My amazon.com copy did not arrive at my hotel and they already processed a refund - glad I was able to locate a Borders when I was out of town. Sounds like a whole lotta people bought the final HP book through Saturday:

[link]

The final book in the Harry Potter series sold an estimated 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours of sale, setting a new record for the book industry, according to U.S. publisher Scholastic.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" went on sale at midnight Friday to the delight of fans, who have been eagerly awaiting the last in the seven-book series about the boy wizard.

Borders Group (Charts), the second-largest U.S. book chain, said it sold about 1.2 million copies of "Deathly Hallows" worldwide on the first day, the highest single-day sales of any title in its history.

That compares to the 850,000 copies Borders sold worldwide when "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth book in the series, hit the shelves in 2005.

Wal-Mart said the final Harry Potter book was selling about twice as fast as the sixth book did during its release.

Retailers anticipating the frenzy began taking pre-order sales well ahead of the book's release. Online retailer Amazon.com said it had pre-sold 2.2 million copies of the book worldwide.

Book store chains in Britain said "Deathly Hallows" looks set to become the fastest selling book ever. UK bookseller Waterstone's said it sold 100,000 copies within the first two hours of the book going on sale, while the WH Smith chain said it sold 15 books a second across Britain.

"Deathly Hallows" has already claimed the No. 1 spot on Barnes and Noble's Top 100 bestsellers of 2007. Pre-orders for the book hit more than 1.4 million at the top U.S. bookseller.

Scholastic, which publishes the Potter series in the U.S., published a record 12 million initial copies of "Deathly Hallows."

The release of the final book is expected to trigger sales of other titles in the series by British author J.K. Rowling as well as boost ticket sales for the movie franchise.

More than 325 million books in the Harry Potter series, which has been translated into 64 languages, have been sold around the world

I have now finished Book 4. I had forgotten that Barty gets "kissed". Well, there goes that dream.

You know, had she written Goblet of Fire a year or two later, it would have been obvious current political commentary. But, as it is, history repeating and all that.

It's killing me not being able to click on the Book Club thread! But I had to pass out on Friday (er Saturday) after picking up my book at my friends' store at midnight and then drinking way, way too much "butterbeer" (rum & something & creme soda...delicious but evil) and then was busy/hungover all weekend so I'm only about 2/3rds through...and now am stuck at work without book. wah!

People are saying that UPS has been fictitiously claiming that nobody was home for packages that it did not even attempt to deliver.

I have to say that the UPS guy didn't even knock on my door.

People are saying that UPS has been fictitiously claiming that nobody was home for packages that it did not even attempt to deliver.

I've had so many experiences of this! I like my UPS guy a lot, and he's very indulgent, considering Bartleby accidentally chased and scared the pants off him a couple of years ago. But I get the sense that their quotas are so strict that they have to make stuff up just to get by.

Fortunately, I have the perfect counter...a sign on my door directs all deliveries to the liquor store above which I live. Just try to claim that you attempted delivery during normal business hours and neither the self-employed resident nor the landlord on the first floor answered. It's brilliant.

Gee, I can't think of a book that fits this description: [link]

People are saying that UPS has been fictitiously claiming that nobody was home for packages that it did not even attempt to deliver.

This happens to me all the time, both with UPS and USPS. Wankers.

Gee, I can't think of a book that fits this description: [link]....

Heeeeeeee. I need to start reading that regularly. Is there an RSS feed I can put on my flist?

Dude, yeah! That's how I read it: [link]