My First (and Last) Harry Potter Party...

Last night after I had dinner with my friend, we decided to pop in Joseph-Beth, our local independent bookseller, to get a glimpse of how the Harry Potter release party was shaping up. I'd never attended a Harry Potter event (since I've never purchased or read the books), but I figured this was my last chance.

It was only about 9:30, but the store was already abuzz--it was transforming. And it was not just the decorations and banners. As the mostly costumed readers filed in, you could feel something in there air. There was a buzz, an energy. The excitement was so thick you could cut it with a knife. There were toddlers with parents, teens, tweens and lots of adults.

A store employee told me they were expecting about 1,000 people and had gotten in "a couple thousand" copies of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows.

My friend ordered her book through Amazon. But she figured that UPS wouldn't deliver it until later in the day, so she planned to head to the grocery store first thing in the morning to get another copy so she could start reading as soon as possible.

We only stayed at the bookstore about half an hour. As I was walking out I began to have some regrets. I was sorry I wasn't in on this, that I hadn't read the books and that I wasn't going to cheer at 12:01 when the first person was handed the first copy and I wasn't going to stay up all night and read it. And I was sorry I had gotten online on Friday and read a bunch of spoilers.