Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Unfortunate Events: Help Find the Missing Title

I just received the following message from Harper Collins:

"We are deeply upset to inform you that both the title of upcoming Book the Twelfth in A Series of Unfortunate Events and Mr. Snicket himself have been reported missing, unknown, or both. With the book's publication scheduled for October 18th, 2005, the situation is dire.

Alarmingly, the public's help is now required to uncover important details regarding Mr. Snicket's new book before it is too late. Volunteers everywhere are invited to visit www.TheNamelessNovel.com, where an official investigation is underway. Anonymous sources say that clues at that website and elsewhere are sure to lead to a series of shocking revelations."

It appears that a new clue will appear every day. Solve all the clues and you will be rewarded with information about book 12 in The Series of Unfortunate Events!

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Harry Potter and Summer Vacation

Where will you be Friday night at midnight? If you are reading this blog, chances are that you'll be at a Harry Potter party, celebrating the release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We will be too, but it won't be anywhere near our home. When Scholastic announced the release date for Half Blood Prince, we had already had a vacation planned for that date. But Harry Potter fans like us don't let a little thing like vacation stand in the way of a Harry Potter release! We found a book store near our hotel that is having a party and preordered the book, so we're ready!

This isn't the first time this has happened; J.K. Rowling must have access to our vacation calendar. When the release date for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was announced, we already had plans to be in Disney World that week. Undeterred, we ordered the book for release date delivery from Amazon.com, and requested that they deliver it to our hotel in Disney World. So, when we got back to our hotel after a day at Disney, the book was sitting on our hotel room bed waiting for us! We sat on the porch of our hotel room and began to read:
""The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive...."

I'll always remember that moment as one of the highlights of our vacation. A new Harry Potter book and summer vacation. It doesn't get any better than this.