Potter mania grips the globe
2005-07-16 13:15
New York - The age of Potter VI officially dawned on Saturday as millions of fans, from sweaty New York to chilly Australia, got their hands on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and began the darkest of J K Rowling's fantasy novels.
"I can't believe that I have the first copy," said 20-year-old Rachel Grandy, a college student who was first in line at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square, arriving early on a sticky summer morning and getting her book at midnight, some 16 hours later.
In Edinburgh, Scotland, Rowling emerged at the stroke of 12 from behind a secret panel inside the city's medieval castle to read an excerpt from the sixth chapter to a super-select group of 70 children from around the world.
"You get a lot of answers in this book," Rowling, a resident of Edinburgh, said as she arrived at the castle, later settling into a leather easy chair before her adoring fans.
Contains many answers
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is Rowling's most mature story, marked by the death of a major character and the arrival of love in the land of Hogwarts. Harry's fans can now solve the mysteries that Rowling teasingly hinted at for months: Will Harry's teenage friends Ron and Hermione find romance? Which character died? Who is the half-blood prince?
In London, events were muted by the July 7 subway and bus bombings, which killed over 50 people.
In Australia, 17-year-old Mohammed Jalili-Baleh was first in a line of hundreds of would-be witches and warlocks at one of Sydney's largest bookstores. He and a friend spent more than 12 hours waiting on the cold sidewalk.
At the Wangfujing Bookstore in downtown Beijing, about 40 people lined up in the early morning to buy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Since Rowling first 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 inspiring a series of movies. Rowling is now the richest woman in Britain, with a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at $1bn.
With only brief interruptions, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has topped the charts of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com since last December, when Rowling announced that she had completed it. Pre-orders worldwide already are in the millions and other Potter products are selling strongly, including the audio book, a "deluxe" edition of "Half-Blood Prince" and a box set of the previous five books.
Publication has sparked a price war in England. Scholastic Inc, Rowling's United States publisher, has also joined the competition, offering a 20% discount on its website.
Scholastic is releasing more than 10 million copies. Waterstone's predicts 2 million copies will be sold in Britain, where Bloomsbury publishes the book, and 10 million worldwide in the first 24 hours.
- AP