The first instalment of the series finale will open on November 19, 2010, with the second released the following summer. Earlier reports indicated that Part II would premiere in May 2011. The studio announced the decision to split J.K. Rowling's final book in the popular wizard series into two films last month.

David Yates will return to direct the Deathly Hallows films, making him the series's most prolific helmer, steering four of the eight Potter movies. The sixth Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, opens in cinemas this November.

Google, the Internet's leader in search and advertising, says the process it developed and is using for scanning the majority of the books in Book Search is proprietary. Employees will not discuss it except to say it is much faster than what Mitchel is doing and it's not destructive. "It took us quite a while to develop it so we do keep that confidential," said a library manager for Book Search, Ben Bunnell, who declined even to say where Google does the scanning.

Many libraries began digitizing books a decade ago to preserve them. Funding from Google allows the 28 libraries it's working with to cut their digitizing costs because they don't have to pay for scanning the books Google wants to include in Book Search.

Through Book Search, users can track down a book on any topic they're interested in and read a small portion. If the book's not protected by copyright, users can download the whole thing. If it is, or if they just want to read an original, they can use Book Search to find copies to buy or borrow. More than 1 million rare or fragile books have been digitized through the Google-Michigan partnership since it began in 2004, with an estimated 6 million to go.

Reps for JKR have now confirmed to TLC that there will indeed be an extract of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows contained in this new book, along with two new illustrations of the story from author and artist Quentin Blake. Along with the contribution from Jo, others such as Philip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson are contributing to the birthday book for The Prince of Wales, with new material due from Philip Ardagh and Anthony Horowitz. In addition to the new illustrations from Quentin Blake, other artists contributing are Axel Scheffler, Posy Simmonds and Emily Gravett. The Birthday Book will be published on November 6, with all proceeds to benefit The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts, a charity which”provides schoolchildren with opportunities to visit theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries."

Vander Ark wiped away tears when he was asked to reflect on what the case has done to his relationship with the community of Harry Potter fans. The former middle school librarian, who fell in love with the books in the late 90s and has devoted years to studying them and indexing their content online, could barely speak. "It's been ... it's been," he stammered, choking on his words. "It's been difficult because there has been a lot of criticism, obviously, and that was never the intention. ... This has been an important part of my life for the last nine years or so."

*****

During his testimony Tuesday, Vander Ark acknowledged that he, too, had substantial concerns all along about whether publishing an encyclopedia based on Rowling's Potter universe would constitute copyright infringement. He said he was talked into doing it by the publishing company.

Reporting its 2007 results, its pre-tax profit more than tripled to £17.86m - from £5.2m in 2006, a year when there was no book about the young wizard. As well as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it said Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner had sold well.

The firm said 2008 had started well with "a strong pipeline of new titles". The global success of the Harry Potter books has historically generated bumper profits for Bloomsbury, but the company is now entering a new phase. Chief executive Nigel Newton said: "We are now well positioned for the post Harry Potter era. "We have reduced overhead costs, are successfully developing new business areas in specialist publishing, and have a strong pipeline of titles."

*****

However, not all experts believe the Harry Potter-effect has quite ended. A note from Numis Media Analysts said: "While the final Harry Potter book was released in 2007, we believe the group will be able profitably to mine the franchise for several years, including a paperback edition of Harry Potter 7 [The Deathly Hallows] possibly this year. "Beyond this, we expect the group to diversify either through organic growth or acquisitions."

At least since Dante's Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility. These days, thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, listing your favorite books and authors is a crucial, if risky, part of self-branding. When it comes to online dating, even casual references can turn into deal breakers. Sussing out a date's taste in books is "actually a pretty good way -- as a sort of first pass -- of getting a sense of someone," said Anna Fels, a Manhattan psychiatrist and the author of Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women's Changing Lives. "It's a bit of a Rorschach test." To Fels (who happens to be married to the literary publisher and writer James Atlas), reading habits can be a rough indicator of other qualities. "It tells something about ... their level of intellectual curiosity, what their style is," Fels said. "It speaks to class, educational level."

