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NEW YORK (AP) -- The author of a new book about the wisdom of free products on the Web has acknowledged taking some liberties in his own work.
Chris Anderson, known for the influential business book "The Long Tail," said he was mistaken for using passages -- without attribution -- that closely resembled material from Wikipedia and other sources included in his latest release, "Free: The Future of a Radical Price."
"This is entirely my own screwup, and will be corrected," Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, wrote on his blog Wednesday.
Anderson's book, coming out next month from Hyperion, includes information about the phrase "there's no such thing as a free lunch," about the meaning of a learning curve and about other subjects for which he depended on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia of user-contributed articles. The similarities were first reported by the Virginia Quarterly Review.
Hyperion issued a statement Wednesday: "We are completely satisfied with Chris Anderson's response. It was an unfortunate mistake, and we are working with the author to correct these errors both in the electronic edition before it posts, and in all future editions of the book."
The book has first printing of 80,000 copies, which already have been shipped.

LONDON (AP) -- The publisher of the wildly popular and very profitable "Harry Potter" books says it intends to fight a lawsuit alleging that author J.K. Rowling stole the idea for the series about the boy wizard.
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC is being taken to court in London by the estate of the late author Adrian Jacobs for copyright infringement, statements released Tuesday by the publishing house and legal representatives of the estate said.
"The estate ... claims that the book 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,' reproduces substantial parts of the works of Adrian Jacobs, 'The Adventures of Willy the Wizard,' without consent, and that in selling the books, Bloomsbury has infringed and continues to infringe copyright," said a statement on the Web site of London lawyers DMH Stallard, the firm representing the estate.

Steve Vander Ark, the Harry Potter fansite operator whose legal battles with J.K. Rowling made international headlines, will be in the area for multiple appearances in June.

Vander Ark is the author of The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to the Harry Potter Fiction and Related Materials. Rowling successfully sued him last fall, claiming that original plan would have caused her irreparable harm as a writer.

Publisher RDR Books released this Lexicon in January and says, "The new 386 page book, fully complies with the Fair Use provision of the Copyright Act. It adds a significant amount of new material that does not appear on the website."

Potterheads can plan to meet him at several events, the publisher says:

From 4 to 5:30 p.m. June 1, he's scheduled to be at Barnes & Noble (Southern Methodist University Bookstore), 3060 Mockingbird Lane in Dallas; from 4 to 5:30 p.m. June 2 at the Barnes & Noble, 2201 Preston Road in Plano; and from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 2201 S. Interstate 35E in Denton.

Fans of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series are well aware of the literary reputation of Hogwarts, A History, which is always being quoted by Hermione Granger, aka the cleverest witch of her generation. Many of us, in fact, live in the fond hope that Ms. Rowling will someday write Hogwarts, A History for real. (Think of the fortune she could raise for her charities!)

For now, however, we've got Melissa Anelli's Harry, A History to anticipate. The 368-page trade paperback from Pocket Books has a pub date of Nov. 4 and can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com and other bookseller sites.

The book's subtitle is "The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon." Few fans were more inside than Ms. Anelli, a journalist who is well known to Potterheads as webmistress of The Leaky Cauldron, one of the top Potter fansites. She also is noted for her up-close-and-personal interviews with Ms. Rowling (conducted along with her buddy and the founder of Mugglenet.com, Emerson Spartz).

A definite plus: Ms. Rowling wrote the introduction to Ms. Anelli's book, and she says:

Reading the book you now have in your hands has been an astonishing experience for me. It is as though I have, at last, achieved the ambition I held for years: to go along to a bookshop at midnight on Harry Potter publication night, in disguise, and simply watch and listen.

Today is Harry Potter's birthday, as well as his creator's. And Harry's fans can rejoice: J.K. Rowling is bringing The Tales of Beedle the Bard to print, with both US and UK editions to be published Dec. 4.

The illustrated collection of five wizard fables played an important role in the plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but up till now it had been unseen except for photos of its cover and illustrations and the "reviews" posted on Amazon.com, which bought one of JKR's seven individually handcrafted copies at an auction for charity. (Net proceeds from these new editions also will go to a designated charity.) Until now, it was not thought these stories would ever be published for a general audience.

Beedle is a short book, and the hardcover standard edition is not expensive at $12.99 (Amazon's offering it for $7.59 at pre-order). But Amazon's exclusive, elaborate collector's edition ("designed to evoke the spirit of the handcrafted original") is priced at $100 and includes 10 bonus illustrations by JKR, plus a special embroidered velvet storage bag.

The US and UK editions have (like the seven Harry Potter books) different covers, with the American book bearing a colorful illustration whose elements hint at the five tales within.

[UPDATE: We were sure we recognized the unmistakable style of Mary GrandPré in that illustration. Amazon.com didn't mention who illustrated the US cover, however. So we asked Ms. GrandPré herself: Did she create it?

Let the record show that she told us, "Yes, I am the illustrator." We knew it!]

Best of all, Beedle (which is newly "translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger") also contains an introduction by JKR, and commentary on the fairy tales by none other than Albus Dumbledore:

J.K. Rowling is NOT visiting a small town in Louisiana, disappointed Harry Potter fans have learned.

When I came across this story, via Shelf Awareness) at first I was outraged that a bookstore in Slidell, La. could fall for someone claiming to be Rowling. I know, from having lived there, that Slidell is not a place she regularly haunts. (At least, I don't recall having had her on my paper route back in in 1979.) Rowling hardly ever tours -- and anybody in the business would know that she fills convention centers, not small-town bookstores.

But then, the facts got in the way of my rage.

As it turns out, "the line of several hundred children, teens and parents" was drawn by mere rumor -- sparked by a prankster's phone call to the store. So the people who stood out "in the summer heat and under a threat of a thunderstorm" were victims of either their own faith or their own gullibility, depending on your view.

I'd mock such behavoir, but Slidell is a place that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I imagine they could use a little magic.

For their sake, I wish it had been true.

That's probably too long for a marketable book title, even if it were a real Harry Potter book. It is, more or less, the title for one of the keynote addresses given this past weekend at Portus 2008, a conference that combined fanstuff for Potterheads and deepstuff for eggheads (and some stuff that mixed both elements for those who are both.) Among the egg-iest of the eggheads at the conference was Henry Jenkins, head of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. He's been studying the fandom phenomenon for years and gave a history that traced the roots of the current Potter-o-sphere back a century and more.

