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Posted: 18 years ago

Harry Potter fans forgo sleep to acquire final chapter in series
By DREW BRACKEN
Advocate Correspondent

GRANVILLE --Like everywhere else where Harry Potter fans were, magical madness struck Granville at the midnight hour Saturday as "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final installment in the popular series of books, went on sale. Readers' Garden Bookstore at the corner of South Prospect Street and East Broadway was jam-packed at the witching hour with more than 150 youngsters and their parents. Only those who had pre-ordered a copy of the book were admitted.

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Those who reserved copies were able to receive theirs at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. "It's a Friday night, it's late, there's a lot of parents here with their children doing things together," said Granville resident Scott Anderson, a drug and alcohol counselor at the Orient Correctional Institution. "It's a fantastic opportunity for community building. It's a preventative measure for negative behavior in the community so this is a really super thing from my standpoint." Potter fans were encouraged to dress in costume. Some looked remarkably like the favorite characters in the movies; others donned witches outfits. "I was worried there would be too many people for too small a space but it was just perfect," said Jo Anne Geiger, owner of Readers' Garden Bookstore. "And the weather was wonderful." A prophecy in Book 5 revealed a confrontation between Harry Potter and his evil nemesis Lord Voldemort. "Harry's story comes to a definite end in book seven," author J.K. Rowling reportedly said a few days ago which, of course, only drove diehard Potter fans to vivid speculation. So the question of the night became, will Harry defeat Voldemort and restore order to the wizard world? Or will he die in the attempt? "I'm not sure," said Harry Brich, 15, a sophomore at Granville High School. "My mom decided to look it up on the Internet a few days ago. ..." Otherwise, as you would expect, there were two camps: Those who thinks Harry would die and those who thinks he would live. "I think Harry is going to get his," said Dr. Dominick Consolo, a professor emeritus of English at Denison University and the subject of the 1989 major motion picture, "Dead Poets Society." But his wife, Susan Richardson, disagreed. "I don't think so," she said. "My prediction is it's going to be a very satisfactory ending with all of the loose ends tied up. Being an optimist, I think good will win over evil." Eleven-year-old Amelia Anderson, a sixth-grader at Granville Intermediate School, who came dressed as Hermione Granger, agreed. "I don't think any of the main characters are going to die, and I'm pretty sure Voldemort is going to die," she said. Sean Maher, eighth-grader at Granville Intermediate School, somewhat disagreed -- sort of. "I think she might kill Harry in this one just because he's been a hero this whole time and he's courageous, so he's probably going to die fighting," Maher said. "He and Voldemort are both going to die." Whoever dies, Maher said he planned to spend the wee hours of the night reading to find the answers. "I'm going to stay up all night reading," he said. "I have this swimming thing tomorrow, and in between my races I'm going to be reading it if I don't finish it tonight." Source: Newark Advocate

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Hibernated

Posted: 18 years ago

Rowling reads out chapter of book to London fans

Karma Wangdi / CNN-IBN

Published on Sunday , July 22, 2007 at 03:53

London: For fans across the world, the decade long journey with Harry Potter and his friends finally culminated early on July 21.

Book stores everywhere from Berlin to London and from Thailand to Mumbai all saw serpentine queues of witches, Hogwarts heroes, Death eaters and plain old non magical muggles hours ahead of the book release, and hysterical happiness and excitement on getting their hands on the tome.

And in London, 500 lucky fans got to hear author J K Rowling read out the first chapter of the book at the city's Natural History Museum.

"We have just heard JK Rowling read the first chapter of her new book Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. It was amazing. It was actually quite dark, actually quite mysterious, and it was left on a cliff hanger, I really want to get my book and read on," says a Harry Potter fan.

Fans are now speed-reading the book to reach the end and find out the fate holds for the boy wizard.

And so high is the demand that 12 million copies have been printed for the US market alone, with pre-orders soaring to an unprecedented 2.2 million according to an online store.

No wonder this final book is tipped to be the fastest selling book in history.

Source: IBN

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271043

Hibernated

Posted: 18 years ago

Harry's U.S. editor tries to ignore Pottermania

By Bob Thompson

WASHINGTON POST

Article Launched: 07/22/2007 03:06:27 AM PDT

THERE ARE a lot of great things about being the Man Who Brought Harry Potter to America: You don't have to care about the latest Potter movie, for example, or the bazillion-copy print run for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," or the Harry Potter theme park scheduled to go into competition with Walt Disney World as early as 2009.

