Scary thought: what if Google bought J.K. Rowling?

Citizens! Be warned! There is a phenomenon sweeping the world in a green-and-yellow hardback! It's everywhere! Take cover! Or, well, just notice it. It's hard not to.

Yes, it's Harry Potter official release day. I bought mine and started right into it in an attempt to not have yet another ending of a cultural touchstone ruined for me. And I knew it was a big deal. And I knew that a lot of other people were excited for it.

But I wasn't quite prepared for just how ubiquitous it is. At Kramerbooks, every single person in line ahead of me and behind me was buying a copy. I asked the cashier if he had the SKU number memorized yet and he almost did. This was at noon.

In Rose Park where I went to spend the summery afternoon, the other three people in the spot I was in were reading it. When Weston and I went to Teaism, a woman sitting outside was reading it, and in a quick count, almost half of the people sitting on the patio of the Starbucks next door were reading it, some of them already more than halfway through.

I can understand why people who don't read the books would be a little creeped out by this, but personally, I think it's really exciting to be smack dab in the center of a massive cultural phenomenon. There's very few moments that are quite like this, when something is so pervasive.

So on your Metro ride into work or just walking around town, look out for those covers. They're freaking everywhere.