Do you get to read Harry before the rest of us? (I'm sorry, on the other hand, if you're forced to read Ed Klein's incoherent screed.)

This sentence, from Salon's review of "Dianetics" struck me as wombatly:

"Perfectly clear words can be dragooned into sentences so grammatically torturous and incoherent that any meaning once inhabiting those words runs screaming from the wreckage."

Salon's doing a four-part slam of Scientology. The Church has lots of people willing to write letters in its defense, as it turns out.

ming -- Ah, how I wish I were as innocent as you are about the level of security surrounding the release of Harry Potter Part XVIXXMDCMX. No, I don't get to read it before it releases. Nobody outside of a handful of people on the editorial inside at Rowling's publishers (Scholastic in the U.S., I forget who in the U.K.) get to do so.

I actually know a couple of people who were copyeditors at Scholastic during the release of the fourth book. The proofs from which they worked (the American edition, because of the various spelling/style differences, has to be independently copyedited from the British version) were kept under lock and key and had to be signed out and in.

I do not know this in any official capacity, but I am absolutely sure that the only way any bookseller gets to sell the book is to sign an agreement to pay a large penalty should any of the cases get opened before 12:01 AM local time on July 16th.

Not only do I not get to see the book in advance, but the only way I will get ahold of a copy fast enough to do my job on the weekend the book releases will be to get in line at a store the night before. With the primary concern over the weekend of release being to get hundreds of thousands of people their copy as close to the instant of release, there's no privileging of anything other than getting books in the hands of customers. No desk, review, working copies or any such thing are likely to make it to my place of employ until well after the storm passes...

The Salon pieces are excellent -- I don't always love Laura Miller, but sometimes she's great, and I thought the Dianetics review was fascinating. Of the four, it's the most illuminating.

What? If reviewers can't read HP&tHBP prior to release, how will anyone know if they're supposed to buy it, much less enjoy it?

maybe we could all pitch in and help the Wombat with his review. Or maybe we could all post imaginary reviews, & whoever hits closest to the mark could get....what would be a good prize?

Poor wombat. On the other hand, they wouldn't want or expect you to write anything even remotely specific in your review, would they? at risk of spilling or spoiling the surprise for the kiddies?

I don't envy you. I'm not looking forward to the deluge of "customer reviews" over in my hidey-hole, either.

Just to clarify: I don't write reviews. I have somewhat more complicated matters under my purview. Go to

www.bn.com/bookclubs and you'll see what I spend my time on.

I withdraw my faux naif swipe at the relevance of reviewers/critics in general and in this particular case.