Naming a favorite book or author can be fraught. Go too low, and you risk looking dumb. Go too high, and you risk looking like a bore -- or a phony. "Manhattan dating is a highly competitive, ruthlessly selective sport," Augusten Burroughs, the author of Running With Scissors and other vivid memoirs, said. "Generally, if a guy had read a book in the last year, or ever, that was good enough." The author recalled a date with one Michael, a "robust blond from Germany." As he walked to meet him outside Dean & DeLuca, "I saw, to my horror, an artfully worn, older-than-me copy of Proust by Samuel Beckett." That, Burroughs claims, was a deal breaker. "If there existed a more hackneyed, achingly obvious method of telegraphing one's education, literary standards and general intelligence, I couldn't imagine it."

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A rare 1937 first issue of the first edition of the childrens' classic was sold at Bonhams earlier today, going for twice its pre-sale estimate. The copy, inscribed by the author with a message of thanks to his friend Elaine Griffiths, who helped the author see the work into print, went to an anonymous telephone bidder. The £60,000 price tag sets a new world record for signed copies of the book, which remains Tolkien's bestselling work, having sold over 100m copies since its first publication.

Also included in the sale was the first foreign language edition of The Hobbit, also inscribed to Elaine Griffiths. The Swedish version, dating from 1947, went for £1,560, almost four times its estimated sale price.

The last known photograph of Tolkien, taken by his grandson Michael on August 9 1973, was also included in the auction. The photograph shows the author in the Botanical Gardens of Oxford, where Tolkien taught Anglo-Saxon language and literature, leaning against his favourite tree, the Black Pine he named Laocoon after the mythical Trojan prophet. The photograph was a gift to Elaine Griffiths from Tolkien's daughter Priscilla, who wrote on the back "For Elaine with love from Priscilla".

The aviation pioneer's Lockheed Lightning P-38 disappeared July 31, 1944. In a forthcoming book, former Luftwaffe pilot Horst Rippert says he believes that he shot down the plane - although he is not completely sure. Le Figaro magazine published extracts of the book, "Saint-Exupery, the ultimate secret," this weekend. "I shot down Exupery," the magazine quoted Rippert as saying.

But the former Messerschmitt pilot also added: "I didn't see the pilot, and it would have been impossible for me to know that it was Exupery. I hoped, and I still hope, that it wasn't him." Saint-Exupery was 44. A scuba diver since found the wreckage of his plane on the Mediterranean seabed, offshore between Marseille and Cassis.

He has become one of France's most admired figures, in part because of "The Little Prince," a tender fable about a prince from an asteroid who explores the planets and then falls to earth. Saint-Exupery's other works, which largely deal with his aviation experiences, include "Wind, Sand and Stars" and "Flight to Arras," about a doomed reconnaissance mission.

The German pilot, Rippert, says in the book that he was a fan of the author's works. "In our youth, at school, we had all read him. We loved his books," he said. "If I had known, I would not have opened fire. Not on him!"

The studio purchased all rights to the five novels, composed of handwriting and animation, chronicling the daily indignities faced by middle school student Greg Heffley. Former Buena Vista president Nina Jacobson will produce the first feature, with more to possibly follow. Carla Hacken is overseeing the film's development for the studio.

Author/illustrator Kinney's first two books, last spring's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and February's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules," both hit No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list, with the first book staying there for 45 weeks. The author launched his underdog hero's story on Funbrain.com in 2004, attracting more than 50 million visits from fans.

Fox 2000 young adult book scout Riley Ellis met with Kinney a year ago and brought in the project, helping make the rights deal with agent Sylvie Rabineau and attorney Keith Fleer. The studio is currently seeking a director and screenwriter for the project.

