With the release of the newest Harry Potter book "The Order of the Phoenix" all kinds of sales records were broken either at "brick & mortar" booksellers, or the Internet marketers. Anyone here participate in helping to set that record?

I'd like to, but I'm too cheap. Besides, we've got another couple years before the next book....no rush.

Yeah, semi.

Ended up getting it today, although not by my own doing. Got a random gift... not that I'll argue.

It was somewhat scary up here. One of our major bookstores had people lined up around the block up to 4 hours before the midnight release. Now -that- is excitement (bordering on obsession if you ask me).

Getting it for my son and daughter in a feww days

I don't understand the idea of buying your kids a book at midnight. If you're a good parent you'll make them go to bed as soon as you get home, so what's the point?

If I even bother to read it, it'll be a library book.

Well I have just finished it, and it was an awesome book. I have read the other 4, and was really looking forward to the new one. I can honestly say I wasn't disappointed.

Maybe I am just a big kids at heart......:D


Cheers, Vicky

Not released in France yet ! We'll have to wait until november. I sure will buy it on the first day (but maybe not at midnight).

Not released in France yet? Why not?? Has your Ministry of Eradicating Non-French Terminology gotten stuck on translating the magical words?

Are you referring to that story where the French gov't is banning the word "email" from its offices?

In part, yes. Banning the word "email" is merely the latest example.

Originally posted by es347fan
Not released in France yet? Why not?? Has your Ministry of Eradicating Non-French Terminology gotten stuck on translating the magical words?

No, they are just editing every reference to english culture to replace it by red wine or camembert. And they have to replace "Voldemort" by "GWB" in many sentences. Takes time, especially since we french only work 3 hours a week.:D

Since it's a French translation, don't you mean replacing "Voldemort" with "Chirac"?

Really curious though, why the lengthy delay in releasing the book?

About Chirac - do not forget that "Voldemort" sounds rather french. So it would be logical to translate it by an english name…
But in fact the main characters' names have not been changed. The french translator did a pretty good job on adapting many other new words. For example, "Hogwart" is translated as "Poudlard", which sounds english enough but means more to the french kids (as "lard" is Hog meat).
Part of the charm of Harry Potter is its typically english setting, and this has not been alterated by the translation.

Originally posted by es347fan

Really curious though, why the lengthy delay in releasing the book?

I guess it is only the time it takes to translate it. It's a pretty big book ! Once translated, it probably has to be checked by the author and the original publisher since there is a lot of money involved. They also have to work on the cover illustration, have the art approved, etc…
Any translation from a foreign book usually takes a few months.
I wonder if it has already been released in other non english-speaking countries but I'm pretty sure the delay is the same everywhere.

Anyway, the english version has been available here in bookstores at the same date than in UK or USA. There are big stacks of the english book everywhere ! I know a 15 year girl old who bought the english version of tome 4 because she could not wait any longer, I guess she did the same with this one. Her english teacher must be very happy !

"...Takes time, especially since we french only work 3 hours a week..." Astrapol2

You're saying that, while in jest, made me remember being in Germany from 1980-1987.
If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I want to come back as a German national working for the U.S. government. While I was in Germany, our civilian worker's work week went from 40 hours to 36.5,(yet paid for 40), they had unlimited sick time, 6 weeks vacation, plus both German & American holidays - paid. What a way to benefit from losing a war!

I'm afraid I'm going to make you sick.
Under the current french legislation, the working time here is 35 hours a week paid 40, and the minimum vacation is 5 weeks + holidays.
I actually only work 2 days a week at my office and 1,5 more day at home, and have 7,5 weeks of vacation a year.

But I'm a part time worker and pretty lucky ! And I also work a lot in freelance during the rest of the week and some of my vacation… It still lets me enough spare time to contribute to this forum !

And you, as a "semi retired" therapist, do you work a lot ?

Are the French heavily taxed? I remember the Germans paying out a fair amount, not only in straight income taxes, but the VAT and property taxes as well.

I'm working about 5 days a month, and do some consulting online but am contemplating more. There's a project in a nearby town that has caught my interest, and as such, I'll be exploring that a bit further. It would not be difficult to get back into things full time, however .... I do enjoy my retirement. Tomorrow could bring change to everything, so "one day at a time" is the best approach.

The French are more heavily taxed than the American. I think we are in the european average (more than the English though).
Of course many people complain about the taxes, but in fact most French prefer to keep the current system. We benefit from a good public service : free school and university, free health service, cheap and efficient public transport, some social programs for the poorer.
So in my opinion it is worth paying taxes for all that.

