reviews of a book we may never get to read

So, all of the Harry Potter books are done, finished, written, published.

The author wants to do something special to thank some of the people who helped her create and publish them. So she writes 5 Wizarding Fairy Tales and has them published in a special volume -- actually 7 special volumes -- that are actually handwritten by her and put together with handmade binding.

So, 6 special people are each given a copy of the book. As far as I know, these people have not been named. I figure someone at Bloomsbury, Arther Levine of Scholastic, and her daughter Jessica are among those who received a copy, but as Mr. Owl said, "The world may never know."

The 7th book was auctioned off, with proceeds going to charity.

To sum up, so far, what we've got is the world's most popular author wrote something original that millions of people would pay to buy a copy of (money that could go to charity) and instead only one copy will actually be available at any price.

So, they held the auction, and the winning bidder was . . .

Amazon.com.

I didn't know a website could buy a book. It's very strange. But it gets stranger.

Before I go on I must note that, if you click on the links below in this post, you will see SPOILERS! If you don't want to know what happens in these stories, on the off-chance that you might someday get to buy a copy for yourself, don't click on the links! You have been WARNED!

Because now Amazon is putting up high-resolution photos and [SPOILER WARNING] reviews of the book. As of this writing, they've written reviews of 2 of the 5 stories. Assuming that one of the remaining three is the tale of the three brothers and the Deathly Hallows items that is featured in her most recent Harry Potter novel, there are still 2 stories we know virtually nothing about.

I couldn't help myself. I read the reviews. It's like when I was a kid and I was given the opportunity to eat appitizers before dinner. And I'd fill up on all those yummy things, and then I wouldn't want to eat the even yummier dinner food. That's what I've done here. I've read the "reviews", which amounts to a well-written summary of the ENTIRE STORY, including the ending, and now I know the ending and it won't be nearly as exciting if Jo takes pity on us poor readers and decides to published a mass market version of this book.

I have to say this is one of the strangest siguations I've ever encountered. A website that sells books managed to spoil one for me, but it's one I might never get to read, so I don't know whether to be grateful or to grumble about it.