Harry’s broom sweeps all before it: [6 NSW Country Edition]
Steven Swinford, Additional reporting: John Stapleton. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 23 July 2007: 5.
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Abstract
Even as tired youngsters leafed through pages to discover the outcome of the showdown between the boy wizard and his nemesis, bookmaker Ladbrokes was cutting the odds on there being an eighth [Harry Potter] novel from 16-1 to 10-1 after a flurry of stake money. And [JK Rowling] is 1-4 to become a dame in the New Year honours list.
For one special night, normal bedtime was cancelled as children were permitted to plough through torture, seven deaths and the final, fatal confrontation between Harry and the wicked Voldemort. The ending should remain a prize for readers who have read all 608 pages.
“This is our single most successful book ever. Kids were dropping to the floor the minute they got it, just to read it; they didn’t want to wait. It is an astonishing phenomenon.”
Full Text
SO it’s goodbye Harry Potter … or is it?
A chorus of electronic tills, the biggest one-day sale of any book and a predicted damehood for author JK Rowling set the seal on themost popular series of novels in history.
Even as tired youngsters leafed through pages to discover the outcome of the showdown between the boy wizard and his nemesis, bookmaker Ladbrokes was cutting the odds on there being an eighth Potter novel from 16-1 to 10-1 after a flurry of stake money. And Rowling is 1-4 to become a dame in the New Year honours list.
For one special night, normal bedtime was cancelled as children were permitted to plough through torture, seven deaths and the final, fatal confrontation between Harry and the wicked Voldemort. The ending should remain a prize for readers who have read all 608 pages.
It is almost certain Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has outstripped its predecessors in sales.
In Australia, an unprecedented 350,000 copies were estimated to have walked out the doors of delighted booksellers over theweekend.
Borders marketing manager Josy Shaw said sales across 20 stores nationally were 2 1/2 times what they had been for the opening days of the last Harry Potter book, which in itself had been a remarkably good seller.
There were long queues in most stores around the country, some taking hours to clear.
“The pre-orders were five times the last one; we knew it was going to be big,” Ms Shaw said.
“This is our single most successful book ever. Kids were dropping to the floor the minute they got it, just to read it; they didn’t want to wait. It is an astonishing phenomenon.”
In Sydney, about 1500 Potter fans rode two steam trains from the city centre to a mystery destination to collect their books.
In Karachi, a book launch was cancelled while police defused a car bomb outside a shopping mall. In Paris, more than 200 fans waiting outside The Red Wheelbarrow bookshop sang the Hogwarts school song to music played on the shop’s piano.
British bookseller WH Smith said the book was leaving its stores on the first day of sales at the rate of 15 copies a second.
In the US, the book’s publisher produced a record 12million copies for sale. Amazon, the online bookstore, said that pre-orders from customers had hit 2.2 million copies.
Rowling surrounded herself with 500 children dressed as wizards and witches for her swansong, a midnight reading at the Natural History Museum in London.
Sophie Stoll, 15, from Halesowen in the West Midlands, said: “When she started reading, the whole hall fell silent. It was eerie; everyone was listening to her in awe.”
But some had their eye on the main chance: by noon on Saturday, three copies of the book that Rowling had signed were for sale on eBay.
Editorial — Page 17
Media on Monday — Page 34