"I do think that they really captured the spirit," Black said in an interview. "They really got the family dynamics. They really got the character dynamics. When Jared comes on screen, and he hits the front of the car with a stick, it just gave me chills. I was like, 'That's Jared. That's my boy.'"

Black wrote the text of the books, while DiTerlizzi drew the illustrations. They share authorial credit because of their close collaboration on the story, which follows the Grace family as they move into a new home and discover that there are mythical creatures living all around them. DiTerlizzi and Black also received executive-producer credits on the film and were consulted every step of the way.

"I think we made it clear that we [made] the books; we [weren't] going to tell [the producers] how to make a movie," DiTerlizzi said in the same interview. "That mindset--and it probably stems from us having such a collaborative give-and-take relationship--I think that allowed us to be able to swim amongst a highly collaborative project." Black added: "We actually did get to see all the scripts and give our feedback and give our thoughts, and they listened to us. And when they agreed with us, hopefully we were in some ways useful."

Both DiTerlizzi and Black were especially pleased with the film's production designer, James Bissell, whose previous work includes 300 and Good Night, and Good Luck. They said that his designs incorporated the important themes of the book in creative and subtle ways. "James Bissel is amazing," DiTerlizzi said. "I gave him everything that I looked at and used as reference, both for the sets and for the creatures. And then he was seeing stuff that you almost don't even think about it. [In] Spiderwick, one of the thematic elements is kind of man rubbing up against nature, if you take the stance that the fairies are kind of spirits of ... nature or what have you. So Jim was like, 'Oh, I've got oak-leaf motifs in the house.' The newel posts on the staircases all have acorns and stuff. So he was able to integrate it in ways that you just can't [illustrate]."

A story based on the Three Little Pigs fairy tale has been turned down by a government agency's awards panel as the subject matter could offend Muslims. The digital book, re-telling the classic story, was rejected by judges who warned that "the use of pigs raises cultural issues". Becta, the government's educational technology agency, is a leading partner in the annual Bett Award for schools.

The judges also attacked Three Little Cowboy Builders for offending builders. The book's creative director, Anne Curtis, said the idea that including pigs in a story could be interpreted as racism was "like a slap in the face".

The CD-Rom digital version of the traditional story of the three little pigs, called Three Little Cowboy Builders, is aimed at primary school children. But judges at this year's Bett Award said that they had "concerns about the Asian community and the use of pigs raises cultural issues".

The Three Little Cowboy Builders has already been a prize winner at the recent Education Resource Award -- but its Newcastle-based publishers, Shoo-fly, were turned down by the Bett Award panel. The feedback from the judges explaining why they had rejected the CD-Rom highlighted that they "could not recommend this product to the Muslim community". They also warned that the story might "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)".

As a boy, author/illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi was told he "had a weird imagination." At a recent preview of the movie based on The Spiderwick Chronicles, the best-selling series DiTerlizzi wrote with Holly Black, he said, "This exceeds my boyhood imagination by miles." The five-book series about a family's battle with trolls, ogres and goblins has sold 4 million copies.

The movie, which stars Freddie Highmore and opens Feb. 15, may be scarier than the books. "When you read about an ogre, somehow it seems less scary than seeing it up on the big screen," DiTerlizzi says. But Black says, "You never know what's going to scare kids." One 6-year-old reader "thought the scariest thing was the part about the parents' divorce."

Amazon spokesman Craig Berman said Amazon wants to take the book on tour to libraries and schools, though the company doesn't yet have detailed plans. Amazon representatives did not disclose where the book is being stored. One of the book's five original stories, "The Tale of the Three Brothers" is told in the final "Harry Potter" novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

" 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' is really a distillation of the themes found in the 'Harry Potter' books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years," Rowling said in a prepared statement. Rowling said the six other copies of the "Beedle" books have been given to people who were closely connected to the "Harry Potter" collection.

