By Jacqueline Blais, USA TODAYFans adore it. Critics love it. It's flying out of bookstores at a record-setting pace.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the much-anticipated final book in J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, sold 8.3 million copies in 24 hours starting Friday at midnight, U.S. publisher Scholastic reported Sunday. First printing: 12 million, the most ever for a Potter book.
Brothers Cory, 12, and Greg Fitzgerald, 17, bought the book at a Borders in New York as it went on sale — part of global festivities for Deathly Hallows as countless thousands of fans lined up to get their copies.
Others got their copy Saturday by mail order: Amazon.com alone shipped 1.3 million copies in the USA.
The Fitzgeralds started reading the 759-page novel, using book lights, in the car ride home to Warren, N.J.
"It was non-stop action. There was nowhere you could stop reading and do something else for a while. You just wanted to keep on reading," says Cory. He finished it "about 7:50" p.m. Saturday, taking breaks to sleep and eat.
"I think the book has pizza stains on it."
The series has come "full circle," says Greg. "I wasn't sad or depressed at the end. It was more surreal that it was over."
Rowling broke her own sales record. Her previous book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2005, sold 6.9 million copies in the first 24 hours, according to Scholastic.
Reviews were glowing, from USA TODAY's to The Washington Post's, which called it "miraculous." The Associated Press said Hallows "definitely packs the most punch" of the Potter books.
Deathly Hallows has Rowling's trademark "twists and turns," says Alyssa Ballaro, 16, of Trumbull, Conn. "You could piece it together and still keep the suspense."
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, first in the series, came out in the USA in 1998. That's given fans like Yale student Sudipta Bandyopadhya, 20, years to envision the series' conclusion.
"This is definitely the mythical tale of our generation," he says. "Without a doubt, this takes its place alongside the original Star Wars and Lord of the Rings."
Some fans were having trouble accepting it had all come to an end.
Octopunk, who runs the-leaky-cauldron.org, says he was crying a "little when I got it, but hysterically when I finished it."
4 comments:
Yay! I finished it last night!
It completely delivered. I can empathize with Octo!
Julie - did you ever go to the gym? That elliptical comment was a riot.
Just like the real Harry Potter, he's rich!
LONDON (AP) - Media reports of "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe gaining access to huge amounts of cash when he turned 18 Monday were overblown, his publicist's office said.
"It's not a big deal today," said a woman who answered the phone at the office of Radcliffe's publicist. She refused to give her name, saying she wasn't an official spokeswoman.
She refused to elaborate, saying Radcliffe's finances - and birthday party - were a personal matter.
Radcliffe, who was 11 when he was first cast as the schoolboy wizard in the films based on J.K. Rowling's novels, is gaining access to a $19 million investment fund, People magazine reported in its July 23 issue.
British newspapers have estimated that he has a total net worth of $35 million, with two more movies in the "Potter" series yet to be filmed, the magazine said.
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the latest movie starring Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, is now in theaters.
Rowling's seventh and final book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," was published Saturday.
Aren't all books "literal page turners?"
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