'Deathly Hallows' - A Literal Page-Turner

Fans adore it. Critics love it. It's flying out of bookstores at a record-setting pace.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the much-anticipated final book in J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, sold 8.3 million copies in 24 hours starting Friday at midnight, U.S. publisher Scholastic reported Sunday. First printing: 12 million, the most ever for a Potter book. The books are out; the word is spreading. "The last Potter is amazing. It has definitely gone way beyond what I expected," Deb Kiehlmeier, 16, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, said of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was released on Saturday to worldwide ecstasy.Within 24 hours after J K Rowling opened her copy of the book at London's Natural History Museum a minute past Friday night, the book has become the fastest-selling novel in publishing history. Bloomsbury, the publisher, estimated three million copies were sold in the first 24 hours, almost a million more than the last Potter book. "Harry Potter fans are always trying to predict what will happen next, and J K Rowling always gives them something different," Kiehlmeier said. On Day 1 of the A H (After Harry) Era, reviewers and readers mourned the end of a historic series that proved young people can still crave the written word like the crispiest French fry.Parties to herald the arrival proliferated around the city and across the country. At the Barnes & Noble in Union Square in Manhattan, lines snaked around the block as police officers ordered fans off the street. Downtown in SoHo at the McNally Robinson Bookstore, an adults-only group swilled "magic punch." And at the Borders at Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle, fans who had been given numbered wristbands earlier in the day thronged around the front of the store at midnight. "Are we ready for Harry Potter?" yelled the manager. "Yea!" the crowd screamed back.In London, where the book went on sale five hours before New Yorkers could get their hands on a copy, Tineke Dijkstra, a 15-year-old fan from the Netherlands, had waited in line outside the Waterstone's in Piccadilly Circus for two days to ensure that she was one of the first ones to buy the book. "I slept three hours in the last two days in the rain," she said after emerging from the store with her copy. "I'm going to go and read one chapter and then go to sleepFunded by the National Institute on Aging, the study appears in the July 26 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.The epilogue has happy families seeing off a new generation of Potters, Weasleys et al to Hogwarts and a sense of things coming full circle. J K Rowling has left her options open -- she can always dash off a whole new set of adventures if she ever gets bored of spending her billions. A wonderful feeling of peace pervades the last few pages -- the only part of the book where you get the feeling. The rest of it is packed with action, intrigue, thrilling duels and violent deaths.Scores are settled; the young boys and girls who grew up before your eyes metamorphose into battle hardened warriors. The bumbling Neville Longbottom comes into his own; so does 'Looney' Luna Lovegood.There's enough gore to satisfy the most bloodthirsty reader. If you're sentimental, you may weep for some of the prominent characters who meet a bloody end. But the chances are, you'll be too busy turning pages to get to the latest twist.If you're wondering about the title, the deathly hallows are three objects which, united, make the possessor the master of death.Incidentally, one of the three hallows has long been in Harry's own possession -- the Invisibility Cloak, which he has used to such good effect in several adventures.Other familiar magical objects like the Polyjuice Potion, and Fred and George Weasley's bag of tricks too return, and play pivotal roles. And of course, there are the Horcruxes to be tracked down.New light is shed on important characters like Dumbledore and Snape, which makes you re-assess whatever you may have thought about them so far. And insignificant characters -- like the bar man at Hog's Head -- suddenly leap into the limelight.Instant assessment: The Deathly Hallows is Rowling back in fine form. Forget the meandering Order Of The Phoenix and the flabby, self-indulgent Half-Blood Prince.Rowling loyalists will argue that those two books were necessary to tie up loose ends. Well, they served that purpose and set the stage for a stirring, no-holds-barred, cutthe-talk and bring-on-the-battles finale.Rowling delivers. In style. And reminds you exactly what made the series such a huge cultural landmark to begin with. dr seuss book collection