Harry Potter works his magic
2005-07-15 21:54
London - Faster than a turbo-powered broomstick, it's time for Harry Potter to fly off the shelves.
Crowds of would-be witches, warlocks and ordinary muggles - Potter-speak for non-magical humans - gathered at bookstores around the world on Friday for the midnight release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", and retailers predicted the sixth instalment of the boy wizard's adventures would break sales records.
It has become publishing's most lucrative, frantic and joyous ritual: hundreds of British bookstores planned to open just after midnight, when copies of the schoolboy wizard's latest adventure were to go on sale.
Necessary
"We've been waiting so long, the idea of waiting one minute longer than necessary to get it is dreadful," said 15-year-old Potter fan Sinead Miller, who lined up outside a London bookstore at 06:30 on Friday along with seven friends.
Launch events are planned from Manhattan - where Barnes & Noble is holding a "Midnight Magic" party at its Union Square store - to Mexico City, where the Libreria Gandhi book store scheduled a midnight sale and a day-long Potter festival on Saturday, even though the book will be available only in English.
In the hours before midnight, hundreds of people lined up outside a branch of Waterstone's bookstore in London's busy Oxford Street.
Many came dressed in homemade witch and wizard costumes. Some read Harry Potter books to pass the time, or played card games using Harry Potter decks.
Amazing
"The atmosphere is amazing," said Rose-Marie De Koning, 19, who came from Roosendaal in the Netherlands for the event. "There are a lot of fans here and lots of new friends being made. London is Harry Potter town."
In Edinburgh, Scotland, author JK Rowling was due to bewitch 70 lucky young fans with a midnight reading inside the city's 11th-century castle.
The youngsters, who won competitions to report on the book launch for their local newspapers, were to be ferried by horse-drawn carriage up the cobblestone streets leading to the imposing medieval castle perched over the town's old quarter.
Aspiring
Since Rowling - then a struggling single mother and aspiring writer - introduced Harry and his fellow students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to the world in 1997, the books have become a global phenomenon, selling 270 million copies in 62 languages and spawning a series of Hollywood films.
Rowling is now the richest woman in Britain, with a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at R7bn.
Publication has sparked a now-traditional price war, with many chain retailers selling the book for about half the cover price.
"We reckon it's going to be the biggest, fastest-selling book in history," said John Webb, children's buyer at Waterstone's, which expects 300 000 people to attend midnight openings at more than 100 stores across Britain.
- AP