Was just talking to @runwithskizzers about this on Twitter and felt it was an appropriate story to share here, too. If you’re not on board for some Harry Potter bookseller nerd time, please feel free to move on along.
When the last Harry Potter book came out, I was a bookseller. But the actual night of the release I was alone in Paris. I couldn’t pass up the trip, but I also couldn’t go unless it was at that time, so I was missing out on working arguably one of the biggest nights in bookselling with my team that I loved. I was both thrilled and feeling very lonely.
The night the book came out, I went to a bookstore near where I’d spent most of my day, relatively far from my hotel. The crowds were HUGE and it was clear the store didn’t have enough staff fluent in English to manage well, so I found someone and volunteered to help out. It was an absolute blast, I got to enjoy doing work I loved on a huge night, and a place where’d I been feeling alone was suddenly full of friendly faces.
I left once they got down to the last pallet of boxes being handed out - I was happy to help, but I was volunteering and I’d done plenty of work already. What I hadn’t anticipated was that the metro would be closed. It was late, the book came out at 1AM in Paris because it was released at midnight London time. The city was quiet. But at every single taxi stand I passed, there was a line of people sitting on the curb, reading the book. Every one of them tearing through pages, faces lit up. I kept walking, because the taxi lines were so long, thinking it was just the crowd from the store I’d been at. Soon I realized it was all over the city. People sitting on curbs, outside of buildings, on benches in parks, walking slowly - all of them reading the same book. It was quiet but the energy was palpable and joyous. I walked all the way home because I never found a taxi stand without a huge line. I walked well over an hour and never saw a break in it. I felt like it was the beginning of book one, but the Muggles were asleep and we were out in the streets, hardly believing the thing we’d been waiting for was finally here.
A lot of shit has happened with HP and JK Rowling over the years, and like it or not, it’s definitely put a dent into the joy of the story’s content for me, but no one and nothing can ever take that night away. That was legit fucking magic.
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