Slim and I had a 6:30 am Saturday morning flight to the West Coast. I didn't pre-reserve Book 5 or Book 6, and each time finding them on opening day took a bit of a trek to multiple stores. Rather than risk being without the new Harry Potter book before all the spoilers leaked, we were one of the 800+ or so waiting in line at the Clarendon Barnes & Noble, who did a spectacular job given the constraints the publisher put on them: we were out of the store with copies in hand at 12:18 am, a half hour before our most optimistic estimate.

Still, it was annoying to see dozens of copies piled up in the airport bookstore ready for sale at five in the morning. I really could've used the extra few hours of sleep.

Slim, who reads faster than me, and had the advantage of being able to read the book while I was driving through a California traffic jam, finished before 5 PM Eastern; I got through the last couple of hundred pages at the wedding reception.

Spoiler: I don't mind ambiguous endings, but it seemed anachronistic to have Harry and his friends sit in a diner eating onion rings. More accurate discussion here: I think Rowling cheated with her disposition of the Elder Wand.