Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth and penultimate installment of the Harry Potter series, went on sale one minute after midnight, July 16

National Review, August 8, 2005

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth and penultimate installment of the Harry Potter series, went on sale one minute after midnight, July 16. It sold 6.9 million copies. In the United States. In the first 24 hours. This swells the 270 million copies the previous five books had already sold, worldwide.

Hollywood should do so well (HP 6 beat the weekend take of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Wedding Crashers, the two top-grossing movies). Everyone yaks about the culture, J. K. Rowling did something about it. She got kids to read, and she told them about love and death and right and wrong. Moreover, she did it all in passing, spinning the story of a motherless child. Her readers, who have already finished HP 6, await the final installment.