Incendiary Lit

How about $41,000? Last May one of the only 500 first editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s for us Americans) sold for $55,000. This week another sold for $41,000. But, seeing as there are only 500 in existence, and many of those apparently went to libraries to be torn up from cover to cover by snot nosed kids eating purple popsicles, perfect copies (the $41,000 is also signed by JK Rowling) are getting to be almost as rare as Honus Wagners. Well, probably not quite there, but you see the parallel. After Harry made his trip to the Americas, the days of 500 copies were well over, the last installment of the series has sold over 400 million copies, in 64 different languages. JK Rowling is a billionaire. Second richest woman in the world, behind Oprah. And whereas Oprah only makes a monthly hobby of getting people to read who would normally just be watching daytime TV, Rowling’s spent the last decade plus getting people who would normally be watching Pokemon or Spongebob to reading long novels that will hopefully segue into other reading. Tip of the hat to both. Here’s more about the $41,000 book from YahooNews.

America is still mad about Harry. However, his reign atop the nation’s best-seller lists may be coming to an end next week, thanks to another teen fantasy series that features vampires instead of wizards.

On this week’s Wall Street Journal best-selling fiction list, the HP behemoth occupies not only the top of the heap, but spots 5, 6, 11 and 13. On USA Today’s list, half of the top ten is comprised of Rowling’s series.

Still, Khaled Hosseini’s “A Thousand Splendid Suns” managed to break through the Potter- pile and seize the number 2 spot. The feature film based on his previous novel “The Kite Runner” hits theaters this fall.

Also making waves in the top ten is “New Moon” by Stephenie Meyer, the second in a YA series about a supernatural romance between a girl and a vampire. The third book in the series, “Eclipse,” released this week on August 7th, sold a surprisingly hefty 150,000 copies its first day in release, proving readers are beginning to look beyond Harry Potter to get their fantasy fix. “Eclipse” is expected to bump “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” from the #1 spot next week. Still, over at DearAuthor they’re reporting the third installment hasn’t lived up to fans’ expectations, so it remains to be seen whether the series’ impressive sales numbers will hold over time.

WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS: FICTION

1. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)

2. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead Hardcover)

3. “The Quickie” by James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown and Company)

4. “The Secret Servant” by Daniel Silva (Putnam)

5. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre (Scholastic)

6. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre (Scholastic)

7. “The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel” by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)

8. “New Moon” by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)

9. “Beyond Reach” by Karin Slaughter (Delacorte)

10. “High Noon” by Nora Roberts (Putnam)

For more current best-sellers, click here

So it’s been over a week since the release of the seventh (and final) book in the Harry Potter series, and the onslaught of articles and opinions is upon us. Some of my favorite tidbits from around the web:

Not surprisingly, Harry had a record-breaking first day, selling 8.3 million copies in the US alone. At Barnes and Noble, during that all-important first hour of sales at midnight releases, 150 books were being sold per second. Pretty intense! More fun sales figures await here.

I thought this article from Christian Science Monitor “Missing from ‘Harry Potter’ – a real moral struggle” was an interesting read. While I disagree with a few of Ms. Sawyer’s points, it’s apparent she’s a fan of the series and isn’t just critiquing blindly, which seems to happen far too often for my liking when it comes to Harry Potter. What I most enjoyed was her assertion about who the true protagonist was, as my sentiments after finishing the book were quite similar.

Time Magazine’s literary critic Lev Grossman has a well-written review that, unlike the New York Times review, provides insightful commentary without spoiling any plot points. He also has a spoiler-full blog post I found enjoyable as well- I had the same thought about Griphook the goblin’s situation, though Grossman mixes up Bill and Charlie. However, he also calls Snape a “bad-ass,” so you know his head’s in the right place.

Over at Entertainment Weekly, a magazine that’s always been friendly to Harry and co., there’s a seven page “Muggle’s Guide” to the series, if your memory needs any refreshing. They’ve also got answers to readers’ queries about the story, though some of them seem a bit obvious to any reader who paid attention. My favorite, however, was EW’s interview with Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter’s big-screen counterpart. He actually had some good comments, and brought up a bit of information regarding the script of the fourth film that made want to go back and re-read the whole series with an eye open for hints at the story’s resolution. I’m still hoping that Stephen King will write a column or review on the book, his past writings on the subject are simply awesome (like this one).

Scholastic, the US publisher of HP, has just announced the J.K. Rowling and the Open Book Tour Sweepstakes. 1000 lucky fans will be chosen to attend a reading by Jo at Carnegie Hall on October 19th. You can enter the drawing at Scholastic’s website after July 30th.