On Saturday, I bought Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at CostCo. On leaving, the checker told me that I had bought the 887th copy at that store. This was 1pm, three hours after opening, so they were selling at the rate of five per minute.

I started reading it last night. After two chapters, when I had seen far too many references to earlier books that I didn't recall, I decided that it was time to re-read the earlier books. I'm a fast reader, but I don't retain material very well.

In the first chapter of the first book, I came across an ironically prophetic statement, made by Professor McGonagall as she and Professor Dumbledore are leaving Baby Moses, er, Harry on the Dursleys's doorstep:

He'll be famous -- a legend -- I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future -- there will be books written about Harry -- every child in our world will know his name!

This of course was written when J.K. Rowling was an unknown, when the thought of her being a millionaire, much less a billionaire, was unthinkable.