Potter produces plethora of interest in books

Only a few more hours for hardcore Harry Potter fans to wait till they can buy the long-awaited fifth volume by bestselling children’s author J.K. Rowling. In Iowa City, book-buyer Jan Weissmiller at the Prairie Lights bookstore says they’ve arrived, but the bookstores just can’t sell them till midnight Friday. Though it caters to serious readers and features many Iowa authors, Weissmiller says the small Iowa City shop has plenty of fans of the Harry Potter books. Kids as young as seven read them, as well as adults, and though she’s a bookbuyer for the store Weissmiller admits she herself hasn’t read any of the Harry Potter books. Bowing to popular demand, the shop’s one of hundreds around the country that will hold evening parties to celebrate the book’s release. They’ll open at midnight and parents are setting their kids’ alarm clocks, planning to bring them down for treats and balloons. Weissmiller says Prairie Lights ordered 500 copies of the new book, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” and she fears that won’t be enough to meet their demand. The long-awaited fifth installment of the wildly popular Potter series has generated lots of security, with guards posted at book warehouses around the country.