This one time, at crip camp... I found out it wasn't just the wheelchair that made me weird to people.

I spent many summers at camp, both as a camper and as a counselor. One of the most formative experiences of my life.

And five to ten for the counsellors who get tried for the child abuse.

Is that hardcore for camp?

I was thinking it was a commentary on the books? That sort of thing wouldn't have been out of the ordinary at the camps I went to.

Nah, I wasn't talking about the books (although for the kids who don't give a crap about HP, that would also apply). Just the waking the kids up in the middle of the night is bad enough.

It seems like the sort of thing that happened back in the nineteenth century, when people were waiting for the latest installment of one of Dickens' novels.

I've read that people in the U.S. would wait at the docks to meet ships carrying the next chapter of The Hound of the Baskervilles. People love a serial.

If I were a child, nothing would make me less interested in reading a particular book than 1) waking me up for it, 2) turning a solitary act into an communal experience, and then 3) reading it to me. If I'd had any interest in them up to that point, that would almost certainly kill it. But I suppose the relentless hype would have done that, too, since it's certainly had that effect on me as an adult.

I've read that people in the U.S. would wait at the docks to meet ships carrying the next chapter of The Hound of the Baskervilles. People love a serial.

Not that different really from being at the comic shop when they open the boxes for the new orders, or getting in line for a Star Wars movie.

Not that different really from being at the comic shop when they open the boxes for the new orders, or getting in line for a Star Wars movie.

If you're doing the former, you're silly, because that's what pulls and a good relationship with your comic book shop are for, and if you're doing the latter...

Well, after TPM, you just have my extreme sympathy.

We will not discuss where I was for opening day of TPM, however.

I have the new Harry Potter! Woohoo! Borders was crazy. There were a lot of people dressed up as Hogwarts students and there was one Sirius Black. Prison tats included. Very cool.

I would've been bitter as a camper too, going "You're going to get through a CHAPTER, reading it outloud...in that amount of time I could get through like, FOUR reading it to myself! Damn you!"

Probably most of the campers will like it though.

(Me, i'm waiting until tomorrow to go get it)

Getting woken up for a special thing would not bother me--I remember being woken up at camp to see the sun rise, which was very cool. Being woken up early more than ONCE would have annoyed me, even as a tyke, though.