"The fact that there's a theme park has no effect on my life," Arthur Levine says. Don't get him wrong: The veteran children's book editor -- who has his own imprint at Scholastic and who, in 1997, famously took a flier on the first book by a British unknown named Joanne Rowling -- is far from ungrateful for the pervasive cultural phenomenon Harry Potter has become. "That's what you want for every great book," he says. "To have an audience and have people talking about it." Still, when Pottermania threatened to overwhelm the work that sparked it, Levine did what he had to do. As an editor, he defines his job as finding writers whose work he loves, helping them write the best books they can and publishing them well. "At some point I needed to pay a little bit less attention to the phenomenon," he says. "I'm not responsible for the phenomenon. "I'm responsible for the books." 'English kind of guy' Levine is 45, with short, graying hair and a ready smile that contains just a hint of the cat who got the cream. His life story should be an inspiration to English majors everywhere.

He grew up in Elmont, Long Island, right

on the edge of Queens, with a doctor father and a mother who was a teacher and an artist. "I always was an English kind of guy," he says, and he read "really broadly" from an early age. At Brown, he majored in English and creative writing, with an emphasis on poetry. After graduation, he signed up for the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course, a well-known first step toward entry-level publishing jobs. When he completed it, the director asked what part of publishing he'd like to be in. "I said, 'I want to be a children's book editor,'" Levine recalls. "And he said, 'Don't do that. You will never get a job.'" There weren't enough of them, it seemed, and their occupants seemed never to leave. Here comes that smile again: "I'm glad I didn't listen to that one particular piece of advice." G.P. Putnam's Sons hired him as an editorial assistant a few months later. He also worked at Knopf and Dial. Instant connection There's still excitement in his voice as he describes how he got instantly hooked -- "first chapter, first pages" -- on Harry. "I remember I loved this story of a boy who is treated very badly and really made to feel insignificant and powerless," he says. "And then, out of the blue, comes this invitation out." Not only does the invitation promise escape from a life of constant abuse by the "family" that wishes you were invisible, but in your new, magic world, you are already a legend and destined to become "a person of great stature." There's also this fantastic sport called quidditch, which you turn out to be better at than anyone in your whole school. Who couldn't relate to that? "I wasn't neglected. I didn't sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. My family loves me," Levine says with a laugh. "That doesn't mean I didn't feel invisible and I didn't feel powerless and I didn't have the fantasy that I would be recognized someday. This is something we all share." And it was just the beginning of Rowling's appeal. "I remember loving the humor, thinking she is so funny," Levine continues, "and thinking that here's a rare range of talents in a writer: somebody who can engage me emotionally and yet who can make me laugh. And whose plot is really driving me forward." Levine makes the point that it was a tremendous advantage for Rowling to have lived with her characters for so long between the time she conceived of Harry (1990) and the time the first book was published in England (June 1997). "She was building the rest of the story, figuring out the whole arc of Harry's experience," he says. It was only after Levine himself finished the final book that he fully understood "how carefully and deliberately and subtly all the clues and pieces of information have been placed and built from one book to the next." Rowling's characters, too, benefited from the extra-long development time. "She didn't just meet these people," Levine says. And all of them -- minor characters as well as major -- get steadily more complex as they mature. He was as surprised as any ordinary fan, he says, by plot and character developments as they arose. Which is exactly how he and Rowling wanted it. Tweaking the text "I'm not her collaborator. I'm just the stand-in for the reader," he explains. She doesn't need him to shape her story. His job -- along with Rowling's British editor, Bloomsbury's Emma Matthewson -- is to say, "This is how I reacted." Sometimes, he would say, "I do not know what's going on here," and Rowling would say, "I didn't want you to have that reaction at this point, so I think I'm going to move some information." At other times, when he asked about something in one of the earlier volumes, she would say, "That's a good question. I'm OK with your wondering that here. I will answer that in Book 5." Long before Book 5 came out, of course, Harry the Phenomenon had turned into the wand-waving equivalent of Godzilla. No one -- perhaps least of all Potter's creator -- had ever thought he could get so big. Scholastic publicity director Kris Moran remembers accompanying Rowling to Worcester, Mass., for the first bookstore signing of her 1999 American tour, shortly after her third book was published here. "What's going on?" Rowling asked as they approached the store, where they could see that a crowd had formed. "Is there some sort of sale?" Then came the screaming and the chanting of her name. A year later, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" became the first Potter book to have its release coordinated worldwide, causing midnight Potter parties to spring up everywhere. Rowling gave up touring. Meanwhile, the initial Potter movie, scheduled for release the following year, threatened to drown her sensitive young wizard in marketing hype. It was around this time that Levine decided he'd better not let Potter the Phenomenon go to his head. For a while, he'd felt as though he were living his own version of the Harry Potter story: Mild-mannered editor becomes publishing wizard. "I can still remember thinking: 'Wow -- even more people have discovered Harry Potter,'" he says. But eventually he decided "to be happy whenever something great happened" and then to bring "my focus back to where it needed to be." On the books.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