Details at the jump.
And for a look at the other Portus-related posts logged to this blog while the event was live here's that link.

Yeah, it's sexist. But I had several of the women at Portus tell me the same thing. Here's the setup: A single fellow could do far worse than connect with Harry Potter fandom as a way to meet women. Of the 700 or so attendees at the Portus conference this weekend in Dallas, maybe 5% were guys if you remove the male presenters and wizardrock musicians. Longtime Potterheads told me that this was actually a heftier representation of XY chromosomes than some previous conferences.

Not all the women were available, to be sure. But there must be some singles interested in meeting guys.

My impression of the group: A bunch of smart, flamboyant, assertive, creative women, some of whom live a long way from the center of the bell curve. But that's not boring. Guys, if you've read the Potter books and at least like 'em, you don't need to be a total Potterhead to be able to approach this group. (And no, as an ol' married man, I did not test my theory this weekend...)

The Portus 2008 conference is a Harry Potter-themed academic/fandom event going on the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas this weekend. Also in the hotel is a conference for Gospel for Asia, a Christian missionary organization that targets, duh, Asia.

So what do you get when you take 700 Potterheads, many in full costume, and about 1,000 dedicated missionaries (some of whom have their doubts about these Potter stories)? Well, the Anatole is a biiiig hotel. And the two groups are at opposite ends of the place. But there have been some interactions. Mostly cordial, I'm told, But some not so much.

On the one hand, I've been told that some of the missionary types are refusing to get o the elevators with obvious Potterheads -- or closing the elevator doors on 'em. OTOH, there's a group of Potterheads dressed as the villainous Voldemort and his Death Eaters -- black robes, goth-ish makeup. A giant fake snake. And they went over to where the missionaries had set up a church to do photos and be in-your-face. And in character, I guess.

But these were minority reports. I've also heard about interested casual conversations between the two cultural worlds.

Part of what makes "fandom" different from regular fans is the level of creativity brought to the enterprise. Here at Portus 2008, the conference going on this weekend in Dallas, many of the proceedings are academic and intellectual. And some are not. This morning, there's a performance -- a reading -- of a dramatic presentation using characters based on the Harry Potter series. It's set some years after the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It's also based very loosely on a British sitcom called "Yes, Minister." And it has echoes of modern politics -- a hint of Kurt Waldheim, a hint of the Iraqi war, a pull between principles and practical needs. Go to the jump for details -- and for how you'll be able to hear it.

In response to the talk on Christian themes in Harry Potter, I feel so vindicated that I wrote about this back in 2005 for the Dallas Morning News, just before the sixth book was released and back when people were still skeptical about this idea. It's up on the Religion News Blog here.

Portus 2008 is an academic/fandom Harry Potter conference that's going on in Dallas. Here's the story I wrote about it a couple of days ago. I'm at one of the presentations, "Christ in the Forest, Aslan and Harry Walk to the Deaths" offered by a fellow named Travis Prinzi. He's got a MA in theological studies and is going for a masters in secondary ed. He's also a Potter podcaster. Go to the jump for his details about the relationship between C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, and their characters and Christianity.

Catherine Belcher is a education professor at Loyola Marymount University who believes that the Potter books can be used in the classroom.

She says that the fact that she teaches as a Jesuit school makes it easy to search for literature that helps teach students about moral choices. In particular, she's focused on how to bring these topics into public school classes in urban settings.

More details at the jump

A bit of overview: Looks like the event will draw the 700 or so predicted. I've just attended a keynote luncheon -- held in a room with no wifi or even cellphone access. Go figure. But that was my first chance to scan the room and get a sense of who these folks are. If there are enough men in attendance to field a full baseball team, I don't see them. I'm told that is normal for these kinds of events -- almost always almost all women. More diversity amongst presenters, though. And there is a wide range of ages. From what look like early 20s to what look like maybe 70s or older.

This panel is dear to my heart. I wrote a column saying that Rowling's revelation that she thought Dumbledore was gay was information that either should have been in the books -- or she should not have talked about it.

This panel is all about that broad question of how to understand Harry's World -- some are here and some fans. Go to the jump for what's what. (btw, since I'm blogging
live I'll be updating through the hour so come back if you want more details.)

For Harry Potter fans making Portus plans this weekend, here's a look at the highlights for the rest of the weekend:
Friday: Lots of talk by Potter academics and experts in the morning and afternoon, lots of food, Portus Podcast Palooza from 6:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., North American Federation's 140th Merlin's Cup, Indoor Quidditch Division (meeting for players and officials at 6 p.m., games from 8 to 11 p.m.)
Saturday: Jim Dale, the man of the 100-plus voices behind the Harry Potter CDs, starting at 9 a.m. and continuing all day, screenings of Wizard Rockumentary (a film about the wizard rock bands directed by twin sisters Megan and Mallory Schuyler, 23, of Spokane Washington; DVDs will be on sale), water quidditch from 5-8 p.m., and the hotly awaited Mystery Masquerade Ball from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Sunday: auction, feast, social, a post-portus Wizard Rock Dance Party (from 6-10 p.m.) and your last chance to buy wands, robes and Harry Potter books in every language imaginable, from Greek to Latin to Gaelic.

I noted in the last post how much fun everyone seemed to be having as friends and web colleagues from across the country enjoyed their reunions (www.mugglenet.com staffers from California, Maryland, Georgia and New York were all catching up with each other in anticipation of the big live podcast they will be hosting tonight). But I should add that there was also a worshipful hush emanating from a screening room where the Harry Potter films will be shown throughout the weekend. There were a few fans in the back who made a few attempts to talk back to the screen, making jokes -- which is evidently supposed to be the Rocky Horror Picture Show-type custom at these screenings. But the viewers who were rapt and reverent did not appreciate it and the jokers eventually slunk out of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban around the same time that Harry exorcised the boggart in Professor Lupin's classroom.

