So last week I was convinced by my brother-in-law to head out to Border's to pick up my reserved copy of Harry Potter which I only just started reading tonight (hey the better half always gets dibs) which reminded me that I have a whole bunch of release night pics sitting on my camera waiting to be shown to all of you. I went over to Borders and Barnes & Noble in Metairie and took pics of the line and the events at both stores. Plus I headed over to Exchange Alley... er, I mean Diagon Alley and took some pics of the only Harry Potter release party in the French Quarter. So... I know these are late, but better late than never I always say and I'm sure you haven't been completely Harry Pottered out, yet. Up top, happy people leaving Borders in Metairie after getting their hands on a band new copy of the book right after midnight last Friday.
More after the jump.
Borders booksellers were handing out sample chapters of other books in the same category as Harry Potter to try and get you hooked on something new after the series ends. This is also a good example of some of the things I think Borders did right during the release. They had no defined line outside. You had to show up during the day and get a colored wrist band to save a general spot in line (if you pre ordered) and then at midnight they would call out a color and all of those people would line up inside. We were all orderly on the way in, but the clump of people outside just waiting for their color to be called looked like a fire hazard. Of course since I pre ordered I was able to get my third group wrist band around 7:30 that night. Then I left the store to take the pics you see here. Got back to the lot at 11:45pm and was out by 1:15am with little time stuck in a real line, unlike Barnes and Noble.
Barnes and Noble in Metairie had people sitting in a line in the store and around the block from 7:00pm until the last book was sold. They did have more to do though with extensive events planned by the kids department staff. Plus this store was decked out with hand made decorations (the kids department at BN really works hard for that money).
Here's that snaking line from the top floor at Barnes and Noble. I just can't imagine waiting in line for that long, but I guess this was happening all over the country, so it isn't that strange.
Some of the hand made decorations in the kids department in BN.
More of those decorations. The kids staff really goes all out for events are Barnes and Noble (I know this for a fact since my better half used to work in Kids and a family friend currently does).
Finally the French Quarter's only Harry Potter event. Exchange Alley was transformed into a Diagon Alley of sorts by the Monteleone Hotel and Faulkner House Books. The only issue here was the lack of books. All but 17 were reserved before the event and the rest were sold within 10 minutes of it start. Of course most of the people there weren't in the alley for the book, they wanted to participate in the fun.
What fun? There was a costume contest and an essay contest and fortune telling and a lot more.
Mad Eye Moody was in attendance along with...
the Golden Snitch, and many more characters from all the books. The best part was listening to each entrant try to impersonate their character with bad English accents.
Except this guy, who didn't speak (due to his death dealer (edit: dementor) status).
