For the last book, I think some bookstores made deals to ship to summer camps. Not ideal, but imo better to conflict with summer camp than with schoolwork end of term.

Nod.

As it will in countries below the equator.

There is no good time, is there?

And I just realized something. I have a convention in June.

The thought of that book coming out the weekend of my convention...we'd have had the books, of course. We have at least one book dealer coming. But midnight on Friday at a filk convention is *not* reading time. :)

I lucked out; Book Five came out on my birthday. I spent the morning reading, and then my mother-in-law threw me a Harry Potter themed birthday party. Quite a bit of fun, though Bertie Botts really are gross.

I remember the one spoiler I shared with my friend who introduced me to fanfic: "It's Daphne Greengrass."

Looks like my mother will be getting her birthday present almost a month late. She's a huge HP fan, but her birthday is the end of June (which was right when the last one was released)

Not in the Northeastern US. The kids'll be in school for another week.

Kids are going to school in July this year? That's news to me.

Oh, duh. I read that as June, not July. My bad.

I don't know about summer camps; most kids in my area don't go to summer camps. But... [checks web page] aaugh! That's the weekend of Confluence (July 15-17 this year). Which, being our local con (about 25 miles from my house), is the one I'm most likely to get to this year.

They'll have to supply the comfy chairs, then.

(There was a distinct possibility that HP6 would have been released during Worldcon, which is in Scotland on August 4-10, 2005. So someone commented that it would make programming very easy that Saturday - they'd just need comfy chairs and good light.)

What they have to do, and what I would have done had it happened during Contata, is make arrangements with the book dealers and recognize that there will be special needs the next day, including programming for those who hate Harry Potter and would rather not talk about it. And for those who don't like spoilers, and for those who want to throw things (which is also when the comfy chairs come in handy.)

> The release date for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is official. July 16, 2004.

Uhh, shouldn't that be 2005?
Also looking forward to HP5.

Oops. Pre-coffee. Edited. Thank you.

My sister had the book shipped to our house and my mother sent it up in a care package. She had some friends who had it shipped directly to camp though.

I remember GOF came out while my son was in summer camp. He called from camp to remind us to bring it down when we came to pick him up! He sat in the back seat and read it from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Harrisburg, PA... kept him quiet for minutes on end. :-)