GAINESVILLE - Just after midnight, fantasy became reality for Harry Potter fans as bookstores in the East rang up the first official U.S. sales of ``Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.''
At Chapter 11 Books on Thompson Bridge Road in Gainesville, more than 120 fans arrived for their copy of the long awaited book.
"The books are very interesting and it's very actiony and I like action books," Lauren Dalton said in Gainesville.
"They're really good and descriptive and interesting," Elizabeth Agee said.
"Well everything about it from when his parents were killed, down to Crookshanks the cat is cool. There's just so many adventures," Kasey Dixon said.
The books have been controversial for some parents who don't like the plots involving wizards and sorcery, but Tiffany Strickland, 13, doesn't agree.
"I think it's stupid, because it's fantasy, it's in the fantasy section. Stuff on TV is worse like COPS."
Employees at the store said they had nearly thirty extra cases of the book stored up so there would be plenty of copies to go around.
Fans at Chapter 11 said read time would range from one month to two or three days for nonstop readers. The book is about 800 pages long.
Anticipation had been building to near unbearable levels for the fifth installment in the Potter series, as author J.K. Rowling took three years to complete it. The book had already gone on sale hours earlier Saturday in Britain and elsewhere in the English-speaking world.
Rowling, looking relaxed and happy, paid a visit to a Waterstone's bookshop in her home town of Edinburgh, Scotland, and gave out signed copies of her book to 40 school children.
``Much of the pleasure of being published for me is meeting the children who are reading the books,'' she said.
Paying homage to its King's Cross location, the WH Smith store re-created the gateway to Platform 9 3/4, where Harry, Ron and Hermione catch the magical Hogwarts Express to school.
The twists and turns in the book's plot were guarded closely by the British publisher, Bloomsbury. Rowling insisted on preserving her surprises for readers. She did reveal that one of the central figures dies in the book, but said she has not even told her husband who the doomed character is.
Yet leaks occurred. A store in Fishers, Ind., and a New York health food store were among those that mistakenly put copies out for sale. The Daily News in New York City, which bought a copy and published a preview, is now facing a $100 million lawsuit from Rowling and her publishers.
In England, 7,680 copies of the book were stolen from a truck parked outside a warehouse late Sunday night. Earlier this month, a print worker was sentenced to 180 hours community service for attempting to sell three chapters of the book to a tabloid newspaper.
Rowling said she was pleased that so little about the story has gotten out. ``I think it's miraculous, given the number of books that we produced and the number of people involved,'' she said Saturday.
Harry is 15 in the new book, and Rowling has disclosed that he will get to be a real adolescent, with his share of anger and some confusion over girls. There is much emotional interplay in the new book, which goes well beyond the children's genre.
Early reviews praised the fifth installment. USA Today cited Rowling's ``wonderful, textured writing.'' The Associated Press said, ``It was worth the wait. And then some.''
Harry was 11 in the first volume, ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.'' Published in 1998, it was followed each year by another adventure ``Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,'' ``Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' and ``Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.''
Rowling's four Potter books have sold an estimated 192 million copies worldwide and have been published in at least 55 languages and distributed in more than 200 countries. Blockbuster movies were made of the first two books and the movie stemming from the third will be released next year.
Amazon.com had 1 million advance orders for the fifth book. Scholastic, the book's U.S. publisher, has a first printing of 8.5 million.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
Sunday
August 31st, 2025
5:14PM
