Following last week’s bombings in London, bookseller W.H. Smith has decided to move their launch party for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from the Underground station at King’s Cross to a store in Wimbleton. Thanks to Peter and Victoria for the links.

We’ve had several posts in the comments section and on Leaky Lounge that contain spoilers or that link to web pages that contain spoilers. We’ve disabled comments to issue this official warning – STOP. Posting ANY spoilers here is utterly disrespectful of Jo Rowling, the publishers, your fellow readers, and the people who run Leaky …read more!

JuneRose let us know that MSNBC’s Scarborough Country discussed the series on their July 12 episode, and featured a British woman who complained that the series teaches children about witchcraft. UPDATE: And here’s the transcript!

The San Jose Mercury News and Denver Post both report today on how some adult fans of the Harry Potter series share their love of the books through participation in the fanfic-writing community. The Post also has an article on how Potter is “magic for grownups”.

The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Emma MacDonald joins Joel Stein from the LA Times in criticizing adult fans of the Harry Potter series. One of her “criticisms” is interesting, because JK Rowling herself has said that she never intended the books to be children’s books. MacDonald writes: Children notice she’s been writing the recent ones not …read more!

Yesterday we told you of Bloomsbury, the UK publishers of the Harry Potter books, posting some video of JKR signing copies of Half-Blood Prince. Well today, US Potter publishers Scholastic have now posted a very cool, long video segment set to music, of the book signing, and it being loaded into a very cool trunk …read more!

Jim Dale, the narrator for the US Harry Potter audio books, appeared on NBC’s Today Show, and gave a reading from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The video of his performance is now up on the website. To view, click here, then scroll down under the “Countdown To Harry Potter” banner, and …read more!

Does the Chamber of Secrets hold any more secrets? Could there be things still lurking down in that mysterious place? If you think that it’s possible, be sure to check out our new poll of the day about the Chamber of Secrets in the lounge. Yesterday’s poll about who will be the next Gryffindor Quidditch …read more!

“Dumbledore” has been calling Books-a-Million customers to remind them to pick up their books this weekend, so between those messages and the pre-recorded message Jim Dale did for Borders, you never know who will be on the other end of your phone when you answer it this week!

Greenpeace and the U.S. National Wildlife Federation are urging American readers to buy the new Potter book from Canada. The two environmental groups are protesting that unlike Canadian publisher Raincoast, American publisher Scholastic has failed to use 100% recycled paper. Scholastic representative Kyle Good responded with the following: “We do not use any paper that …read more!