The day after I wrote this thread, I cancelled my pre-order at Barnes & Noble.
Instead, after I got off work last night, I drove to the nearest Wal-Mart. I had bought the last two Harry Potter novels from there at a crazy low price so I figured I'd pick up Deathly Hallows there too.
As soon as I exited my car in the parking lot, I heard a female voice over the loudspeaker say, "
For those of you here to purchase the new Harry Potter book, we will be selling it in the Lawn & Garden section starting in 8 minutes."
I went to the Lawn & Garden section.
At first, it didn't look like there were that many people there.
That was until I made a left turn and saw roughly 150-200 people standing in a line that sprawled clear into the back of the flower section.
"
Screw it" I thought. "
I'm getting this book tonight!"
The managers at Wal-Mart had the audacity to open only one register in the Lawn & garden section!
Meaning, over 200+ people had to stand in line while some lady cashier rang everybody up....one at a time.
After about 20 minutes, my patience had started to wear thin.
The line was barely moving. It was almost 12:30 am and I was tired.
The thing that kept me in line were the cool people I was standing by.
I struck up a conversation with a guy and a girl in front of me and another guy behind me.
All four of us had gone to Wal-Mart by ourselves to buy this book and none of us knew each other.
I actually had a great time waiting in line with these total strangers!
We talked about how the Wal-Mart managers were idiots, to what we thought would happen in the last Potter book and about how much more time we'd have to wait in line.
None of us asked each other our names or tried to probe into each others' backgrounds.
After standing for quite awhile, the line began to slowly move and we eventually approached a stack of cheap plastic lawn chairs.
The guy in front of me grabbed one and had a seat.
So then I grabbed one for the lady, one for me, and the guy behind me took one.
As the line slowly moved...we casually moved our new chairs with it.
We sat and talked and moved with the line.
I tell ya', the hour I spent with those strangers was more fun than some of the time I've recently spent with people I know well.
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Oh...about the book.
I've burned through the first 100 pages and lemme tell ya...DAMN!
To those of you who didn't think there was enough action in
The Half-Blood Prince, The Deathly Hallows starts off with a bang.
What a chase!
You guys have got to start reading this kickass series.
You're missing out.
