POTTER CRUNCHING

The not quite a boy wizard is everywhere. He is flooding my inbox, making it impossible for me to keep speed. The numbers are astounding. Expecting nothing less, it's Harry Potter, Dudes and Dames.

The Nielsen BookScan reveals since 1998 - that's when Nielsen began measuring book sales in the UK - the six Harry Potter books have sold more than 22.5 million copies in Britain. Since 2001, more than 27.7 million Harry Potter books sold in the US.

The last book of the immensely popular series 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' will be out on July..... - oh you do know that!

As you sit there, at the edge of your seat to find out if book seven will really spell the end, get ready to crunch some fun facts that have headed my way courtesy Loi Zhi Wei of Penguin Books.

- If all the Harry Potter books ever sold were placed end to end, they would go around the equator over 1.6 times.

- The total number of all the Harry Potter books ever sold is more than the population of the USA.

- On its first day of sale in Britain, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold at a rate of 23 books per second.

- Since the publication of the first book, the books have sold at an average rate of 90,000 per day.

- Just as you finished reading this fact, 15 more books would have been sold.

- And I like this best. If all the words in all the Harry Potter books ever sold were distributed evenly among everyone in the world, each person would end up with nearly 8,000 words.

That sure is a mouthful....

So, while you may have your quibbles, you can't get away from the fact that they've got the world reading. From 5-50, 6-60, 7-70, 8-80, 9-90 - they've covered them all. And that, my dears, is a darn good thing.