Penultimate Potter book debuts amid frenzied scenes |
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Mon, 18 Jul 2005 09:35
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Its here and its got the whole world going crazy. 'Harry Potter' is the undisputed king of fiction at this moment and this fact was heavily underlined by the mad rush to stores within the first few hours of the release of the latest adventure of the boy-wizard, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
The penultimate book of the hugely popular series was grandly welcomed worldwide as people from all walks of life scrambled to be in place for the unheard of midnight release. Some even went as far as ordering two copies so that they would not be disturbed by others while reading theirs. Several stores across London remained open well into the wee hours, as people seemed infected by a strange frenzy. Roberta McClelland, sales associate at the independent Oxford Book Shop on Richmond Street, which remained open until 1 a.m, said, "Parents came in and bought three or four copies at a time, because their kids didn't want to wait for each other to read it." However, the rush passed off "smoothly and the lines moved pretty quickly."
Author J K Rowling who had released the book at Edinburgh Castle was quoted as saying, "I'm excited about this book. You get a lot of answers in this book. I can't wait for everyone to read it."
Meanwhile, U.S. publisher, Scholastic Inc, has gone on record to say that it was printing an astounding 10.8 million copies of the magic-marathon and expected the book to easily beat the record set by "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which had sold almost 5 million copies in the first 24 hours after its release.
US retailer Barnes & Noble which took more than a million orders of the book said that thousands of Potter fans had lined up outside stores despite the late hour to grab their copies.
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