We’ve got another entry to the A.S. Byatt/Harold Bloom/William Safire school of HP-haters: Robert McCrum, who says: “The great children’s books were written by emotionally backward men and women who were writing principally for themselves….When all is said and done, JK Rowling is for children, their teachers and parents, the people who actually pay for …read more!

More than a million HBPs have been ordered at BN.com, making it “the bestselling pre-order book of all time.” Also, BN.com will be showing a taped broadcast of the J.K. Rowling reading from Edinburgh Castle; it will also be shown at the Union Square, NYC party where Jim Dale will be reading. The press release …read more!

The Kansas City Star today says: “Who can say whether Harry Potter would be as successful without those fans old enough to order a martini? Sarah Blair can. “Absolutely not!” says the 26-year-old Potter fan from Gladstone. “All the fans I know are adults.” And speaking of adult fans, she’s too shy to say so …read more!

The Christian Science Monitor has a piece about the security measures surrounding HBP. They interview various booksellers and librarians about Scholastic’s secrecy policies, and booksellers like Russ Lawrence, of Chapter One Books in Hamilton, Montana strongly support Scholastic and their reasons for secrecy. Scholastic Inc., the book’s US publisher, has once again gone to great …read more!

MSNBC gets a little snarky about the release of HBP: A friend told me recently about an aspiring author named J.K. Rowling who has a series of books out with a recurring character named Harry Potter. I always do what I can in this space to give new scribes a little push out the door. …read more!

We’re taking another break from book news to showcase a few more reviews of Goblet of Fire; you can now find three on Aint It Cool News. The reviews, like the one we reported on yesterday contain spoilers for GoF as a film, so don’t click if you’re trying to avoid all spoilers for the …read more!

The Guardian has reported that 14 year old Owen Jones won last night’s “Quest for the Ultimate Harry Potter Fan” competition. He plans to ask JKR about her expectations for when she finishes writing the HP books.

Wizard News reported today that as soon as Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince goes on sale, Australian radio station, 97.3FM will read J.K. Rowling’s sixth book in its entirety. UPDATE: A Leaky reader from Australia called the station for more details. The reading will be outside of a bookstore in Brisbane, but will not …read more!

Six days to go! Today’s LeakyLounge poll is up, and it asks you who owns, or owned (SPOILER ALERT) the ring (a picture of which Bloomsbury released awhile ago and you can see in the first post of the thread). Yesterday’s poll, “What is the underlying theme of the HP series?” is closed and it …read more!

Everyone at TLC sends our congratulations to David Thewlis and his partner Anna Friel, who welcomed their new baby girl, Gracie, into the world this weekend. Mother and Baby are reportedly doing well, and are very happy.