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!

As noted in our earlier report this morning, Bloomsbury is releasing footage of JKR signing a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This video and more is now online. After clicking at this link, click on where it says “Electronic Press Kit- Video and Footage”. Quicktime and Windows Media formats are available. There …read more!

UK newspaper The Mirror is running a week-long series all about the world of Harry Potter, and today they focused on the films, in particular the trio of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. In an article that has focuses on how they have grown and changed through the years,the actors talk about things …read more!

Bloomsbury.com has posted that they are releasing an EPK (that’s a press kit) with footage of Jo Rowling signing the first copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (which, fans might want to note, will be released THIS WEEK) to the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. Librarian Martyn Wade reports “we look forward …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!

Joel Garreau of The Washington Post (free registration required) offers up an interesting look at the impact of Harry on today’s generation: So I found myself looking for the muse of my daughter’s generation, for its Bob Dylan — the seer who would announce to this new generation that “the times they are a-changin.’ ” …read more!