Here at the Portus 2008 conference, I'm in one of those presentations that really puts, as I described it in my advance, pointy-headed academics together with pointy-hatted Harry Potter fans. In this case the presenter is Edmund Kern, associate professor of history at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and author of The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us about Moral Choices. The title of his talk? "Harry Potter's Post-Modern Popularity."

Harry Potter? Post Modern? What does that mean? Go to the jump.

Following up on my last post about the Moaning Myrtles' Toilet Humor' album, one thing that struck me about the Potter fans at Portus is how much fun most of them were having. I ran into one woman whose costume stood out for having a not-quite Potter-like pink pig with wings on her head, setting off her shirt that said "Hairy Otter." It turns out that Valerie Frankel, 27, of San Jose, California was at the convention selling her hot-off-the-Wingspan Press Potter parody, Henry Potty and the Deathly Paper Shortage ('Henry's' concern evidently is that he is not getting enough fan mail). This send-up of the seventh book is a follow-up to her first and only other Potter parody, Henry Potty and the Pet Rock, which won an Indie Excellence Award, a Phelan Award for Humor and was named a USA Book News National Best Book. You can find out more about it here, on www.HarryPotterParody.com.

You gotta love the song titles on the CDs by the Moaning Myrtles (on sale at Portus at the Hilton Anatole last night). On the Toilet Humor album, with a picture of Myrtle musicians Lauren Fairweather, 20, and Nina Jankowicz, 19, both of New Jersey, and a toilet on the cover (Myrtle died on a toilet, remember), we have the songs "Flushed," "Sitting on the Toilet," "And Then I Died" and "Prefects are Hot." The swaying, clapping, robe-clad crowd was particularly hot for "Prefects are Hot." I enjoyed their music, but was also surprisingly impressed by The Mudbloods, a foursome originally from Austin, that followed the Myrtles. Wearing British school-type ties and white shirts, they brought some subtle musicianship to their oeuvre, which includes "A Pensieve Full of Unrequited Love" and "I wish You Would Be My Witch."

I've been wandering around the Anatole Hilton, site of the Portus 2008 Harry Potter conference -- and of a couple of other conventions. Many of the early-arrival Potter fans are dressed in robes and heavy peaked hats. (Surely "real" Dallas-based wizards in Harry's World would know that the summer climate here is less conducive to robes and hot hats than he wilds of Britain? But I digress...) Anyway, the most fun is watching the folks here for other events gawk at the Potter-heads. There's one particular group of Portus attendees dressed in the black robes of villainous Voldemort and the Death Eaters that's getting a lot of attention. Reg'lar folks are pulling out their cellphones to get pictures.

The real business of the Portus conference starts tomorrow ayem. I'll be one of the DMN's on-site MoJos looking for interesting tidbits.

Think you know your Harry Potter?

Then try this snazzy online quiz we've put together for you.

Harry and the Potters played and awesome show for fans at the Granada for their Dallas stop of the Unlimited Enthusiasm Tour 2008.

Harry and the Potters came out to a very warm crowd after Uncle Monsterface, Math the Band and Fishboy all played and got everyone jumping and singing along. This is by far the most interactive show I have ever been to. Harry and the Potters had no problem talking to the audience and changing up the songs to make everything more fun. Most fans knew each song by heart and those who didn't learned them quickly.

Fans went crazy when the songs "This book is so awesome" and "Save Ginny Weasley" were played. The band came back out and played "Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock".

The show was very entertaining and the band did an awesome job getting the crowd involved.

Before and after interview with concert-goers:

• Hayley Caldwell, 15


• Brennan Tapp, 16


• Wesley Hackett, 16


• Deanna Dove, Wesley's grandmother


• Joe DeGeorge, keyboardist for Harry and the Potters

Hear music from Harry and the Potters:

• http://www.myspace.com/harryandthepotters


• http://www.eskimolabs.com/hp/news.htm


• http://unlimitedenthusiasm.com/

As promised, here's our first look at the Harry Potter symposium in Dallas this week. As Jeffrey Weiss points out: Pointy-headed academia is meeting pointy-hatted Potter fandom.

Watch for more on Portus 2008 in days to come.

It's a big weekend for Potter fans in Dallas as the crowd prepares to gather for Portus 2008.

We have plenty of Potter-related items in the hopper, including:

-- Live blogging from the event.

-- A fun triva quiz.

-- Fresh video.

And -- your comments! Here's a starter -- if you're a fan, what was the moment when you got hooked on the series? (Several people tell me it was Book 4 that made them truly obsessed.)

After reading the Harry Potter prequel, I realized how much I miss the series. It doesn't take a genius to see the influence it had on culture from the spawn of a genre of music (Wizard rock) to giving ten-year-olds the hopes that a letter would come for them via owl on their next birthday.

There is no mistaking the intricacy of the world created by J.K. Rowling or how someone lose themselves in it. However, I was slightly disappointed that it didn't reveal anything new.

The disclaimer at the end of the short story clearly states that Rowling is not currently working on a full length book but I'm sure I'm not the only one who love to see just one more installment to show how it all began.

Share what you think about the subject. How do you imagine the Harry Potter prequel would begin. Do you think another book should be written at all?

I know you were earlier offered the chance to see the 800-word Harry Potter prequel in J.K. Rowling's very own handwriting.

But honestly, that index card's kinda squinchy and hard to read, even when zoomed-in upon. To save your eyesight (and to keep you from reading the word "tuneless" as "timeless," as one Potter fansite did), a transcription follows here, on the jump.

By the way, JKR says this brief, comic story is meant to have taken place about three years before Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (aka Sorcerer's Stone in the US) opened, and therefore it predates Harry's birth and the later murder of his parents, Lily and James, by Voldemort, aka "the wizard formerly known as He Who Must Not be Named."

An 800-word Harry Potter prequel that J.K. Rowling is NOT working on (her words) raised $48,858 for charity in London on Tuesday.

You don't have to pay that much to read it. It's posted here. Sebastian Faulks, Nick Hornby and Doris Lessing are among the others who have contributed to the effort.

You'll be reading more about this closer to the event, but just so everyone can get out their pointy hats and brooms to prepare:

"Portus 2008: A Harry Potter Symposium" is coming to town July 10-13 at the Hilton Anatole. "Anyone who wishes to deepen their knowledge of and appreciation for the Harry Potter novels, explore their influence on our culture, or simply bask in one of the largest and most influential fan followings ever assembled will find a home at Portus," organizers said in their press release.

