the ones that hear Him the least?

[BookstoreEscapee]

I always had the thumpers come in and give me crap about the HP books. One proceeded to tell me how evil I was for not taking her return. Someone had give her child a copy of one of the HP's in hardback and had inscribed a message to the child in it. I wasn't taking it back. She lost her mind and proceeded to tell me how awful I was and she had to return this evil book and it couldn't be in her house. I also learned never to ask a little kid what they were going to be for Halloween in case their parents were thumpers. I got a great sermon about how Halloween was the devil's night and totally evil from such a benign comment as that! People are strange! And have you ever notice that the people that scream and holler about God the loudest are often the ones that hear Him the least?

Seriously, just because she doesn't want it in her house doesn't mean you have to take it back. I hated those people. It's written in. End of story. Donate it to the library or have a bonfire in the backyard.

[scorpionf]

I love the Harry Potter books & Movies... And when I was buying my copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, I had this charming woman come up to me and tell me I shouldn't read it because it is about supernatural forces and evil, and that it gives people "ideas".

I am not about to let anyone tell me what I can and cannot read, especially some freak I have never seen before, so I looked her in the eye, and told her if they were that evil, I would have tried my hand at world domination well before the 6th book was released and walked past her to the checkout!

[CellPhoneSlave]

that's funny

guess I'm going to hell too. I'm just deciding which store to reserve my copy of the new book in--the one closer to my house or the one where I have more friends working there.

-ams-

Lol, my room mate and I have both got the day before the release and the day after off work so we can get the book

[Tuxian]

At the time when the first movie was being released on DVD, I worked for Blockbuster. And we were trying to get people to preorder both Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. And BOY HOWDY did we ever get the nutcases, accusing us of "peddling satanism" and many other uncreative insults hurled at us over HP. But strangely, people would object to HP, but not to LOTR! I mean, hello, they both have wizards!

[Severen13]

I had to take my mom's car in for service and took an HP book with me.

I was sitting there reading and a guy sat down next to me and started talking to me. I was friendly and chit chatted back and forth with him for a bit.

After a while, he asked me what I was reading. I told him HP.

In the middle of the service waiting area, he screamed "those books are evil and people that read them are evil! You are going to hell for reading Harry Potter!"

After I gathered my composure, I yelled back at him "Sir, I may going to hell, but it sure in the f*** ain't for reading Harry Potter!"

He was escorted out. I continued reading my book.

That was beautiful.

[Meltrandi]

What I would love to do is ask one of these people a simple question. "So these books teach witchcraft, huh? I haven't learned anything; can you please show me where to look? Because believe me, if I knew any spells, I'd have turned you into a toad by now."

I've read the entire series about 4.5 times (in the middle of rereading GoF at the moment), and about the only thing I've learned is some pseudo-Latin. Repeating the pseudo-Latin incantations does nothing (although, since I have no wand, maybe I'm going about it wrong ^.^;.

[Mark Healey]

I've never reserved a copy...

and always got one the first day. I was betting that Costco would have pallete of them right by the front door and have always been right.

What sucks is that I have to wait for a UK edition to come across the counter at work. Bloomsbury won't sell the UK editions in the US (probably part of their licensing agreement with Scholastic).

When I asked someone on this board if they could be a UK front for me in buying a case I was told that they are actually delivered in guarded trucks on the day of release.

What also bothers me is that UK books are of poorer physical quality that US books, yet they cost more, sometimes the numerical pound price is the same as the numerical dollar price.

Another thing that bugs me is that they always hold them unitl the local clock strikes midnight. 12:00 am July 21 in London will be 4:00 PM July 20 in San Diego. Why should I have to wait?

I know this is off topic but I have to give my predictions. Dumbledore is dead - he put Snape up to it so he could be a mole - Malfoy will be redeemed - a Weasley will die, don't know which.

[AZangel]

Honestly, I've never read a one of the books but I've heard here and there that some of the movies pale in comparison to the books. Just from seeing the movies, I personally don't think they're any worse than anything that's out there for kids to see. In fact, I think they're better than most. They don't hardly make a cartoon for kids to watch anymore so they have to watch something .

[gregmaddux17]

and always got one the first day. I was betting that Costco would have pallete of them right by the front door and have always been right.

What sucks is that I have to wait for a UK edition to come across the counter at work. Bloomsbury won't sell the UK editions in the US (probably part of their licensing agreement with Scholastic).

When I asked someone on this board if they could be a UK front for me in buying a case I was told that they are actually delivered in guarded trucks on the day of release.

What also bothers me is that UK books are of poorer physical quality that US books, yet they cost more, sometimes the numerical pound price is the same as the numerical dollar price.

Another thing that bugs me is that they always hold them unitl the local clock strikes midnight. 12:00 am July 21 in London will be 4:00 PM July 20 in San Diego. Why should I have to wait?

I know this is off topic but I have to give my predictions. Dumbledore is dead - he put Snape up to it so he could be a mole - Malfoy will be redeemed - a Weasley will die, don't know which.

There are supposed to be two characters who die in the final book. I agree Malfoy will probably play a role in the last book. As for who dies I think perhaps Malfoy and Harry.

[gregmaddux17]

There are supposed to be two characters who die in the final book. I agree Malfoy will probably play a role in the last book. As for who dies I think perhaps Malfoy and Harry.

I will probably buy the book within the first week of it coming out. More than likely stores like Wal-Mart will have loads of them and I don't expect too much trouble getting one.

[Rapscallion]

You know, I see threads like this about the Potter books, and I'm reminded of the Salman Rushdie fatwah (google is good for the younger elements of the board who probably won't have heard much of this).

The short version is that he was sentenced to death by a religious leader for something he wrote in one of his books that claimed that the prophet Mohammed was a mortal man. There were book burnings and all sorts of demonstrations by people who had never read the book (a few scholars of the muslim faith had, so it had been investigated).

Sound familiar? It differs in one huge respect - people who have read the Salman Rushdie book tend to point out that it's turgid and overly clever for the sake of being clever. It's not actually entertaining.

Funny old world...

Rapscallion

[friendofjimmyk]

And have you ever notice that the people that scream and holler about God the loudest are often the ones that hear Him the least?

Wow...profound. That's a cool quote!

[friendofjimmyk]

Salman Rushdi

A bit OT - I remember when I was about 12ish, some local kids found a copy of Salman's Satanic Verses. I was still a God-fearing Catholic and wanted nothing to do with reading or even touching that book.

Some of these kids went up into a dark attic above a garage with candles to perform a (I'm going to butcher this word) sayance (raising of the dead) - my little bro and I wanted nothing to do with it - but we were curious.

So, they were upstairs and my brother and I started sneaking into the garage and walking towards the back of the garage where we could get closer to the steps to hear what was going on upstairs. As we quietly got closer, my brother kicked this hubcap across the garage and everyone upstairs screamed - they thought they had made contact and started cheering!

My brother and I hauled butt out of the garage and met up with them later - they were still raving about the noise the spirits made!

[BookstoreEscapee]

There's usually not a problem getting one at BN either, but I'll reserve it just the same.

My aunt came up from Texas to visit back in October, and she was in the middle of reading Book 5. She didn't want to lug it onto the plane, though, so she borrowed my copy to read while she was here. She's 62 .

Confession time: When the 3rd book came out there was plenty of hoopla and secrecy, but it wasn't quite as big. At any rate, we got our shipment a week or two ahead of time and my manager let me sign out a copy. Then she realized that she shouldn't have. (They didn't label them with the big Do Not Open Until stickers yet.) So she said I had to bring it back next time I worked (2 days later). Let's just say I read fast.

-ams-