Sales Records Start To Fall For Final Harry Potter Book As Fans Snap Up Millions Of Copies

NEW YORK (AP) _ The records are breaking, yet again. <br/><br/>Borders Group Inc. announced Sunday that ``Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'' sold 1.2 million copies worldwide in its first day,

Sunday, July 22nd 2007, 2:43 pm

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ The records are breaking, yet again.

Borders Group Inc. announced Sunday that ``Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'' sold 1.2 million copies worldwide in its first day, the biggest single-day number ever for the superstore chain. According to orders, the previous Potter, ``Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,'' sold 850,000 copies on its first day of release in 2005.

Scholastic Inc., the book's U.S. publisher, was expected to announce sales figures later Sunday. British publisher Bloomsbury will release data Monday.

The seventh and final volume of J.K. Rowling's fantasy series was released Saturday with a first printing of 12 million in the U.S. alone. Pre-orders for Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble topped 1 million and stores everywhere reported manic activity upon the book's midnight release.

Reviews have been almost universally ecstatic and sales and reader enthusiasm apparently unharmed by prerelease ``spoilers'' that proliferated on the Internet.

``The book was fascinating and I think I'll have to read it through at least once more before I get the full scope of it _ but I thought it had some of her best, most action-packed, funniest moments in it,'' says Melissa Anelli, webmaster for the Potter fan site http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org, who said she finished the 759-page book Saturday.

``When I closed the book I was overjoyed and devastated _ overjoyed at the story, and the way it had played out, but devastated that the tale was complete,'' she said. ``It did feel like a bereavement, like it was saying farewell to a long-trusted friend.''