J.K. Rowling gave a very moving commencement speech at Harvard that stressed the transformative power of the imagination. Read about it here. She urged graduates to empathize with the powerless. The Harry Potter author credited her trials and low points after graduation with giving her the strength and the imagination to become the person she is today.

Entertainment Weekly actually has a couple of intriguing links this week.

First, they got David Sedaris to defend James Frey in the never-seems-to-die battle with Oprah: ''I don't recall Oprah Winfrey calling George Bush a liar when he was on her show. And those lies cost thousands of people their lives," he said. Ouch.

Dallas author Kathleen Kent's The Heretic's Daughter landed on the cover of the daily expo newspaper produced by Publisher's Weekly today. I would say she has had a good Expo. I missed her yesterday, but maybe we can catch up with her in Dallas before she is wildly famous and won't return our calls.

PW also highlighted former Austin resident Andre Dubus III today.

And they brought up a third book that has been mentioned by several people I have talked with: I See You Everywhere, by Julia Glass.

Mugglenet.com notes that Scholastic, J.K. Rowling's American publisher, plans a special edition of the first Harry Potter book this September, to signify the 10th anniversary of the first U.S. edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Illustrator Mary Grandpre has created new front and back cover designs for the anniversary edition. See them here.

The Associated Press says:

A court ruling in favor of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has set the stage for a trial on whether publication of photos taken of her young son violates his privacy.
The Court of Appeal in London says children of famous parents have the same right to expect privacy as children of parents who aren't well-known.

For the first time in 10 years, there are no Harry Potter books on The New York Times best-seller list.

The post on The Times' blog notes how the paper had to keep inventing new lists to keep J.K. Rowling from overwhelming them.

(Thanks to Shelf Awareness for the tip.)

The Washington Post is reporting that the largest survey ever of youthful reading in the U.S. will reveal Monday that none of J.K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter books has been able to dislodge the works of longtime favorites Dr. Seuss, E.B. White, Judy Blume, S.E. Hinton and Harper Lee as the most read.

Books by the five well-known U.S. authors, plus lesser-known Laura Numeroff, Katherine Paterson and Gary Paulsen, drew the most readers at every grade level in a study of 78.5 million books read by more than 3 million children who logged on to the Renaissance Learning Web site to take quizzes on books they read last year. Many works from Rowling's Potter series turned up in the top 20, but other authors also ranked high and are likely to get more attention as a result.

I've always been a fan of young adult books and hope this study draws more attention to the genre.

How did your favorite books fare?

If the words "Harry Potter," "Aldus Dumbledore" and "gay" make your pulse quicken, get over to the Religion blog, where Jeffrey Weiss discovers some thoughts on J.K. Rowling from Connie Neal, a conservative Christian author who had been one of the first to publicly defend the Potter books.

According to The Associated Press, J.K. Rowling angrily defended her rights as an author as testimony ended today.

The Times of London notes the broader issue at stake in the ongoing courtroom drama between J.K. Rowling and the author who wishes to publish a Harry Potter-related book (today's update on the case is posted below.)

The Times notes:

A generation has now grown up besotted (©Milton) with Quidditch and Hogwarts. However, it is not astonishing that J.K. Rowling is using a court case to remind the writers of a zany (©Shakespeare) Harry Potter lexicon, now making the jump from cyberspace (©William Gibson) to print, that it is not common property and she did invent it all. ... However, unless she employs a mole (©le Carré) to oversee our every conversation and written exchange, she should not try to suppress a collection of her invented words. For Voldemort, Muggles, Horcruxes and all Rowling's other serendipitous (©Walpole) coinages are ours now; it would be pig-headed (©Jonson) not to let us use them as we wish.

Interestingly, our own Jeffrey Weiss made a similar argument not long ago.

(Thanks to Shelf Awareness for the spot.)

NEW YORK -- A Harry Potter fan who wants to publish an encyclopedic guide to the wildly popular fantasy novels broke down and cried on the witness stand Tuesday as he faced off in federal court against his idol J.K. Rowling.

(More from The Associated Press follows.)

She took the stand today in her federal lawsuit to stop publication of stop publication of Steven Vander Ark's "Harry Potter Lexicon."

And she is NOT happy.

"This book constitutes wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work," she testified.

Here's the complete Associated Press report:

This is not really a book-related item, except everybody loves Harry Potter.

So I will pass along word (via Bloomberg News) that Daniel Radcliffe is coming to Broadway to perform "Equus" in September, and yes, he will be naked.

Mr. Radcliffe, 19, will play opposite Richard Griffiths, another star of the "Potter" films.

Sorry fans. You can't major in Muggle Studies. Yet.

But you can find the world's most favoritest boy wizard popping up in college classrooms and textbooks, says CNN. Says the report:

Philip Nel, author of "J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels: A Reader's Guide" and professor of children's literature at Kansas State University, started teaching the books in 2002.

"Harry Potter is unfairly maligned simply because of the audience for which it is intended. Children's literature is literature, and if people don't agree with that definition, it's sort of hard to have a conversation with them," Nel said. "They see things that ... are easily accessible as therefore not serious and therefore not worthy of serious inquiry."

The Los Angeles Times reports there will be eight Harry Potter movies, with two coming from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
As recounted by The Associated Press, producers are expected to announce Thursday that J.K. Rowling's last "Potter" installment will be split into two parts on the big screen. The first film is slated for release in November 2010, with part two following in May 2011.
"It was born out of purely creative reasons," producer David Heyman told the Times. "Unlike every other book, you cannot remove elements of this book."
Creative reasons. Yes, I am sure that was the motivating factor.

“I find it devastating to contemplate the possibility of such a severe alteration of author-fan relations.”

That's J.K. Rowling, speaking in court documents about a fan she once praised but now is suing for trying to publish a Harry Potter reference book.

(Tip to aspiring authors: If you are worried about relations with your fans ... don't sue them.)

And if you are a Harvard graduate this year, you'll get to hear her.

He made the list of Top Stories of the Year in The Onion.

