I drove around town a little this evening taking in all the Potter Pandemonium. I’m always amazed at how many people come out for these releases. But I was no where near as excited as Line # 72 (pictured below) at Barnes and Noble at the Summit.

He came walking out of that store whooping it up like he’d just won the lottery. And what was funny was…

there were hundreds more yelling right back at him. I watched him as he walked through the crowd flipping to the last few pages of the book… he just couldn’t wait. There were hundreds more just as happy.

And just as decorated.

I have always gone to the “big box” retailers for these release parties. They have quite the carnival atmosphere. But this year I was curious as to what the smaller locally owned stores were doing. So I briefly stopped in Little Professor in Homewood (one of my favorites and not just because they have the world’s best pimento cheese sandwiches).

If the Summit was a street party, then the Little Professor was a dinner party. It was great! This is where I would have taken my kids to get their books (if I had kids of reading age). Everyone was allowed inside, as opposed to the Summit where everyone has to wait outside between barracades while being yelled at by a bullhorn wielding bookstore employee. Lil Prof also put on quite the spread for its customers…

and folks were still hurrying to be first in line.

So it seemed to me that all had fun, but the good times were indeed in the smaller locally owned shops, where they played games and ate together. You know… all community like. It reassures me of where I want to be spending my local dollars.

No doubt the web and Flickr will be flooded with pics from tonight, so I’ll keep a look out and post them as I come across them. The rest of my quick not-so-pretty shots are up on Flickr as well.