Translated material
You can't kill the record holder
The world is reading the seventh book about Harry Potter
Harry Potter is alive . He completed his studies at Hogwarts and became a full-fledged wizard. If JK Rowling had decided the fate of her hero differently, if she had sent the grown-up sorcerer to the next world, that is, if she had gone to meet the bloodthirsty haters of fairy-tale happy endings, the agency feeds would have been full of messages about the hard work of prudently created psychological assistance services, trying to bring the boy’s inconsolable fans to their senses ( youth, young man) with a scar. But they tell a different story: already on the first day of sales of Rowling’s seventh and final book, more than 15 million people were convinced that Harry Potter was alive. Because the rare buyer of this long-awaited work did not look (violating the unspoken norm of “correct” reading) at the end of the book, and only one hundred percent snobs would allow themselves to gloatingly hide precious information from family and friends, and approximately 15 million copies were sold worldwide on Sunday.True, not everyone who bought the thick volume was able to overcome it, and therefore find out which of Harry’s friends died (Rowling “let slip” that a sad fate would overtake two heroes dear to the reader), as they showed themselves in The outcome of the story involves ambiguous characters (for example, the Dursleys, Professor Snape or the house elf Kreacher), whether retribution overtook the Dark Lord's accomplices and what became of him, he who must not be named. Not everyone is able to get even somewhat closer to the six-time world champion in speed reading, Ann Jones, who completed 607 pages in 47 minutes (an average of 4,251 words consumed per page), breaking her own previous record.
Other records are also cracking. In the United States alone, 8.3 million books flew away in one day. According to some sources, the seventh volume is sold at a rate of 50 thousand books per hour, and according to others - six times faster (300 thousand per hour, 5 thousand per minute). WH Smith boasts that it sells a copy every 15 seconds, and Asda boasts that it sold half a million volumes in two days, doubling the sales of Rowling's previous book. Sales data in the largest online store Amazon is also off the charts, but the loud numbers (on the first day of accepting applications, the demand for the seventh book exceeded by 547% the demand for the previous volumes, which consistently lead the list of orders) are not at all surprising. Each new volume of the epic turned out to be longer, more serious (if you like, more terrible) and more popular than the previous one - it would be strange to even assume a change in trend when it came to the denouement.
Well, yes, in one day “Harry Potter and the Fatal Powers” (this is the Russian version of the title) collected more applications than “The Half-Blood Prince” in two weeks. And although, in fact, “The Prince” has been on sale for two years already, the record is still being fixed. If there is any deceit here, it is small - sales of the seventh volume will certainly grow, the initial circulation (12 million in the USA, English ones are kept secret) will continue with equally impressive additional prints, because it is difficult to stop the elements, and no one is going to do this. In any case, until: a) film adaptations of the last two books appear; b) a writer who can be promoted in the same way as Lady Joan. In the United States the book costs $34.99, in the United Kingdom - a penny 20 pounds sterling, but the prices do not scare anyone - American publishers believe that their profits will greatly exceed the revenue from the recently released film version of the fifth volume of Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix."
A fourteen-year-old American girl, snatched from a line in front of a bookstore by a reporter, proclaimed (perhaps without prior collusion): “Harry Potter is ensuring the literacy of my generation; I don’t think any of my classmates would read if it weren’t for him.” In Russia, Harry Potter patronizes the study of English. Quite successful. This is guaranteed by the crowds that besieged several Moscow stores at three o'clock in the morning (sales began at the same minute as in London - taking into account the time difference), a shortage of copies that seemed to have occurred in the Young Guard, and the appearance of a translation of the first five chapters on the web. The last plot can be read in two ways: on the one hand, there is someone to translate, on the other hand, translation is still required. Hence the calls to potential sponsors to finance Internet interpreters and thereby help those suffering whose love for Harry Potter did not result in involvement in the language of Shakespeare, Dickens and JK Rowling. The appearance of the Russian edition should be expected in November-December: two years ago, “Rosman” completed “The Half-Blood Prince” in such a time frame, where to go now - nobility obliges. So, on New Year's Eve, even the laziest Potterians will receive the latest - completely reliable - news about the friends and enemies of the wizard who has become an adult. There will be something to talk about.