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Harry Potter Six Dominates Booksales

As the deadline loomed for the arrival of the wizard boy on his flying broom on Saturday, the much-hyped sixth book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" cast a global spell among international readers who yearned for copies despite having to decipher plot twists and turns in a foreign language.

In Paris, a sign was posted outside the Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore urging customers to set their alarms for 1:01 a.m. local time on Saturday, when the book will be released simultaneously worldwide in the original English. At the book shop, a pianist was set to belt out hymns from Potter`s school, Hogwarts, in celebration. Organizers at the American Book Center in Amsterdam were rushing to prepare for the arrival Friday night of more than 1,000 guests to mark the arrival of the new book by J.K. Rowling with a fashion show of wizards and witches and a yoga teacher.

"We did a party three years ago, but this is much bigger," said Rick Lightstone, a spokesman for the ABC bookstore chain, referring to the previous book`s arrival. The chain also staged Potter events at two other stores, in The Hague and in Leuven, Belgium.