Editorial: A bewitching book

Friday, July 20, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

The rumors, guessing and waiting end at midnight.

Fret not. You won't find any Harry Potter spoilers in this editorial.

As Potter fans across the globe line up to get their hands on J.K. Rowling's seventh and final Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," muggles who haven't read even the first Potter book likely still wonder what all the bother is about (and, undoubtedly, wonder what a muggle even is).

But one doesn't have to know that a muggle is anyone without magic powers or know anything about Quidditch (a sport played on broomsticks) or about Hogwarts (a school for young witches and wizards) to know that tonight's book release marks the end of a publishing phenomenon.

Since the first book - "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" - was released in the United States in 1998, Rowling's series has sold more than 325 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 65 languages. The Potter movies, the most recent of which is "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which opened last week, have set box office records. And there are still two more Potter movies to go.

Fans have eagerly anticipated the Potter book releases, with each new installment seemingly in more demand than the last. So it should come as little surprise that this seventh and final book in the series is setting pre-release sales records. News on Tuesday that someone had posted on the Internet excerpts of the book's final chapters - in which the author has said at least two major characters will perish - has only intensified the frenzy.

For as much as they have fervently awaited the release of "Deathly Hallows," many among the Potter faithful are shunning Web postings that claim to have advance knowledge of how this epic tale ends. The thrill of Potter, they say, lies in the actual reading of a tried-and-true, paper-and-ink book - a claim that, in this electronic age of instant information gratification, is something akin to magic.