On the road with Harry Potter

We are back from San Francisco. I will put most of the personal accounts on Not Mayberry, but there was something interesting we observed on the trip: the new Harry Potter book was everywhere. Remember, it went on sale for the first time the morning we left.

We got on the plane at 9:30 that morning and already the young lady across the aisle from us (right behind the two drunks) was plowing full steam ahead through the book. She was a third of the way through. She must have bought it at the airport bookstore when she came in to get her plane.

When we got into San Francisco we first walked over to Japantown and found a huge Japanese bookstore. All the books were in Japanese and all of the customers were Asian and presumably Japanese (except us). But right in the middle of the store, a huge stack of the English edition of Harry Potter.

The next night as we walked up the street to our hotel we passed a middle aged man setting on the steps of his hotel, reading Harry Potter. He was halfway through.

Later we went to a sushi bar for dinner. Soon we could hear a guy with a very loud voice trying to pick up a young woman with an equally loud voice. The conversation for some reason turned to the Harry Potter book. The young woman says, loud enough for the whole place to hear, "I got the book, and I've already finished it! It's GREAT!!" The guy has to ask, "Who dies?" And as she starts to blare out the answer, Carmen and I are just about ready to scream "NOOOO! DON'T SAY IT!" ... when the conversation takes an immediate and drunken segue to some other topic. That was close.

On the flight back to North Carolina almost the same thing happens. Just as a passenger is ready to tell their companion what happens in it, I turn to Carmen and start a totally pointless conversation, leaving her a bit puzzled by my sudden need to talk. But at least I couldn't hear what was said about the book.