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Fastest-selling
book-Harry Potter final book set world record
[July
23] New York, US -- The final instalment in the Harry Potter series
has set a new record as the world's fastest-selling book.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - the seventh
and last novel in the series - sold around 15 million copies worldwide
in its first day and set the new world record for the fastest selling
book.
Photo:
Children pose with the final chapter in the Harry Potter series;
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows in Hong Kong 21 July 2007.
The wait was finally over for Harry Potter fans who flooded bookshops
worldwide to grab the series finale and find out whether author
J.K. Rowling slays or spares the boy wizard.(AFP)
World Record Academy is the first world records certifying
organization which recognize and announce officially the new world
record set by the last Harry Potter's book.
After weeks of hype, the seventh Harry Potter
book finally hit shop shelves on Saturday. Thousands of Potter fans
queued outside book stores in major cities around the world over
the weekend to get hold of the book, which answers the questions
on every reader's lips -- Who dies at the end? Does Harry survive?
Around 8.3 million copies were sold in the first
24 hours in the United States according to publisher Scholastic.That
beats the previous record, held by the sixth Potter book, which
sold 6.9 million in its first day in the US.
Photo:
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" at Borders
Borders said Sunday that it sold 1.2 million copies
of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows worldwide on the book's
first day, breaking the retailer's single-day sales record.
The book, which is the seventh and final installment
in author J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, went on sale Saturday.
Borders said its first-day sales compare to 850,000 copies for book
six, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was published
in 2005. Borders was selling the latest book for $20.99, a 40% discount
from the $34.99 list price.
UK
sales figures are due later, but WH Smith said it sold 15 copies
of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows per second when it came
out on Saturday.
A spokeswoman at Bloomsbury, the book's British
publisher, told the Observer newspaper that sales of the final instalment
could reach three million copies in the first 24 hours, up from
two million for 2005's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
UK supermarket chain Asda also confirmed
that Deathly Hallows was selling twice as quickly as its predecessor.
The store, which discounted the book from £17.99 to £5, said it
shifted 97% of its 500,000 copies in the first 24 hours.
"We've never seen anyting like it," said Asda
spokesman Ed Watson in London.
Advance orders for the book reached more than
2.2 million copies at Amazon.com Inc., the world's biggest online
retailer, and more than 1.3 million at Barnes & Noble, a record
for both.
Amazon also claimed readers has saved 50 mln usd
worldwide by buying the book through Amazon at its discounted price.
In
Bangladesh, customs offices continued to work on a Friday - a holiday
in the country - to ensure the novel was delivered on time.
In the UK, 250,000 fans - many dressed as wizards and
witches - turned up to midnight launch parties hosted by book store
Waterstone's.
Fans in the US had to wait slightly longer, as booksellers
observed their own midnight embargo, but they still turned out in
their thousands to buy the book.
The Borders book chain said 800,000 devotees
attended the countdowns in their 1,200 US stores, with first day
sales reaching 1.2 million.
In India, police said on Monday they had seized
hundreds of pirated copies of "Deathly Hallows" after raiding a
printing press, storage depot and private home in Bangalore.
Internet versions of the book also surfaced last
week and two U.S. newspapers ran reviews before publication, but
it was not enough to dampen enthusiasm for the final chapter of
the boy wizard's increasingly bloody fight against the forces of
evil.
The series has sold more than 325 million copies
worldwide since 1997, making it the biggest children's book series
ever and its author, Rowling, the world's first billion-dollar writer.
Potter and his adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry also spawned a franchise that has generated billions of
dollars in sales of DVDs, box-office receipts, soundtracks and licensed
trademark goods.
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