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271043

Hibernated

Posted: 18 years ago

A Harry Potter wedding

July 22, 2007

BY SARAH SKIDMORE

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- One Oregon couple's wedding night was especially magical.

Courtney Lanahan and Shawn Gordon of Clackamas headed straight from their wedding reception Friday to a bookstore to get the final Harry Potter book.

Courtney Gordon, left, with her husband Shawn Gordon who went from their wedding reception to a bookstore pose with a copy of the latest Harry Potter novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," that they purchased just after midnight Saturday.
(AP/Greg Wahl-Stephens)

The book's official release date is Saturday but many stores hosted midnight events to celebrate the debut of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

The wedding started at 7. The reception followed. And at 11:30 the limo whisked the new Mr. and Mrs. Gordon away -- to the mall.

"It's the best wedding present," Lanahan said.

The couple didn't realize when they set their wedding date that they'd be backing up against the book's release date. Harry Potter fan Lanahan, 23, and her sister started talking after they realized the conflict.

Her sister suggested the couple stop at the bookstore on the way to the hotel, but Lanahan was unsure -- her fiancee is not a Potter fan. She mentioned it to him anyhow but thought nothing would come of it.

On the sly, Gordon, 24, decided to surprise his new bride and contacted the Barnes & Noble at Clackamas Town Center that she frequents. But after realizing the amount of planning involved, he decided to let her in on the surprise.

The Barnes & Noble staff were thrilled to host the happy couple, said Page Jordan, community relations manager for the store.

The couple missed the pre-release activities and didn't win the costume contest when they showed up in their wedding attire. But as a wedding gift, the store got them the first spot in line.

Lanahan, an elementary school teacher working as a substitute, worried that the kids and parents would be mad. She tries to stay on top of children's literature and knows how much this book means to everyone.

But the store made a big announcement to make sure there were no sore feelings.

Lanahan said the couple aren't leaving for their honeymoon until a week after the wedding so she has that time to finish the book.

Source: The News-Sun, Chicago

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271043

Hibernated

Posted: 18 years ago

Chinese fans meet Harry Potter together with the world 22/7/2007 11:40

Harry Potter fans in China swarmed into book stores in Beijing and Shanghai yesterday to get the seventh and final volume of the boy wizard's adventures after standing in line for several hours from the mid-night.

Chinese book stores opened their doors for sales of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" at 7:01 a.m., Beijing time, together with the world. More than 300 fans queued up at the gate of the Beijing Book Building before 7 o'clock and more than 200 books have been sold in Wangfujing Book Store within 40 minutes. "I didn't have the opportunity to get the previous books at the same time with other readers in the world, so I have to catch the last chance to read it at the first time," said Zhu Shengtao,19, who arrived at the Beijing Book Building at around 9:00 p.m. Friday. Although not as lucky as their English counterparts, who may have the author J. K. Rowling on the spot to read for them some of the chapters, Chinese fans have got their own pleasure and surprise. Guo Xuan, 19, a girl from central China's Hubei Province got a collection of the English version for previous six books of the series during the lottery drawing session scheduled by the Beijing Book Building. "I've already got the six books in Chinese. It's so lucky that I could get all of them in English today," Guo said, with a big smile. Her friend reserved the book online, which sells the book at a cheaper price than bookstores, however, Guo said she couldn't wait to find out the final destination of Harry Potter. Lei La, 23, a die-hard Harry Potter fan skimmed through the book as soon as she had it in hand and found the ending is the same as the version leaked on a foreign website one week ago. "I'm not disappointed as it's J.K. Rowling's decision," she said. The leaks in various versions have caused big headache for Harry Potter publishers, who spent millions of dollars on safeguarding to prevent the content from being stolen. A total of 38,000 Harry Potter books had been transported to Beijing on July 15 and Shanghai got some 20,000 from the English publishers. It's estimated the seventh book will create a new selling record among the Harry Potter series. "According to my estimation, more than 2,000 books will be sold out in the first day," said Yang Xinyuan, manager of the original version books department of the Beijing Book Building said.