An excerpt:

"NEW YORK—Delirium swept the nation this summer as the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter novel sent millions of Americans into a frenzy over some little wizard boy and all his flying wizard buddies going on another one of their little wizard adventures."

Fans (and children) might want to skip the rest. Muggles ... er, non-fans ... might get a giggle.

In case you missed them, Amazon.com has posted reviews of the five stories in its new prize possession: The Tales of Beedle the Bard, handwritten by J.K. Rowling.

It's not often than a writer is on the short list for TIME magazine's "Person of the Year," but this year J.K. Rowling is up there as second runner-up (behind Al Gore and TIME cover boy Vladimir Putin -- who bears an odd resemblance to the Harry Potter movies' depiction of Dobby the house-elf, btw).

Read the interview and the "10 Questions About Harry" that are answered.

Excerpted from the interview's ending:

Rowling has some rebuilding of her own to do. Her time, she says, will be divided among her children, her charities and her writing. But she has only to look at George Lucas to appreciate that the pressure to return to Hogwarts will be ferocious — and some of it self-inflicted. She's already had to cope with the pressure of not disappointing the fan closest to her: her daughter Jessica, 14. What will happen when her two younger children a decade from now discover the stories for themselves and know that Mom has the power to make more of them? "There have been times since finishing, weak moments," she says, "when I've said, 'Yeah, all right,' to the eighth novel." But she's convinced she's doing the right thing to take some time away, do something else. She's working on two projects now, an adult novel and a "political fairy tale." "If, and it's a big if, I ever write an eighth book about the [wizarding ] world, I doubt that Harry would be the central character," she says. "I feel like I've already told his story. But these are big ifs. Let's give it 10 years and see how we feel then." It's a pretty safe bet how her audience will feel. But we'll just have to wait and prepare to be surprised.

Somehow, I suspect that signing up for one-click shopping was not an option with this one.

But Amazon is making the most of their $4 million dollar investment by gushing about the book and showing pictures at their site.

People are leaving rage-filled comments about the purchase. Which is surprising to me. The money went to charity after all.

But then, these are the same esteemed critics that some people think will replace professional book reviewers. So they can't be wrong, I suppose.

UPDATE: Full details on the auction are appended below.

Her handwritten book of fairy tales just fetched nearly $4 million for charity.

Bloomberg reports that she had a public reading of her handwritten "The Tales of Beedle the Bard,'" which is expected to sell for more than $100,000 at a charity auction Thursday.

Love her or hate her, ya gotta give J.K. Rowling credit: What other author could snag a spot on the cover of "Entertainment Weekly," much less be named the Entertainer of the Year?

The Guardian newspaper has images of J.K. Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard."

This is a little project of hers designed to raise money for charity.

We interrupt our coverage of the National Book Awards to bring you a Harry Potter interlude.

(Non-Sequitur appears daily in The Dallas Morning News comics section.)

Apparently, she has been busy with something besides filing lawsuits and counting large bags of money:

Associated Press

LONDON — J.K. Rowling has completed her first book after her wildly popular series on teen wizard Harry Potter — an extremely limited-edition illustrated collection of magical fairy stories titled “The Tales of Beedle the Bard.”
Only seven copies of the handwritten book have been made, Rowling said Thursday. One will be auctioned next month to raise money for a children's charity, while the others have been given away as gifts.

Having won the affection of most of the world's readers, the author now seems intent on alienating them, one by one:

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Author J.K. Rowling and the maker of the “Harry Potter” films are suing a small publisher in Michigan over its plans to release a book version of a popular Web site dedicated to the boy wizard.

The suit, filed Wednesday by the author and Warner Bros. in federal court in Manhattan, claims that RDR Books will infringe on Rowling's intellectual property rights if it goes ahead with its plan to publish the 400-page “Harry Potter Lexicon” on Nov. 28.

Blog readers, I know what you want. Don't deny it. I counted the page views.

So let's milk one more entry out of the what's-his-name is you-know-what business.

The trend now is witty columns "outing" other fictional characters.

Here's New York magazine's version. (Fozzie Bear? Schroeder? The Flash ?("... the Flash is both light in his loafers and flaming. No, really — he runs at superhuman speed and flames literally shoot out of him."))

They admit stealing the idea from Radar. (Happy the dwarf from "Snow White?" Willy Wonka? ("The Candyman lived alone with only his (all male) Oompa Loompas.... "))

The Albany Times Union offers its own send-up. ("Few commentators touched on the significance of where Rowling chose to let the secret slip: Carnegie Hall, the site of the author's packed-house reading, holds a hallowed place in gay culture. It's the stage where gay icon Liza Minnelli recorded her landmark 1972 "Liza with a 'Z' " album and TV special. It's also where Minnelli's mother, gay icon Judy Garland, recorded her own smash 1961 live album ... .")

And Publishers Weekly offers this roundup of Dumbledore thoughts. (I think some echo our own Jeffrey Weiss.)

Well, I think it's safe to say that Jeffrey Weiss has touched a nerve.

Just to focus in on one literary aspect of the debate: What are the other classic examples of authors who either overexplained their creations, or refused to?

The example of J.R.R. Tolkein came up in a conversation yesterday. He certainly offered a wealth of background on the world he created. But as it was pointed out to me -- he created most of that before he wrote "The Lord of the RIngs." And revealed it all in print (whether it was readable is a more subjective question.)

On the other hand, I seem to recall that Arthur Conan Doyle resented all the attention Sherlock Holmes generated. I imagine his audiences would have loved to hear him detail Holmes' grade-school years, ponder whether a demanding father caused him to be so pernsnickety and debate whether Watson was co-dependent by allowing him to use all those drugs.

To my knowledge, he never did.

The result is that a century later, a cottage industry of Sherlock Holmes biographies and further imagined adventures has sprung up.

Which may be precisely Jeff's point.

An amusing column from the Los Angeles Times looks at the clues that should have tipped "Harry Potter" readers about the world's most famous just-outed fictional character. Among them:

"Albus Dumbledore" is an anagram for "Male bods rule, bud!"

(I don't research this stuff, folks. I am just the messenger.)

Or are such revelations a reader's right to know?

