http://jam.canoe.ca/Books/2005/07/13/1130286-cp.html
'Harry Potter' book parties planned
By DENE MOORE
ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - Boy wizard Harry Potter has the world under his
spell, and preparations for the release of the next book in the popular
series have been underway for months.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince goes on sale around the world
Saturday at 12:01 a.m. local times, one of the most anticipated - and most
choreographed - book launches in publishing history.
"I've been here for 20 years and I've never seen anything like it," Wendy
Mahoney, manager of Cole's bookstore in New Glasgow, N.S., told the local
newspaper.
"It seems to get bigger and bigger with each book. When some children get
it in their hands, they're just vibrating with excitement."
In Canada, Raincoast Books is said to have printed 1.2 million copies for
its initial run.
On Friday night more than 300 parties are planned across the country
leading up to the witching hour.
Readers in Newfoundland, the easternmost region in North America, will get
the first look.
"They're really excited . . . and then they're gone within 10 minutes
because they just want to get home and read their books," said Norah
Flynn, co-owner Granny Bates Children's Books in St. John's, describing
the scene she expects in the store.
At the Yellowknife Book Cellar, about 70 kids and "just kids at heart"
will get together for a barbecue and games.
"It's going to be under the midnight sun," said owner Judith Drinnan. "We
won't be in the dark at all."
Amazon.ca and Indigo Books & Music started taking orders for The
Half-Blood Prince last December, and the book has topped bestseller lists
every week of 2005.
Amazon has partnered with Canada Post to deliver the book on Saturday to
its online customers.
Indigo will keep its 80 stores across the country open past midnight so
fans can get their copies at 12:01 a.m., when the embargo is lifted.
In Toronto, a local bookstore and the Harbourfront Centre will host a
Slytherin House Party featuring DJs, music, dancing and celebrity readings
until the stroke of midnight.
In Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, author J.K. Rowling herself will read to
70 lucky fans, including 12-year-old Michael Farr of Keswick Ridge, N.B.,
winner of an Indigo contest.
Farr, who was mowing the lawn Tuesday before leaving for Scotland with his
family, said he's a big fan and has several questions for the star of
children's literature.
"My mother and father read my first book to me when I was six years old,
because I didn't know how to read," Farr said. "That's what got me to
learn how to read."
Now he's anxiously awaiting the sixth book in what Rowling has said will
be a seven-book series. Very anxiously.
"I'm amazed, and nervous, to go," he said.
The 608-page tome was a closely guarded secret until last week when a
grocery store in British Columbia accidentally put books on the shelves
and sold 14 copies before the mistake was discovered.
Raincoast Books, the Canadian publisher, hurried into court for an
injunction on the weekend to prevent the release of any details.
Since then, a Calgary convenience story inadvertently sold six copies.
There has also been at least one security breach in the United States.
But Drinnan said she's trying not to focus on the negative aspects, such
as security demands.
"I'm trying not to focus on all the stuff that's going on behind the
scenes, and all the memos backwards and forwards and security and
everything else," she said. "I'm just trying to focus on the fact that
we've got a whole bunch of young readers who are being encouraged to read
such great books."
*
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released at 12:01 a.m.
local time Saturday in Canada, the U.K., the U.S. and Australia. Some
facts about the boy wizard:
-The Half-Blood Prince is the sixth in what author J.K. Rowling has said
will be a seven-book series.
-The first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published
in 1997.
-The books have been translated into 61 languages, including Latin, Welsh,
ancient Greek and Irish, and are published in 200 countries.
-More than 270 million Harry Potter books are in print around the world.
-Indigo expects to sell almost 200 copies per minute within the first 24
hours following the release.
-If Indigo's copies of the Half-Blood Prince were stacked up they'd be 100
times higher than Toronto's CN Tower.
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