I'll not attempt to compare tax rates. Federal income taxes are fairly significant, there can be state / municipal taxes, various property taxes & school taxes. School taxes are a pet peeve of mine, as there is so much money devoted to multiple administrative empires. The city of San Antonio, TX (pop 1.5 mil) has over 20 seperate school districts, each requiring a superentendent, and a host of other ''titles'' and their staffs. Each district also requires its' own facilities, seperate and apart from any school buildings. Educators are a strong political entity, and most resistant to having their books examined. This is repeated all around the country. Yet, American schools are in bad shape. The school systems all cry for more & more money, yet they don't improve the quality of the education delivered. Most infuriating.

yes, unfortunately money does not solve all the problems, especially when human beings are involved ! The french school system is far from perfect too, and is regularly criticized and reformed. But at least it works for the huge majority of kids, whatever place or social group they come from, and that is a good thing.

The US population has not taken to public transit the way Europeans have. Having your own vehicle is a necessity. I can't imagine being without a vehicle, currently I own 2. Even in cities where the public transit is pretty good, most folks shy away from using it, leaving it primarily for the lower ends of the socio-economic population, unless using it for special event services, such as attending concerts, sporting events and the like.
Our universities & colleges are far from free. It costs a medium fortune to attend a 4 year school.

It costs a medium fortune to attend a 4 year school.
Or quite a bit of intelligence and plenty of hard work.

Nearly all french people also own their own car, but I think public transport (bus, subway or train) is much more commonly used than in the USA because it is often simpler than car. Our cities have not been designed for cars like yours, and there is often traffic jams and difficulties to park. So it is easier to take the subway. In Paris , many people do not own a car since it is very expensive to rent a parking lot and totally unconvenient to travel by car in this city.
Even for long distances, train is often a better option since there are many high speed trains that link the major cities (and now the major European cities). For example, my office is in Paris but i live 250 kms from there. It only takes me two hours to get from my home to my office : 15 minutes from my home to the railways station, 1 hour to paris by train, and 45 minutes to my office by bus. And I can read or sleep during all the travel !

About university : in fact they are not completely free, you often have to pay something like one thousand euros per year. and there are many private or semi private schools which are supposed to be better than universities and that can be expensive (about 5000 euros per year - nothing compared to the american system).

I'd much rather use the rails. When I lived in Europe, we used the trains all the time, even using the car carriers once. Not quite the same here. Yeah, Amtrak is available, but not at the same frequency of service as you're familiar with.

There was a project of high speed train in texas a few years ago. Do you know if there are still some projects of this kind in the USA ?

There's a fairly high speed train that runs on the east coast between I think Washington D.C. and Philadelphia (don't quote me on that). Except for in the most densely populated areas of the country, flying is almost always faster than the train. Plus the rail infrastructure in this country is biased towards freight, which means that passenger rail can't run as quickly. Creating a separate rail system for passenger trains would not be cost effective.

That is ironical. In France, environmentalists fight to have the freight developed on rails, since it would lead to big oil savings. But the railways organization is biased towards passengers and freight stays underdeveloped.

By the way, railways infrastructure are pretty expensive. In Europe, only the state owned railways companies make it possible to have a modern and effective railways system. In UK where the state has privatised the railways 20 years ago, railways are slow, expensive and not reliable (even dangerous).

I shudder to think of what a federally owned rail system, similar in structure (frequency, percentage of country covered, etc) would cost the taxpayers. The northeast corridor - from roughly Boston, MA, to the Phlildelphia, PA area, to Washington DC is about the extent of heavily used passenger service. Yes, Amtrak runs throughout the country, but not all areas are serviced. As Lionel said, it's more about the freight.

Europe is smaller and more densely (?? is this an english word) populated than the USA, so this is pretty different.
Anyway, even in France, the national railways company has not been profitable until a few years ago, when it was splitted in two : a company that builds and maintains the infrastructure, and a company that runs the trains. This one is profitable, but the infrastructure is still not. Which in fact is not very different from the roads, which are made at the taxpayer's expense.

"Densely" is a word, and you used it properly. "Splitted", however, is not in current use, "split" would be the proper term. Amerenglish has to be one of the toughest languages to learn.

Originally posted by astrapol2
Europe is smaller and more densely (?? is this an english word) populated than the USA, so this is pretty different.
Anyway, even in France, the national railways company has not been profitable until a few years ago, when it was splitted in two : a company that builds and maintains the infrastructure, and a company that runs the trains. This one is profitable, but the infrastructure is still not. Which in fact is not very different from the roads, which are made at the taxpayer's expense.

Sounds like one of those accounting tricks that corporations use. If we separate the ticket selling operations from the train operating, maintenance, and infrastructure, we can show a profit. All the ticket people do is take in lots and lots of money!:D

Except it is usually done to show deficit, not profit, since when you make some profit you pay taxes !

True. But in the government world you have to show profit so that you can't be accused of being a drain on the taxpayers.

True. And it allows a state company to be privatised with big profit for the state (many French state companies have been privatised during the last decade).