"Purchasing this book with the proceeds going to charity does, in a real tangible way, say thank you to J.K. Rowling for what she's done for readers around the world," Berman said. Rowling said she'd donate the proceeds to The Children's Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.

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Almost 2 out of 3 Americans, or 63%, said they were more inclined to side with writers in their dispute with major studios, according to a survey by Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business Management that is scheduled to be released today. Writers went on strike last week amid disputes over pay when their work is distributed on the Internet and via cellphones and other new-media devices.

*****

Smith said the public support could wane if the strike disrupted consumers' TV viewing habits. Though several shows have stopped shooting, viewers won't notice much change until early next year, when reruns, sports and reality shows replace scripted programs. When asked about the prospect of reruns replacing new shows, 42% of the respondents said they would read more, and 35% said they would spend more time on the Internet.

There will be just seven volumes of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and they will not be published. One copy will be auctioned to raise money for her charity, The Children's Voice, and the author will give away the rest of them. She said the books were a "wonderful way" to say goodbye to Potter. "People kept saying to me 'you'll be glad to have a break from writing', when of course I wasn't taking a break at all," added the writer.

"I was literally writing out - as these are handwritten books - these new stories which has been a wonderful way to say goodbye. It's like coming up from a deep dive." The fairytales, which were illustrated by Rowling herself, are the first works she has written since the Potter novel was published in July. The Tales of Beedle the Bard was left to Potter character Hermione by Hogwarts school headmaster Dumbledore.

"I plotted out the `Inheritance' series as a trilogy nine years ago, when I was 15. At that time, I never imagined I'd write all three books, much less that they would be published," Paolini said in a statement.

"When I finally delved into Book Three, it soon became obvious that the remainder of the story was far too big to fit in one volume. ... In order to be true to my characters and to address all of the plot points and unanswered questions Eragon and Eldest raised, I needed to split the end of the series into two books."

After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members. She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love." "Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause. She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."

Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy." "Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction." Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction. Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.

*****

Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.

Don't wait for September. Start reading celebrating your freedom to read now! Read one or all the top 10 most frequently challenged books of 2006. Number one on this list, challenged for promoting homosexuality, is Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell's award-winning And Tango Makes Three, about two male penguins parenting an egg from a mixed-sex penguin couple. Also on the list are The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler; two books by Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye and Beloved; Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher; and The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier.

Display your support for the freedom to read with ALA's Banned Books Week materials.

Take the time to reflect that the First Amendment, intellectual freedom, and the freedom to read should not be taken for granted.

Join the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, and the Newberry Library in Pioneer Plaza, at Michigan Ave. and the Chicago River, on Saturday, September 29, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., for the Banned Books Week Read-Out! Local Chicago celebrities join several acclaimed authors to read passages from their favorite banned and "challenged" books. Authors scheduled to appear include Chris Crutcher, Robie Harris, Carolyn Mackler, Peter Parnell, and Justin Richardson.

Organize your own Banned Books Read-Out! at your school, public library, or favorite bookstore.

Mount these Web badges on your blogs and home pages to help spread the word about BBW.

Join IFAN, the Intellectual Freedom Action Network, a grassroots, ad hoc group of volunteers who have identified themselves as willing to come forward in support of the freedom to read in censorship controversies in their communities.

Dedicate one day's programming on your National Public Radio (NPR) station to Banned Books Week. For example, "Today's programming on [the name of the radio station] is made possible in part by [your name], who is celebrating this Banned Books Week by re-reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings [or another favorite banned or challenged book] or by accomplishing some other activity related to the week.

Reread one of your favorite books. Chances are, it's on the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.

Write or call your representatives and let them know you want them to protect your freedom to read and your privacy.

Join or support an intellectual freedom advocate, such as the Freedom to Read Foundation, the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, or the Intellectual Freedom Round Table.

BBW is a celebration of our freedom to read, to seek, hold, receive, and disseminate ideas, even if they are unorthodox or unpopular. Help spread the word! Encourage your friends and colleagues to celebrate their freedom to read. It's one of our most important democratic freedoms!

