Thursday, July 19, 2007

Is it wrong to lick...

...the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows copy that we received in advance?

Really?

Unethical?

Unhygenic?

Aw, c'mon! It's not like I read the ending, or anything. In fact, I didn't even crack the covers of either of the two copies of the book we have on hand. I just figured that if I licked one of them, I'd likely be the only person in the entire world licking that particular title, a feat I daresay millions of children would sell their younger siblings into servitude in order to trade places with me to achieve. The Power! THE POWER!!!

Okay, so I didn't really lick it. But I did touch it. And I thought about licking it. And I do plan to abuse my library employee status by being the first to check out the book on CD, which I may also yet lick, as it's shrink-wrapped and stuff. However, I will play fair and wait until Saturday to do so. (The checking out part, that is. The licking, I'll probably get to later today.)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bad Juice, bad Juice! You're not even supposed to open the box until Saturday.

Seriously though, do they really imagine we're going to come in early just to process their book?

Unknown said...

IMHO, getting to check the (audio)book out before anyone else is one of the very few perks of library ass-istantship. Several years ago, I used this power to be the first person to check out The DaVinci Code at my liberry.

Didn't think to lick the copy, though. Next time...

Anonymous said...

I've been following the Children's Librarian around all morning, waiting for the delivery of our copies!

And to Anon.: On Friday, we very briefly open the box to catalogue and process the public copies, then back into the box and safe they go until Saturday!

sarahjeanne said...

ooooh, it has been quite a test of my character to put me near the new Harry Potters. I managed to get out of cataloging any of them, which is good because the temptation might have been too much. an evil co-worker (who has never read even one harry potter book, nor seen a harry potter movie) read the last page and i worry she's going to spend all day tomorrow threatening to spoil it....

-sarahjeanne.

Lisa said...

Ours are due from our HQ (where they unboxed and processed them, under top secret conditions, no doubt) tomorrow. The branch manager, who is off that day, appointed me to be the one to receive them from the courier and lock them in her office til the morn.

That's right, I said "lock" not "lick."

Juice S. Aaron said...

It's nuts to me how much this book has infiltrated the lives of darn nigh everyone. You expect to hear about it from the media, of course, but I was in the grocery store today and overheard two stock clerks talking about the threats from on high they'd received when they asked if they could go ahead and construct the display rack for the books in advance. It apparently had to go up the chain of command through more than one boss before someone grudgingly agreed to let them. But then the message came down from UBER boss that while they were authorized to build the display, they were under no circumstance to actually put books into it before midnight Friday. And IF. THEY. DID. they would be calling down the thunder on their own heads heads.

J.K. just has to get an enormous kick out of this.

Monster Librarian said...

Hey that is sneaky...no opening the boxes until Sat. A friend called me today to say that she recieved her copy in the mail today (that company is now being sued).

I told her that I was excited for her, but also saddened that she would start reading it before me! I hate that I am moral enough to play by the stupid rules. :)

Juice S. Aaron said...

We had to open the box. The rest of our book order from B&T was in there as well.

In their defense, B&T did put giant stickers on the outside of their shipping box warning us that Harry Potter material was in the box and that we should be careful not to accidentally process and shelve it early.

They did not, however, warn against licking any of it, to their detriment.

Vampire Librarian said...

That was too funny!


An employee of a small town "liberry" chronicles his quest to remain sane while dealing with patrons who could star in a short-lived David Lynch television series.