Others who prefer to read the book in Chinese have to wait for another three months till late October for the translated copy in their native language.

Source: Shanghai Daily

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271043

Hibernated

Posted: 18 years ago

Harry Potter fans break Shabbat spell
By RON FRIEDMAN

< = =text/> showInitialOdiogoReadNowFrame ('1002,1003,1005,1004,1006,1484,1560', '0', 290, 0); After taking on the likes of evil Lord Voldemort, teen wizard Harry Potter had no trouble this weekend defeating Shas Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Eli Yishai. Hundreds of fans waited with anticipation to buy or pick up pre-ordered copies of the seventh and final Harry Potter book on Friday night at the Tel Aviv Port, despite threats by Yishai to fine businesses opening on Shabbat to sell the novel. The first copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was sold at 1:57 a.m., four minutes before the book was scheduled to go on sale worldwide. Squeals of delight were heard as the first of the eager fans got hold of the much-anticipated book. "After waiting in line for nearly three hours, I finally have it in my hands. The ending of the series is here and it was worth every minute," said 13-year-old Matan Weisbrott from Hod Hasharon. The launching, organized by Steimatzky, drew fans of all ages, proving that the Harry Potter books are more than a children's series - they are a cultural phenomenon. The line started forming at 11 p.m. and reached halfway along the pier by the time the book went on sale. Many people had dressed up for the occasion, donning black robes and witch hats, carrying magic wands and broomsticks and sporting drawn-on lightning-bolt shaped scars on their foreheads. Magicians, jugglers and human statues costumed as characters from the books entertained the waiting crowds and large television screens counted down the seconds until the book was launched. Copies were piled high, waiting to be picked up, purchased and read. "This is the first time we've ever done something like this in Israel. We're part of a huge party that's taking place all around the world," said Steimatzky general manager Iris Barel. "We have thousands of copies waiting to be sold, and many more that have been pre-sold and [are] waiting for the customers to come pick them up from the stores." Eight-year-old Ariel Goldman from England, who was visiting Israel with his family, came to experience the excitement at the port despite being only halfway through the sixth book. "I can't wait to buy the new book, because then I can continue reading without having to wait to buy the next one," he said. The big question on everybody's mind was: "How will it end?" Every fan knows that this is the last Harry Potter book. The main characters of the series are all scheduled to graduate from the Hogwarts school of magic and author J.K. Rowling has said that she will not write any more Harry Potter books. People are expecting a climactic ending, more so because Rowling has already told readers that several of the main characters were going to die. Days ahead of the international launch, spoilers appeared in newspapers and on the Internet. Rowling addressed her fans, asking them to ignore speculation and wait for the book to come out. She even admonished the New York Times and other publications for giving away aspects of the plot in presale write-ups. Faced with an end to a series of books that has enthralled them for a decade, Harry Potter fans are divided into two groups: those that plan to finish the book as soon as possible, and those who want to savor the experience.

Israelis who don't read English, however, will have to wait. Barel said that the Hebrew translation won't be out until December.

Source: The Jerusalem Post

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Hibernated

Posted: 18 years ago

The final Harry Potter book has sold a staggering 15 million copies in less than a day.

Since Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows was released at midnight on Friday 3 million copies have flown off the shelves in Britain, whilst 12 million copies have sold worldwide.

The delighted publishers Bloomsbury announced, "Last time we sold two million copies in the first 24 hours. We think it will go over three million this time."

Author JK Rowling is estimated to be earning 30million from worldwide sales alone - but that's just loose change to someone who's already worth 650million!

