Harry Potter: July 2005 Archives

I had been promising to write up a short review of the latest Harry Potter, but I didn't want to do it straight after reading the book. Why?

According to a post on a Hispanic blog, the latest Harry Potter is already available online, both the book and an audio version of it (read by a human no less) As the original post is in Spanish I'm providing my own translation below:

It took 12 hours for the fans of Harry Potter to publish an illegal electronic version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the latest and much awaited book about the young wizard written by JK Rowling. The process consists of scanning in the book's pages and digitising them using OCR software (Optical Character Recognition). After they proceed to the page by page revision (which is shared out) to ensure there are no errors before publishing it online. If this wasn't enough there is also an audio version of the book available on filesharing networks, read by a human not software. Why does this happen? the problem, for both the publisher and the author, is that being part of the information society is that if you don't make your work available and provide the required facilities, then someone else will. Not only will it happen,. but groups organise themselves in order to get them out as quickly as possible, as happened with the latest Harry Potter

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince late last night. I had intended to savour it over a couple of days, but I couldn't. Once I had started I found it impossible to put it down. Waking up this morning in the "real" world is quite depressing :) I'll try to post a proper review of the book later today. In the meantime I would urge you to get a copy if you haven't already! You can choose from the colourful children's edition: or the more sombre adult version:

Unless you prebooked your copy of the latest Harry Potter well in advance via Amazon there is no price advantage. Amazon UK is selling the book at the equivalent of EUR13.07 (before P & P), while all the local shops here are selling it at EUR12.99. It would probably make sense to buy it online if you were sending it as a gift to someone, but not if you were buying it for yourself. I picked up my copy in Carlow Bookshop yesterday. It was amusing to see the constant flow of people in and out of all the shops yesterday, all clutching their copies of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince Although I started reading it yesterday afternoon I am in no hurry to read it, so I won't be trying to beat any records on this occasion.

With only 3 days left until publication Harry Potter fever is about to strike! The nice people at Amazon are promising delivery to UK addresses if you order by midnight tonight: As always you can choose between the "adult" edition and the normal, children's one: From a marketing point of view the adult version is a brilliant idea, but surely a bit redundant at this stage? I know I'll be trying to grab a copy as soon as I can and I won't care which edition it is :) In yet another brilliant move they've setup a special area on their site where you can countdown to the release plus get loads of other snippets of information.