By IANS
Bangalore : Excited youngsters began queuing up outside bookstores here at 4.00 a.m. to be among the first to get copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows", the seventh and last book of J.K. Rowling's popular fantasy series.
"Wish I was a speed-reader so that I could finish the book fast and be among the first to know whether Harry Potter lives on or is killed by Lord Voldermot," said Priyanka Thimmaiah, a Class 10 student.
It was the same for Vijay Kumar, a first year college student and many others who preferred to stay back at the bookshops to read the book before heading back home.
Shalini Upadhya, a Class 12 student, said she could not resist the temptation to hit the last page to know the fate of the boy wizard. But she would not reveal it as her friends would be furious and also because the fun of reading the book would be lost.
The 12 major book shops in the city were geared up for the early morning crowd with several of them like Landmark and Oxford Bookstore offering cookies, juice, sandwiches, coffee and tea for the fans who fought off sleep and braved the early morning chill.
"There were around 500 people here at 5.30 a.m. even though we started giving out the book an hour later. Since it would be chilly, we had arranged snacks for our patrons," said J. Augustine, the head of the book section at Landmark. "
"By 2.00 p.m. we had sold about 1500 copies, of which 1100 were pre-booked," he added.
Paresh Shah, a sales executive at Sapna Book House, said that more than 1,500 copies had been sold by afternoon. He expected sales to be brisk later in the day as well because several events such a quiz on the Harry Potter series and lucky draws had been organised.
"There were around 300 people when we opened the doors at 6.30," he said adding they too had provided coffee, tea and cookies to the waiting customers.