By IANS
Lucknow : Potter fans here spent a sleepless night before the Saturday release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", the seventh edition of J.K. Rowling's popular fantasy series, and crowded the city's bookshops the minute they were opened.
"It was a long wait, I could hardly sleep through the night waiting for the new dawn – a dawn with the new Harry Potter on the stands", 18-year-old Prabhakar Seth told IANS outside Lucknow's famous Universal Booksellers in Hazratganj.
Scores of youngsters had queued up outside the bookshop well before the sale began at 6.30 a.m. Saturday. By 9 a.m., the city's most popular bookshop had sold more than 300 copies of the last book of the Harry Potter series.
"It has been the biggest rage ever. The last Potter series was also a big draw but this one has beaten all past records," said Chander Prakash, the owner of Universal Booksellers.
"I reached my shop at 4.25 a.m. and two boys were already waiting outside. Its just mind boggling," he added.
What impressed him most was the arrival of a physically challenged boy at dot 6 a.m. "This boy was the first one to arrive at the time of release of the last Harry Potter too", exclaimed Prakash, whose shop alone got advance bookings for 500 copies. The rush for the book was also visible at other bookshops in the city.