J.K. Rowling announced last week that Hogwarts headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore, is gay. Dallas Morning News staff writer Jeffrey Weiss is of the opinion that Ms. Rowling should keep such tidbits to herself.

What do you think?

• Read Jeffrey Weiss' column
• More posts about the recent outing

Meanwhile, Galleycat spotted The Onion's fake reaction to the news from Potterland:

"Dumbledore? I always figured the gay ones were Harry, Draco Malfoy, Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, Dudley Dursely, Ptolemy, Morgana, and Professor Snape."

Over on the Religion Blog, Jeffrey Weiss has been collecting Christian responses to the outing of the "Harry Potter" character.

Jeff also posted a link to the transcript of the event where J.K. Rowling revealed the news.

The GalleyCat blog rounded up a few responses.

Potter fans -- does the news change anything for you?

According to the Harry Potter author, Professor Ablus Dumbledore was in love with Gellert Grindelwald.

Read more.

Here's the author discussing the pressures of writing the series, and how actor Daniel Radcliffe handled the hype.

And we know that you're interested only in serious literary talk on this blog, so we'll leave it to the British press to focus on her struggling with her dress and inadvertently showing the crowd her undergarments.

The Harry Potter author has kicked off her U.S. tour, such as it is.

The closest she'll get to Texas is New Orleans, on Thursday. Several Dallas-area residents did win tickets to see her in New York, where she'll wrap up the tour on Friday.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is in Los Angeles today to start her Open Book Tour, her first such U.S. foray in years. She'll be doing readings for schoolchildren not only in L.A. and New York, but also in New Orleans. According to the Daily Mail, this NoLa trip was something she really wanted to do. She's in L.A. now; she will read in New Orleans on Thursday and in New York on Friday.

Shelf Awareness reports that Garry Potter hit Moscow as "Deathly Hallows" was released over the weekend.

That's no typo. Because Russian has no "h," Harry Potter is pronounced Garry Potter. Pity Hagrid.

Our Potterhead friends at Mugglenet.com say to "put this in the 'very, very big rumor' category for now."

The Sunday Mirror's story quotes an unnamed London "theatre insider" as saying:

"The difficulty is condensing the seven books into a manageable show. They are exploring various ideas. One possibility is to tell the whole story. Another is to just take a single plot. The plan is for spectacular flying scenes, live Quidditch and big showdowns with Voldemort."

Stephen King -- a major fan of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series -- gives his opinion of Deathly Hallows in his "Entertainment Weekly" column. He also muses on JKR's prose, about which he says:

"Her characters are lively and well-drawn, her pace is impeccable, and although there are occasional continuity drops, the story as a whole hangs together almost perfectly over its 4,000-plus page length."

Photo of Stephen King: Entertainment Weekly

From Bloomberg News:

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series of books, lost a privacy lawsuit in London over the rights of a photo agency to use a picture of her son.
High Court Justice Nicolas Patten dismissed a suit filed in the name of the author's three-year-old son, before it reached trial, saying the legal action had “no reasonable or realistic chance of success.”

"J.K. Rowling gets the last laugh on the dwindling number of conservative Christians who have attacked her "Harry Potter" saga over the past decade: The most important plot point of the seventh and final book is unambiguously Christian. "

So begins Jeffrey Weiss' opinion page comments that appeared this weekend.

Here's the story on that J.K. Rowling chat, from The Associated Press:

LONDON — Just because J.K. Rowling has stopped writing about Harry Potter and his friends and foes doesn’t mean she has stopped thinking about them.
She told fans Monday what she thinks happened to many of the book’s characters after the final installment.
In a 90-minute live Web chat, she fielded some of the approximately 120,000 questions submitted by devotees. It was her first public comment since “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” — the last book in the series — debuted on July 21.
Rowling said she was elated to share with fans the secrets she’d been harboring since she conjured up the idea for the boy wizard during a train journey across England in 1990.
“It is great to be able to do this at last,” she said. “I’ve looked forward to it for so long!”

J.K. Rowling's Bloomsbury.com chat on Monday morning elicited many answers to questions that were left hanging at the end of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

One of the biggies: Who was supposed to perform magic late in life? Read all about it on The Leaky Cauldron's website.

Photo of J.K. Rowling: The Associated Press

Are we still obligated to give spoiler warnings?

OK, here's a spoiler warning. But the person doing the spoiling is J.K. Rowling herself.

I've now had three local reports -- two from the chat, one from a co-worker -- of copies of "Deathly Hallows" that are missing pages.

Nationally, Scholastic has only acknowledged a few hundred problematic copies, says the Associated Press. (See the previous blog entry.)

Are you one of the victims? Let us know.

At 1 p.m. Thursday, KERA will discuss the Harry Potter phenomenon with Dr. Jean Greenlaw, Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of North Texas, and Debby Jennings, Head Librarian at Fort Worth's Country Day School.

Read a transcript from Nancy Churnin, Joyce Saenz Harris, Michael Merschel and Jeffrey Weiss on Harry Potter (07/25)

We just wrapped up a terrific chat. Watch for a transcript soon.

Meanwhile, if you have leftover questions, you can ask them here, and our crack team of experts will pounce on them like ... like seekers on a Golden Snitch.

Here's a much-reduced version of HP7 from the London's Guardian.

(Is it just me, or does all British comedy sound like pale imitations of Monty Python?)

Downtown Dallas has had its problems today, but our Harry Potter chat is still on schedule. (Send questions to chat@dallasnews.com.)

Meanwhile, be grateful you weren't these fans, who got books with something missing:

Don't forget our Harry Potter chat at 1:30 p.m.

And unlike sales for "Deathly Hallows," you CAN leap ahead in line before the magic hour ... just e-mail questions, comments or what have you to chat@dallasnews.com.

J.K. Rowling's exclusive post-Deathly Hallows interview with the Today Show's Meredith Vieira will air on Thursday and Friday mornings (portions also will air Sunday on NBC's Dateline).

And there's good news for Potterheads! No, not a Book 8, but a sort of Hogwarts encyclopedia she plans to write eventually.

Read the following linked story only if you've already finished HP&DH, as it contains potential spoilers....

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19935372/

Photo of J.K. Rowling by Associated Press

Nice gag posted here.

