Subject: Re:

From: Thurman <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 04:45:58 -0500

In some ways, Pottermania has calmed down. Potter paraphernalia, for instance, suffered disappointing sales in 2003, and retailers have decided not to make the same mistake again.

Another thing you can bank on is, well, the bank. Scholastic, Rowling's American publisher, is issuing a first printing of 10.8 million copies, by far a record. By comparison, the last Harry Potter novel, 2003's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," was issued with 8.5 million copies, the  "I'm kind of afraid to read that book because I know that J.K. Rowling will have no pity for the readers about killing off characters we like," said Heyman. Potter Web site MuggleNet even offers a page of rumor debunkings, including "[Hogwarts Headmaster] Dumbledore is not a relative of Harry," "Harry Potter will not be the new Minister of Magic" and "There will be no character named Icicle." As usual when it comes to J.K. Rowling's teenage wizard, plot hints are few and rumors are many. Rowling has revealed three chapter titles -- "Spinners End" (Chapter 2), "Draco's Detour" (Chapter 6) and "Felix Felicis" (Chapter 14) -- and has long said that the books will get deadlier as Harry !
 gr Like so many Potter readers, Heyman has filled time between new releases by rereading the older Potter books and trying out other fantasy series. She mentions Christopher Paolini's "Inheritance," for which the second of three planned volumes comes out next month. The book is the sixth in the series and has sat in the No. 1 spot on Amazon.com's best seller list since it was announced late last year. The most anticipated of the bunch arrives July 16 with the sixth book in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." "I love his work," she said. "I'm planning on setting up a tent outside the bookstore to get his book." "There is a huge amount of security around the book right up to the moment the clock strikes midnight," Richard Cristofoli, an executive at British bookseller WH Smith, told Reuters. The numbers speak for themselves.