Got Potter?

Do you favor a good game of Quidditch over boring old baseball? Would you prefer a Nimbus Two Thousand instead of say, a Porche 911? Do you, by chance, despise a man named Volde ... (You-Know-Who)? Then you're probably one of the millions of Harry Potter fans eager to get your hands on the next book.

Friday night thousands of people will line up at bookstores open past midnight (it goes on sale July 8) to buy Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in a series intended for kids, but popular with grownups too. While hanging out at a bookstore filled with tired kids and parents at 1 a.m. on a Friday sounds like fun, there are other options for the Web-savvy Potter fan eager to get the book and join in the hysteria.

Buying Fast

All the major online booksellers are taking orders now for the hardcover book (retail price is $25.95). Up front, it's important to note that if you order on the Web, you probably won't get the book until next week. Even paying extra for next-day shipping options may mean waiting until Monday, since many services don't deliver on weekends. Read the shipping details where you shop, and if you simply can't wait for delivery, fire up the broomstick tonight and join the masses standing in line.

While online ordering will likely mean a wait, several retailers are going out of their way to accomplish fast deliveries of the book. Amazon.com teamed with Federal Express to offer a free shipping upgrade to get the book to excited fans on Saturday for the first 250,000 preorders. According to Amazon.com, FedEx will "mobilize more than 9,000 delivery personnel and vehicles" to accomplish the task.

The bad news: Amazon.com has already flown past the 250,000 mark (at about 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, Amazon showed 344,398 preorders), so if you order from Amazon.com now, and select next-day delivery, you're going to have to wait until at least Monday. It looks about the same for the online branches of major booksellers such as Barnes & Noble and Borders.

However, lucky Potter fans who live in areas served by Kozmo.com may be able to get the book delivered tonight. The service offers one-hour deliveries of all kinds of goodies--including the new book--in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

Starting at 11:30 p.m. Friday (and not a minute earlier), you can order the book for delivery, and a "Kozmonaut" will hand deliver it between midnight and 1 p.m. The company only accepts orders until midnight, and usually completes deliveries by 12:30, but appears to be making an exception here. The site does warn of a limited number of books, so order quickly and carefully when the time comes.