I know Harry Potter has been discussed ad nauseum in the media over the last month, but there's one thing I haven't seen -- or maybe I've missed it: Does author J.K. Rowling plan to write again? Not another Harry Potter book, of course. But another book? If so, will it be fiction? Non-fiction? What does one do for an encore after finishing a blockbuster series like Harry Potter? Would be a nice predicament, eh?

From Jeff Weiss, who reviewed HP7 for us:

In my review of the last Potter book, I opined that fans would figure they got their money’s worth.

Well, some of the ultra-fans aren’t nearly that happy. See, for instance, the theads here: Some Potterheads who know the histories of every character and spell are really Not Happy with Deathly Hallows. They’ve got dozens of details that they say don’t fit with the previous books or – horrors! – with the hints that Rowling dropped over the years. I say: Spiniach to all of that. These folks take this stuff waaay too seriously. Rowling ain’t a great writer. Never has been. But she can rock-‘n-roll a pretty good tale. I’ll stipulate that many of the objections raised by the ultra-Potterheads are valid (Ron suddenly figures out how to speak snake after hearing Harry hiss a bit? Really???). But that in the enormous sweep of the saga, these are details that most readers won’t much care about. And here are some other superfans – the folks at Mugglenet, for instance – liked it just fine. See here: There’s a podcast discussion there.

Those of us who couldn't take the weekend off -- and are living in fear that someone will spill the Potter beans before we can finish the book -- can take heart in the fact that none of the major papers (including this one, bless you, Jeff Weiss) have reviewed the book in such a way that it ruins anything.

On the other hand ... I was razzed last week by a trusted colleague (you know who you are, Ryan) for my Potter-spoiler-phobia, and then this conversation took place last evening with my best friend:

Me: Do you want to go see the new Harry Potter movie with me this week? (haven't had time for that, either)
Dena: Um, no.
Me (shocked, but holding steady): Really? Erm. OK. But you did get your copy of the book, right?
Dena: No, but we read the last page at the supermarket.

OK, OK, so I'm in my 40s and I'm a Potter-holic. Make fun of me. Laugh at me. I'll be fine, really. But still ... et tu, Dena, et tu?

For those looking, our Potter coverage is concentrated here.

That includes our review (compare it with what you thought now that you're finishing up your own copy) and our around-the-world roundup.

Our local roundup of the day in Potterness can be found here.

I got my copy of "Deathly Hallows" about 12:30 a.m. at a 24-hour Wal-Mart. It wasn't exactly a Hogwarts-party atmosphere, but they did hand out official wristbands (mine was Gryffindor red), bookmarks and mini-posters to those who came to wait in line.

I took it home, started reading about 1:30, and a bit over two hours later was finally able to put it down on page 100. Slept late, went to brunch, started reading again in earnest this afternoon, and finished up the epilogue at 8 p.m. Once I got going again, it was really hard to put down -- an intense and fast-paced narrative.

No real spoilers follow, but please avoid the jump if you don't want some broad hints...

Here's the latest from the AP. I love the detail at the end about the book being released on time in Kabul, even.

A contact at a local Borders store (who couldn't allow their name to be used) gives the scene from their location:

"We were worried initially as we were undersupplied in the audio and the deluxe edition especially, but I don't think we really counted on having so many books left over.

We had about 600 people in for our party, I suppose; it seemed a lot busier than that however. Despite all the chaos - and there was lots of it with that many people crammed in here all at once - everyone had a lot of fun. People really went to town on their costumes and Hogwarts school attire which was really lovely to see. Many Chocolate Frogs were eaten and there were more than a few half-eaten Bertie Bott's Beans boxes strewn across the floor. Apparently the kids didn't quite believe that there was such a thing as a vomit-flavored jellybean; they won't make that mistake again, I'm sure.

We had a few customers start losing it with having to wait so long, but most of our attendees knew the drill coming in; as opposed to Christmas where practically everyone is surprised that there might be a line at the registers.

All our customers were out clutching a copy of the book by 2am, which is what we expected from prior experience. I'll be honest though; seeing the line snake around the store caused me to doubt that prediction a couple of times. We had plenty of stock left over for Saturday morning and sure enough there was a throng outside our doors at 8 a.m. We still haven't sold out though; as of Saturday afternoon, we have about a third of our stock left which might surprise some people but the market is a little different this time around; all the supermarkets are selling it (at virtually cost price) and the print run was 12 million. Given that this edition of Harry Potter was easier for consumers to track down this time, I guess we did well."

I did a quick poll of some of the local stores to find out how things are going. Here's a report from Plano:

"We had a fantastic party with over a 1,000 Potter Fans joining our celebration. The Line to get the book was finished by 1:15 AM (record time) selling well over 10 books a minute.

Our Sorting Hat was the biggest hit, but folks loved our Advanced Potter Trivia with two Potter Scholars under ten showing all the teen and adult fans how they really knew their stuff! They were amazing!

We really appreciate the over 20 volunteers who helped make this our most magical event yet.

Sales Of the Deathly Hallows are brisk this morning with over thirty customers waiting for us when we opened at 8 this morning. We have run out of non-reserved HPVII books on [CD] but have plenty of the regular hardcover edition - for now. I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, so I am doing a bit of "No! Don't tell me!" this morning. Warren, our Children's Lead Bookseller has finished it already (he was working here until 2:30 last night - so he is a little glazed over.) He is dying to discuss it with us as soon as he can.

It is great to be a part of the biggest book event in history. We are a little tired but it has been a delight to see kids and adults so excited about books!"

Cody McMahan
Community Relations Manager
Barnes & Noble Booksellers
Preston & Park

Our just-turned-13 daughter picked up her book at about 12:15 AM at the Barnes & Noble in Addison. Alas, she's a bit too "cool" now to dress up, but she and her friends seemed to have a good time at the party.

Looking at Deathly Hallows on the table this morning (before she grabbed it and headed for her room), I realized that a good part of her young life has been spent wrapped up in those books. Her mom read her the first one to her when she was about six, I think, and she took over after that. To get ready for DH, she started re-reading the series in May and finished last week.

We probably won't see her for a few days, but once she emerges, maybe she can tell us what "deathly hallows" means, for openers.

