HOOKED: A girl and her brother take a look at the CDs being given free of cost with every advance registration for the final part of Harry Potter series in Vijayawada on Tuesday. - Photo: Raju V.

VIJAYAWADA: It is still a month away for the seventh and final part of J. K. Rowling's famous Harry Potter series to hit the stands, but book lovers have embarked on a pre-booking exercise in order not to be left out of the race to lap up the book that is tipped to be the most compelling of all the episodes.

Cashing in on the Potter mania, the New Students Book Centre on Eluru Road set in motion on Tuesday the facility to reserve a copy of the much-awaited book titled `Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'.

Launch in 1997

Set in the imaginary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Harry Potter fantasy series first hit the stands in 1997.

Ten years down the line and six editions later, the book has sold more than 325 million copies in 63 languages.

The wild fantasy world of Harry Potter has engulfed children across the globe and the little ones in the city are no exception. What with the author admitting that this episode is her favourite of all the seven books that she wrote, and coupled with the faint possibility of Harry, the adolescent hero of the book, dying at the end, fans can't wait to grab the book from the racks.

Taking a cue from bookshops across the country, which have begun to receive a high number of pre-booking offers despite the scheduled date of release being July 21, the New Students Book Centre has gone a step further by coming up with a delightful offer for children opting for advance booking.

"Since there is over a month's time for the release of the book, we're offering a CD on interesting subjects like games, good handwriting, synonyms dictionary or the world craze Sudoku, free of cost. The CDs will give good company to the children until the arrival of Harry Potter," said C. Babji, proprietor of the book centre.

Nalluri Venkateswarlu, vice-president of the Siddhartha Academy, launched the advance booking and said Rowling had helped children across the world a great deal by bringing them closer to the habit of book reading, which was once feared to be on the wane.

B.S. Koteswara Rao, managing director of Profit Shoe Company, made the first booking. He said that the imaginary world of Harry Potter had caught the fancy of children and they were now gradually developing the habit of staying glued to books.

Siddhartha Public School principal Ramanaiah and former MLA K. Subbaraju were also present.

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