Source: Entertainmentwise

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Hibernated

Posted: 18 years ago

"Harry Potter" Book Beats Sales Records

Seventh And Final Volume Grosses More Than Latest Movie

(CBS) It is the richest going-away party in history.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final volume of J.K. Rowling's all-conquering fantasy series, sold a mountainous 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale in the United States, according to Scholastic Inc.

No other book, not even any of the six previous Potters, has been so desired, so quickly. "Deathly Hallows" averaged more than 300,000 copies in sales per hour — more than 5,000 a minute. The $34.99 book, even allowing for discounts, generated far more revenue than the opening weekend of the latest Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which came out July 10.

"The excitement, anticipation, and just plain hysteria that came over the entire country this weekend was a bit like the Beatles' first visit to the U.S.," Scholastic president Lisa Holton said in a statement Sunday.

"This weekend kids and adults alike are sitting on buses, in the park, on airplanes and in restaurants reading 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.' The conversations the readers have been waiting to have for 10 years have just begun."

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"The excitement, anticipation, and just plain hysteria that came over the entire country this weekend was a bit like the Beatles' first visit to the U.S."
Lisa Holton
President, Scholastic Inc.

The numbers are astonishing, but not shocking. "Deathly Hallows" was designed to break records, released Saturday with a first printing of 12 million in the U.S. alone, although Scholastic spokeswoman Kyle Good acknowledged that some stores already were out of copies.

"Our distribution strategy was clearly right on target in order to sell 8.3 million copies in 24 hours," she told The Associated Press. "We are working with retailers to move additional copies to the places they are needed most in the coming days and weeks."

The book's British publisher, Bloomsbury, expects to announce sales figures Monday.

Earlier Sunday, Borders Group Inc. reported that "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" sold 1.2 million copies worldwide in its first day, the biggest single-day number ever for the superstore chain. According to Borders, the previous Potter, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," sold 850,000 copies on its first day of release in 2005.

Both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble announced that pre-orders exceeded 1 million. In a truly Beatles-esque moment, seven of the top best sellers on Amazon were Potter-related Sunday, including the audio CD of "Deathly Hallows" and a box set of all seven Potters coming out in September.

"Deathly Hallows" was so popular that Hollywood studio Warner Bros. acknowledged it took away business from "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth Potter movie, because fans were too busy.

"They wanted to get that book Saturday, lock themselves in the house and read it, because they didn't want their other friends by Monday telling them who made it and who didn't," said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.' head of distribution.

Reviews for "Deathly Hallows" have been almost universally ecstatic, and reader enthusiasm apparently intact despite, prerelease "spoilers" that proliferated on the Internet.

"The book was fascinating, and I think I'll have to read it through at least once more before I get the full scope of it — but I thought it had some of her best, most action-packed, funniest moments in it," says Melissa Anelli, Webmaster for the Potter fan site http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org, who said she finished the 759-page book Saturday.

"When I closed the book I was overjoyed and devastated — overjoyed at the story, and the way it had played out, but devastated that the tale was complete," she said. "It did feel like a bereavement, like it was saying farewell to a long-trusted friend."

Last week, some surprised and lucky readers received early deliveries of their Potters, thanks to a glitch by online retailer DeepDiscount.com. Over the weekend, some unfortunate readers complained that their books from Amazon.com had not arrived on Saturday, as promised. Amazon.com spokesman Sean Sundwall would not confirm or deny reports of delays but said Sunday that anyone who did not receive it on time would automatically be refunded the cost of the $34.99 book, which Amazon sold for $17.99.

Potter fan Anna Todd, a film student at the State University of New York's Purchase campus, picked up her book in person at midnight Saturday at the Barnes & Noble in Manhattan's Union Square. Taking naps off and on, she was finished within 24 hours.

"J.K. Rowling does not disappoint; I thought she did brilliantly. It was terrifying; sometimes I was scared to keep reading on. I cried buckets," said Todd, 20, who lamented that "never again will I stay up all night reading a new Harry Potter book, or go to its midnight release party, or invent wild theories about Harry being the Heir of Gryffindor."

"That's it," she said. "It's all over. I feel like I just said goodbye forever to my oldest, dearest friend. All I can do is re-read, and in the future when I have children, I'll get to share these books with them. I look forward to that day."