For those of you still waiting for the mail truck (hang in there, Tara), here's the most recent Associated Press update on how your Potter soulmates are handling things around the world.

As close as I have been to the story, I continue to be astounded at the level of devotion fans are showing.

On the one hand, I think our video captures their excitement and delight. And I think even non-Potterheads can relate to that.

On the other hand, do we really need live streaming video of the folks at MuggleNet silently reading the book?

(When I checked in, 737 people were actually watching it. )

As our story indicates, it was quite a night.

One person on the scene adds: "It was fierce in Plano. When the clock turned, it was chaos, and there were tears."

Our review is now online.

Last Harry Potter item I'll post today -- really:

Log onto Scholastic.com or Bloomsbury.com at 5:50 p.m. Dallas time, and you can catch a live streaming video of J.K. Rowling doing a midnight reading from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." (Probably not a terribly revealing passage, we're guessing, so she can avoid any major spoilers.)

"Midnight" reading, you ask? It'll be midnight in the U.K., where they get their Potter fixes six hours before we do.

... to tell you about our online chat at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. We'll have our staff Potter experts on hand. And trust me, these people know their Potter.

You can send early questions and comments to chat@dallasnews.com.

Latest entry from the Harry Potter author's jkrowling.com website:

"Within hours you will know what happens to Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest in their final adventure. All the secrets I have been carrying around for so long will be yours, too, and those who guessed correctly will be vindicated, and those who guessed wrongly will not, I hope, be too disappointed! As for me, I feel a heady mixture of excitement, nerves and relief. 'Deathly Hallows' remains my favourite of the series, even after several re-reads; I cannot wait to share it with the readers who have stuck with me through six previous books."

Before everyone hunkers down, here's a formal invitation to non-bloggers to chime in here and let the world know what you think about the book.

Point your wands at that "comments" button.

A reminder from a co-worker who checked in with the book store where he reserved a copy: If you're planning to show up tonight, check the store's policy. Some are giving out wristbands to reserve places in line already.

If you show up late, prepare to wait.

A few years ago, Nancy Churnin gathered suggestions on what to read when you're finished with Harry Potter. The responses are still timely.

Washington Post staff writer Bob Thompson did an online chat with HP fans today and reiterated the Post's vow not to spoil "Deathly Hallows" for anyone. He also got an informative warning from a chatter, who says those who download illegal photos of JKR's book pages could get more than they bargained for:

Baltimore: I admit it, I'm weak. I downloaded one of those torrents full of pictures of pages last night. As I was squinting at the blurry, glary photos, I noticed my mouse was moving sluggishly. Quick virus scan discovered that some helpful person planted a virus in the stream.

I purged the virus and the file, and remain unspoiled except for the chapter titles. I now want to thank that hacker who planted the virus, for keeping me unspoiled until I get the book in my grubby little paws. Never thought I'd be happy to get a computer virus.

Bob Thompson: That's a REALLY good reason to avoid that stuff. Thanks for the warning.

In response to the embargo-breaking "reviews" of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in The New York Times and Baltimore Sun, J.K. Rowling hauls out her figurative Smeltings stick and raps 'em a good one:

"I am staggered that American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children, who wanted to reach Harry’s final destination by themselves, in their own time. I am incredibly grateful to all those newspapers, booksellers and others who have chosen not to attempt to spoil Harry’s last adventure for fans."

Her comment appeared today in a press release from Bloomsbury, her British publisher, also decrying various U.S. violations of the embargo.

Harry Potter mania is obviously a big marketing opportunity for stores, but I’ve never seen this pitch before. A new Borders e-mail is advertising book lights and magnifiers for 50 percent off.

“Stay up all night!” the ad urges. As crazy as it sounds, they’ll probably sell a lot of them for just that purpose.
-- Jeff Mosier

I haven't read the Harry Potter books so am in the dark. I am interested, though, since it's such a phenomenon, in knowing what's what about it.

I thought the Harry Potter series started out as a children's book. Is this true? If so, did it evolve into an adult's book as the central character grew up? Do children still read it in the numbers as before?

I remember news stories about certain religious parents trying to get the books banned from schools because it somehow competed with Christianity in the magic department. What ever became of this? Do the mothers still protest? If not, did the books somehow become inoffensive to them? Or did the offended mothers, as did the anti-Elvis mothers of my day, become fans?

Finally, what's the point of Harry Potter? At first I thought Rowling was a female Stephen King inflicting a fantasy world of hurt on bullies who had made her life miserable. But, probably, Harry Potter is more than a nerd, a British version of Carrie, who uses magic to get revenge on the bullies who took his britches down. So, what is he? The religious element-- what's that like? Does he represent hope for our troubled world? The archetypal hero? Is Harry a baby-faced Prometheus? Or the Gilgamish for our times? There is obviously some Harry in all of us, whatever that is, as there is some Tony Soprano in us all. Tony is the sociopath next door.

Who is Harry?

In my long career of reading goodness-only-knows-how-many books, Harry Potter has finally made me do something I've never done before: reread a book.

I'm one of those people who remember annoyingly minute details, and as soon as I open a book again, everything comes flooding back. Not so with the Half-Blood Prince, which I recently finished again.

The details I'd forgotten made the book so much better the second time around. How about this "Gasp OMG!" moment: Even though I know what Snape does at the end(and that one didn't get any easier to bear, let me tell you), I had absolutely no recollection of Snape's connection to James and Lily's death!

But here's the other interesting thing. Not so much an "OMG," more like, "Wow, imagine that." When I read about Snape, and James and Lily, my reaction wasn't the usual hatred, it was, "That man is either one tortured soul or one heck of a double-agent." Another first: I've never before had doubts about Snape's evil. Imagine that.

On her website, www.jkrowling.com, Jo Rowling had this to say today:

"We are almost there! As launch night looms, let's all, please, ignore the misinformation popping up on the web and in the press on the plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'd like to ask everyone who calls themselves a Potter fan to help preserve the secrecy of the plot for all those who are looking forward to reading the book at the same time on publication day. In a very short time you will know EVERYTHING!"

Meanwhile, JKR's American publisher was keeping its legal team busy...

Yes, I get your dilemma, Betsy. I read the first Harry Potter book an