"It's very well-written and the love story appeals to a lot of people -- young adults and adults as well," said Sarah Harkins, district marketing manager for Borders, Inc. Much like Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling's rags-to-riches story, Meyer's life took a fairy tale turn. Four years ago, she was a stay-at-home mother of three with no writing experience. Then one night, she had a fateful dream about a vampire's confession of love to a girl.

"It was a sweet, kind of tender moment," said Meyer, recounting the dream. "But there was this dark side to it because he was also admitting how much he had wanted to kill her from the first day he met her." That dream would eventually become chapter 13 in her first bestseller, "Twilight." A sequel, "New Moon," would follow. Meyer's themes are admittedly dark, but she says her books are about life, not death -- love, not lust.

In fact, this devout Mormon is a self-described "chicken," too squeamish to sit through gory vampire movies or even read Bram Stoker's "Dracula." "My books are all completely coward-proof. If you're frightened, you can still read them," she said. Meyer has sold more than a million-and-a-half copies of her three books and is writing at least two more novels. But she downplays the obvious Harry Potter comparisons.

Best-selling youth author R.L. Stine told SCI FI Wire that he will write a dozen more titles in his popular Goosebumps series, which last appeared in 2000 with the 87th book, "Ghost in the Mirror." In the novellas, which blend humor, horror and sometimes SF, teenage heroes and heroines battle and ultimately triumph over a wide array of creepy creatures.

"I took a break from scaring kids, but now I'm getting back into that," Stine said in an interview while promoting the Sept. 4 release of the direct-to-DVD title R.L. Stine's Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It. "I've just signed a contract to write 12 new Goosebumps books for Scholastic."

The new series, revealed the author, will be called Goosebumps: HorrorLand. "It's a theme park," Stine said. "I'm thrilled. I love doing Goosebumps. It's been a long time. It's my favorite series. So I'm really looking forward to it." The first Goosebumps: HorrorLand title, "Revenge of the Living Dummy," will be released in April 2008.

Fox 2000 has paid seven figures to win a bidding war for the film rights to "The Passage," a partial manuscript intended as a trilogy for Ridley Scott to produce, via his Scott Free banner, and possibly direct. Ballantine Books picked up the book in a heated auction during the Fourth of July holiday, forking out $3.75 million for North American rights. Jordan Ainsley was the name on the manuscript, but it turned out to be a pseudonym for Justin Cronin, a literary novelist whose book of stories "Mary and O'Neil" won the Pen/Hemingway Award as well as the Stephen Crane Prize for debut fiction.

"Passage," a postapocalyptic vampire story set in 2016, is a departure for Cronin. The dark tale revolves around a U.S. government project gone awry that turns a group of experimental subjects -- condemned inmates plucked from death row -- into highly infectious vampires. Meanwhile, an orphan named Amy discovers that she has unusual powers, seemingly related to the crisis that quickly overtakes civilized society. Ballantine plans to publish the book in summer 2009.

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"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" broke sales records in the U.S and in Britain during it first 24 hours on the market. According to the publisher, Scholastic Corporation, the seventh and final book of the series written by J.K. Rowling sold 8.3 million copies in the U.S. on Saturday (July 21st) and 2.65 million copies in Britain.

*****

The Harry Potter series has sold more than 325 million books worldwide since 1997, making it the biggest children's book series ever, according to Bloomberg, a financial information network. The new book topped last year's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" as the fastest-selling book in history.

Children throughout the country will be going to bed early tonight after sacrificing a whole night’s sleep to discover whether Harry Potter lives or dies.

Thunder and lightning failed to deter people from standing in line outside book shops yesterday for the biggest event in publishing history. Readers who were allowed to get their first glimpse of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallowswere presented with a dilemma familiar from their last midnight vigil: whether to plough through the book from the beginning or skip straight to the epilogue.

