last night i dragged my little brother to a book release party for the new Harry Potter book, the Half-Blood Price, because we really had nothing else going on from 10pm - 2am. our goal was to check out the place and then buy some tacobell on the way home.

we got to our local Barnes & Noble around 11:50pm and were quite astonished to see as many people as we did. i mean, i knew it was going to be packed, but i had never seen so many people at Barnes & Noble before. not even a third of this crowd during Christmas. check it out:

We had to walk over everyone to get anywhere.. my little brother thought it would be funny to purchase a beastie boys book or album if he found one, but i clearly explained that everyone in the store was in line to check out.

Barnes and Noble featured a number of little events that really made the premiere party an actual party. They had face painting, cosplaying, picture taking, wizard hat making, wand making, trivia challenges and the all important game: waiting in line.. they handed out numbered wristbands to indicate where you stood in line. some little girl told us that she had number 762.

Well we got what we came for.. a whole bunch of people camping out for Harry Potter. so we took off about 12:20p when we made it back to the enterance.. there were serving 151-200 about that time.

since the night was young, i suggested we go over to the local Wal*mart to see how many people lined up for their party.. what we found what quite bewildering..

it was so silent you could here crickets.. i was waiting for a patch of tumbleweed to pass by.. even though i had no intentions to actually buy the book, i felt a little bad that absolutely no one was there to buy the book, so i took the closest one to me and decided to purchase it..

booya.. i've purchased the book far ahead of the other people in line at Barnes & Noble a mere 200 yards away.

now i have the most recent book to compliment the first book in the series. so i've got the first and the current one. neither of which i'll read.. the books are so boring. it's written like a third grade english assignment.. christ.. at least the movies aren't as dumbed down as the books.