According to Publishers Weekly, Brisingr, the third volume in Christopher Paolini's "Inheritance Cycle", sold 550,000 copies on its first day. The sales numbers broke records for Random House Children's Books, and more than 2,500 bookstores held midnight release parties for Brisingr on September 20th.

I noticed my local grocery store—obviously unaware that this book was supposed to be a Very Big Deal—had their copies out on the shelf by Friday evening. (They did the same thing with Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn a few weeks ago.) Clearly, if you just can't wait another second to read a best-selling kid novel, check out the book section of your local supermarket. If the book isn't Harry Potter famous, chances are good they'll take the publisher's release date as a suggestion, rather than a hard-and-fast rule, and you might be able to get your greedy little hands on it a few hours early.

Labels: Christopher Paolini