So can’t make this a long post. See, we received the new Harry Potter book on Saturday (pre-ordered on Amazon.com, thank you very much – none of this standing in line at midnight or waiting in some store line to pick up an on-hold copy for us!) and I have plunged into it. As I am the faster reader I got first crack at it, and Chuck is eagerly waiting for me to finish, and my niece is waiting for HIM to finish, so you can see that the pressure is on. I’m about a third of the way through and have to confess that I do know who dies (I cheated and looked ahead) but won’t say anymore about the plot, except that it’s typically good and a very fast read. What I’m actually posting about is an interesting news item that I happened across today. No, it’s not about the fact that Rowling made a boatload of money in the first 24 hours of the book’s release (we’ve all figured out by now that she’s rich as Croesus). No, this is about something that’s had me peeved for a while. Chuck and I are big fans of audio books. To be fair, he was the big fan who introduced me to them, and now I dig them too. We are especially fond of iTunes and Audible.com audio books that you can download straight to your iPod (okay – or other MP3 player). Many a long drive has been made much more entertaining by listening to a good thriller. However, no Harry Potter book has ever been released in MP3. You can buy it on CD and cassette, but that’s it. If you have time on your hands, you could buy the CD then rip the entire thing (in the case of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, that’s 18 CDs!!). Why? In a word, concerns about piracy, apparently. But this looks to be a “shoot youurself in the foot” move to some extent as this latest tome, out for all of what, 72 hours, has spawned an underground industry of sorts. I’m not saying I approve of this exactly (but I’m not saying I disapprove either). *sigh* The pirated audio version is from the looks of it (not that I’ve actually heard any of it, of course) a ripped version of the audio CD.

So I’m actually reading the book now, and will NOT be downloading ANY pirtated version of Harry Potter. Ever. Really. I mean it.