Harry Potter Hits Paris

Last Thursday while I was sitting in my French lesson, my phone beeped with a text message from W.H. Smith, the English bookstore: Harry Potter 7 will be available for you at 1:01 a.m. Saturday.

The next day a French friend asked about my upcoming weekend via e-mail. I managed to write, "I will not go to the bookstore at 1:01 a.m. with the crazy people," without using my French dictionary once. How's that for progress!

So today after I finished wrangling with the post office and accidentally ordering two strawberry tarts at the patisserie, I was ready to get my hands on my newest escape from the French language: a big fat book in English.

Dave had seen the Harry Potter madness on the news all day and was eyeing me warily. Did we really have to go today? But to me, getting the book on Day 1 is part of the fun, even if I'm not there to retrieve it at 1:01.

So we ambled down to the metro station and took the train to Place de la Concorde and W.H. Smith. Just as I had promised Dave, there was not a long line of crazed fans, but a healthy stack of books ripe for the picking. The store was buzzing with excited English speakers fondly running their hands over the cover and flipping through the pages. Perhaps tied in with the movie, there were also official Hogwarts wizard robes, scarves, and neckties.

I picked up another book for Ariel, and stood in line to pay. A girl with a clipboard approached me and asked "Avez-vous une reservation?". I felt a bit smug, 1) being a local who had dropped by earlier to make a reservation, and 2) being able to understand the complete sentence in French.

I gave her my name and she checked it off her list, then reminded me that I had reserved an adult cover, and those were available behind the counter. Oooh, how exclusive. Unfortunately, she only had me down for one adult cover, so Ariel had to have the kid's cover. She's still a minor, after all.

I can't say I'm particularly impressed with the adult cover. To be honest, it looks like a John Grisham cover, like the book's taking itself a bit too seriously. It's still Harry Potter, after all. Did the publishers think that adults would be embarrassed to be caught reading a children's book? First of all, who cares, but secondly, isn't that why the dust cover is removable?

Here, have a look, and tell me what you think. And if anyone has a photo of the American cover (because Americans would be embarrassed to be caught reading a children's book with a European cover?) I'd be interested to see it. Yes, yes, I know I can look it up on the internet, but I'm really not interested enough to take the time to Google it.