Brit vs. American

Oh I love chocolate, old bean (that's for lunatica - keeping in the flavor of the thread)

One of my favorite restaurants has a flourless chocolate cake that is to die for.

Sounds good to me. I don't have any from other countries (you can't officially buy them new here because of I think contractual agreements, but I'm sure you can get them on e-bay and the like, and of course from travels). This site lists some of the differences in the first book.
Harry Potter British/American text comparison

This site lists some from all four books: FAST-US-1 Intro to American English Reference File

Now really, I think Americans could handle "mummy" "bin" "post" and "Happy Christmas". And a chandelier is not even the same thing as a candelabra. We do know that Harry is British so we ought to enjoy learning what "wonky" and "bogey" mean. I think it is a case of playing to the lowest common denominator. And we are the losers.

Lunatica,

I just glanced through the chapter 1 differences and was surprised to see than some of the differences where mechanical and not verbal.

Now I wonder if that's due to editing or if there really are conventional (albeit slight) differences between the states and Briton.

I agree that we are the losers -- a chance to expand our vocabulary and we have to wait for the movie? Seems pretty lame.

Yes, Americans apparently love commas. Some of their changes seemed a little silly to me, but I agreed with some of the changes.

Going to the visual, I don't think the British pictures that I've seen look much better, by the way, though again I have only seen cover illustrations on the internet and a few scattered inside ones.

I, for one, am amazed that there is an American version - what an insult! And at what loss! Had I known there were two, I would have done everything I could (within reason) to get the Brit version from the beginning to now.

I would think that one day, we will be able to get the full set in either version. (If I'm not too old to remember I wanted it by the time it's available to get.)

ya, you're right - from Book 2 on, we got the book the day of the release - and this last time waited in line almost an hour...

Exactly.

I will probably have to hope for a large print version. That should only weigh two thousand pounds and God knows how many volumes.

By the way, did anyone hear Jim Dale today on "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me"? I think he's doing some promotional stops around the country. I do like his Dobby voice.