J. K. Rowling was expected personally to give 1,700 people their first taste of the book as she read extracts of the final Harry Potter book at a moonlight signing at the Natural History Museum. Queues stretched for hundreds of metres outside Waterstones in Piccadilly, Central London, as fans awaited the witching hour - one minute past midnight - when they would be able to take their first look at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

*****

A study by the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, showed that the number of children aged 7-15 attending casualty wards fell from an average of 67 to 37 when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on July 16, 2005

The ChildLine charity estimates that call volumes will triple over the weekend as hundreds ring in grief for characters killed in the book

Cinema managers predict that attendances at family orientated films will drop by 20 per cent as children stay at home with Potter

Photos of what appeared to be every page of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the breathlessly awaited seventh and final installment in the wildly popular series by J.K. Rowling, were circulating around the Web today, potentially upsetting the most elaborate marketing machine ever mobilized for a book.

Various file-sharing Web sites were carrying what looked like amateur photographs of each pair of facing pages of the book, which officially goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning. The pictures show the book laid out on a green and red-flecked looped carpet with somebody's fingers holding it open. Some of the photos make the text difficult to read, but the ending is definitely legible.

Kyle Good, a spokeswoman for Scholastic, the book's United States publisher, said that she was aware of at least three different versions of the file "that look very convincing" with what she described as "conflicting content." In a court filing on Monday, Scholastic sought "materials hosted on Photobucket.com's system" that it said might violate the book's copyright, Bloomberg News reported today. Photobucket is a unit of the News Corporation.

In addition, Bloomberg said, Scholastic sent a subpoena to Gaia Interactive in San Jose asking the identity of someone who had posted a copy of the book on Gaia's social networking Web site, gaiaonline.com. A spokesman for Gaia told Bloomberg that it had complied with the subpoena, turned the name over to Scholastic, removed the material and banned the user from the site.

Written by U.K. author Angie Sage, the series revolves around two babies that are switched at birth: one a boy who discovers his birthright as the seventh son of a seventh son, and who is destined to become a powerful wizard; the other a girl who is fated to become a princess.

So far, three books have been published -- "Magyk," "Flyte" and "Physik" -- which have become known for their clever use of charms and potions as well as for their sense of humor.

Published in March 2005 by HarperCollins Children's Books, "Magyk" debuted at No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list and moved to No. 1 in its second week on sale. The subsequent books have been published yearly since, and more than 1 million books have been sold in the U.S. so far. The series also is a huge international success, having been translated into 28 languages. "Septimus Heap: Magyk" will be produced by Karen Rosenfelt ("The Devil Wears Prada") with Sage as executive producer.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling broke down in tears while writing the final book of the boy wizard's adventures, echoing the feelings of many fans as they await the end of the series.

"I was in a hotel room on my own, I was sobbing my heart out, I downed half a bottle of champagne from the mini-bar in one and went home with mascara all over my face," Rowling, 41, said in a BBC interview to be broadcast today.

The final novel in the seven-book series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be published on July 21. Advance orders made it online bookseller Amazon.com Inc.'s U.K. top- seller eight hours after the title was revealed in a puzzle on Rowling's Web site Dec. 21. The novels have all been No. 1 best- sellers, spawning movies, audio books and computer games.

Commenting on speculation that the final word of the book is "Scar," Rowling said, "Scar? It was so for ages, and now it's not. Scar is quite near the end, but it's not the last word." Harry's friend Hermione Granger is based on Rowling as a child. "I was quite swotty as a child," but Harry is a totally imaginary character, she said. Ron Weasley, another of Harry's friends, is "a lot like my oldest friend Sean," she said.

Rowling said last year that two characters die in the final book, leading many people to speculate that she may have decided to kill off the central character.

"What J.K. Rowling loves most is to talk with her readers, and that is what she will be able to do on this very special U.S. tour," Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic Trade and Book Fairs, said Thursday in a statement. Rowling's seventh and final Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," comes out July 21, but will surely remain deep in her fans' hearts when she arrives in the United States in October.

