06 February 2007

Harry Potter, How Shall I Find Thee?

I've just had a monstrous thought!

What if Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows isn't available in Zürich at midnight on July 21st? What if I have to wait until it is stocked at one of the local bookstores? What if it is weeks after it actually is released before I can get my hands on a copy?

That would be entirely unacceptable!

I must find out how to get Harry Potter on the first day of its release.

Worse case scenario, GLH and I will have to plan a trip to London for that weekend.

As if THAT would be so terrible!

Of course, for GLH it might be. As soon as I have that book in my hand, all will be ignored until I have finished it. Even him and all the splendours of London.

We'd better make certain the hotel in London has a comfortable chair and a good reading light...

7 comments:

Ms Mac said...

Try calling Lüthy Buchandlung in the Glattzentrum. Or, Orel Füssli in town. If I recall correctly, the last Harry Potter book was pretty freely available, perhaps not from midnight but we definitely saw copies of it in stores before we got our order from Amazon.co.uk!

ps. I do apologise if I come across as a bit of know-it-all....

Global Librarian said...

Ms Mac, if your knowledge can get me a HP book on July 21st, then I say be as much of a Know-It-All as you like!

Except for the first title, which I read at the library before anyone had even heard of it, I have done Amazon's automatic overnight shipment arrive Saturday by 10 am on the Harry Potter books.

By the way, after I read the first Harry Potter book, way, way back when it first came out, I remember saying to some other children's librarians, "Buy this book for your library. It's gonna be big."

Kirk said...

I don't know if it was at the exact same time as the release in the UK and US, but when the last Harry Potter book came out I think one of the English bookstores in Basel (Bergli) did one of those midnight things (which seemed very un-Swiss).

Global Librarian said...

Is it even legal for a bookstore to be open at midnight in Switzerland???

swissmiss said...

You will definitely be able to get it the day it is released. Maybe not at midnight, but the bookstores do make a big promotional deal out of it. We were able to pre-order a copy to ensure that if the bookstore sold out on the day of release a copy would be set aside for us. (If all fails in Zurich, which I can't imagine, Stauffacher's in Bern will have it for sure.) We got 5 and 6 on the day of release. Of course, you will get the UK version which uses slightly different language and different cover designs, so that your seventh book will not match the first six on your book shelf. I have 1 through 4 from the US and five and six from the UK and they are totally different and it drives me bonkers to see them like that on my bookshelf.

Global Librarian said...

No need to worry about matching editions!

There are two kinds of readers in this world:

1. Those Who Keep Their Books and cannot bare to part from them

2. Those Who Pass Their Books on to Other Readers

I fall into the latter category. There are very few books that I keep. Just a few for sentimental reasons.

And specific to Harry Potter books, as soon as I have finished reading them I donate them to an organization serving underprivileged children whose families cannot afford to buy them books.

Anyone know of such an organization in Zürich?

swissmiss said...

Ah, I am one of Those Who Cannot Bear to Be Parted. I enjoy loaning books to friends and sharing my favorite authors, but I like to get them back eventually.