The midnight release Friday of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” at the Barnes & Noble store in Bethesda was more like raucous New Year’s Eve party than a stuffy book-release, as hundreds of fans began cheering one minute after midnight.
“As soon as I heard the book was coming out, I was waiting,” said 10-year-old Joseph Dreiwitz, visiting from Waco, Texas.
Like other Harry Potter enthusiasts around the world and across the United States, the crowd at the Bethesda store arrived dressed like the witches, wizards and muggles (nonmagical characters) that inhabit the mystical world created by author J.K. Rowling.
With games and face-painting at the store, the hundreds inside the store joined in the countdown as the clock approached midnight, then let out huge, collective cheers.
“There’s nothing like this,” said Catherine Sprouse, general manager of the store, which doubled its staff for the event. “There’s absolutely no other publishing event like this.”
Among the first in line were Grace McNamee and Michaela Olson, both 12 and from Bethesda, who said they had been waiting for the book, the sixth of seven installments in the Harry Potter series, since “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” was released in June 2003.
“I’ve been re-reading the other books for the past two weeks,” Grace said.
Qi Gan, 22, from Gaithersburg, said she’s been waiting at least a year and a half for the new book.
“By the end of today or tomorrow, I will have it done,” she said.
The new book is also Miss Rowling’s darkest, most grown-up work — haunted by death, complicated by love and heartbreaking to critics.
“Break out the tissues,” warned Associated Press reviewer Deepti Hajela.
The countdown parties — the start of a 24-hour book-buying frenzy in which the publisher expected more than 5 million of the 10.8 million printed copies worldwide will be sold, was more than just a suburban phenomenon, too.
At the midnight countdown at the Barnes & Noble in New York’s Union Square, someone in a white owl suit emerged from behind green curtains with a box and slowly walked over to a cash register. The owl handed the box to workers behind the counter, and the first book was removed. Jim Dale, the beloved, multi-voiced narrator of the audiobooks, began reading.
The Borders bookstore in the District, on 14th Street, had more sales and a larger turnout than expected, which means the staff more than likely will have to refill its stock, said operations manager Phoenix Robles.
“I would say about 75 to 80 percent of the traffic through our store has been Harry Potter oriented,” he said.
Tourists from neighboring hotels contributed to the large turnout at the Midnight Magic Party, Mr. Robles also said. “I think it really fills a niche that people have been lacking in characters for young adults that they can identify with.”
Yee Laum, 22, of Glen Burnie, Md., said she began reading the series when she was a sophomore in high school.
“It’s such a fun idea,” she said. “It takes you where things can transform themselves and makes you ask whether you can be a wizard or not.”
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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