On Oct. 15, she will read at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, followed three days later by an appearance at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, then two readings Oct. 19 at New York's Carnegie Hall. Rowling, 41, will take questions at each of the readings and sign books.

Don't bother rushing for tickets. For three of the readings, Scholastic will pick schools to send children. For the fourth reading, at Carnegie Hall, 1,000 fans will be chosen from a Scholastic sweepstakes, with each winner receiving two passes.

The Shannara series, which blends technology and magic, is set in a world decimated by apocalyptic battles, with mankind splitting into races of trolls, gnomes, dwarves and men, with elves coming out of hiding. Politics and war are waged using magic with a backdrop of the skeletal remains of skyscrapers and subways.

The first book, "The Sword of Shannara," was published by Random House in 1977, written by Brooks to stave off boredom brought on by entering law school. The book was the first fantasy book to get on, and then top, the New York Times best-seller list.

Brooks wrote more than a dozen books in the series, most recently 2005's "Straken." The studio is eyeing the second book, "The Elfstones of Shannara," as the book most likely to serve as the jumping off point. Writers are now being sought to adapt.

Del Rey Manga, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, announced today that it has acquired an original graphic novel starring Odd Thomas, perhaps the most memorable and beloved character Dean Koontz has ever created. The charismatic young fry cook from Pico Mundo, California has appeared in three New York Times bestselling novels: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, and Brother Odd, which was one of Koontz's fastest-selling hardcovers. Odd, who has the ability to communicate with the dead, has inspired more readers' letters than any other of his characters, according to Koontz.

Koontz's characters-including Odd, his girlfriend Stormy Llewellyn, Pico Mundo Chief of Police Porter, the ghost of Elvis Presley, and many more-will be drawn by one of the top original-English-language manga artists working today, Queenie Chan. Chan, author of the popular mystery-horror series The Dreaming, will script the story as well. Publication is planned for Summer 2008.

The graphic novel will follow Odd's race to solve the murder of a young boy whose killer appears to be stalking a second child. It is set in the time before Odd Thomas and takes place in Pico Mundo. The book will be edited by Del Rey editor-in-chief Betsy Mitchell. Says Dean Koontz: "I'm delighted that Odd Thomas will come to life in manga, that the enormously talented Queenie Chan's beautiful art will define his world and the desert town of Pico Mundo, and that the project is being guided by such capable hands as those at Del Rey."

Queenie Chan comments: "It's an honor to work with Dean on this project, and I'm glad he's chosen me for this new story of Odd Thomas. I read his novels when I was in high school, and never did I imagine that I would have the chance to work with such a well-known and established author today."

Michael Crichton's bestselling novel "The Andromeda Strain" will be coming to the small screen, as brothers Tony and Ridley Scott have signed on to produce a four-hour mini-series based on the book. The series is expected to begin production this summer. Mikael Soloman is set to direct the A and E series. Robert Schenkkan adapted the story. The series is expected to begin production this summer. "The Andromeda Strain" is just one of many original series the A and E network plans to introduce. The network is expected to announce its plans to invest about $600 million in new projects this year, Variety said.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road is set during a nuclear winter. Two survivors walk south, breathing toxic air, seeking out the continent's last canned food while ducking bands of flesh-eaters. Describe it as "post-apocalyptic," as most critics did, or as a masterpiece of dystopian literature. Just don't call McCarthy's novel "science fiction."

Even when clearly appropriate, film studios and publishers avoid the phrase "science fiction." So do the novelists, film directors and editors in their employ. McCarthy's book, which is about to become a blockbuster -- Oprah Winfrey will tout it on an upcoming TV show as part of her book club -- is just another example of how the powers that be dodge the term, especially when it applies to "serious" fiction or cinema.

You won't find the words "science fiction" in Random House's bio of Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author China Miéville. Instead, h