More of Mr Potter’s Magic

Last night I was in the downtown bookstore to pick up some stuff for travel planning, and I glanced over at their bestseller rack. Number one was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In English. The German edition won’t come out until October.

The best-selling book in the store is in a foreign language. That’s some powerful enchantment, Ms Rowling.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 10:14 am and is filed under A Fistful Of Euros, Europe and the world, Germany, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. Mrs Tilton Says:
   July 31st, 2007 at 5:25 pm

   I believe you are in Munich, Doug. At the Munich Hugendubel, all those books in German are surely in a foreign language too?

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3. The Czech Daily Word Says:
   August 1st, 2007 at 9:21 am

   In Brno, Czech Republic, the English version of this bestseller is burried among other English-language books, like Christie, Townsend, Clancy…etc. As if there were no English-speaking fans of HP at all….

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5. StefanoC Says:
   August 1st, 2007 at 10:39 am

   Same in Italy.

   Here is the bestsellers list of Feltrinelli, a large (for Italy) bookstore chain:
   http://www.lafeltrinelli.it/istituzionale/classifiche/index.aspx?s=39

   Only, the Italian book market is so limited (12% of households don’t even own a single book!) that a few thousand copies are probably enough to become #1

6. Doug Says:
   August 1st, 2007 at 10:40 am

   Mrs T, printed Bairisch is so rare that it pleases the people here not to regard German as a foreign language. Ja mei.

7. Doug Says:
   August 2nd, 2007 at 9:22 am

   Thanks, StefanoC!

   I’m sure the Munich list is small numbers, too, compared with TV or radio, but even so. I can’t imagine, say, a French-language book becoming the #1 bestseller in the UK, or Spanish-language in the US.

8. Cássio Says:
   August 4th, 2007 at 1:52 pm

   I live in Brazil, a country that reads 2 books per capita per year (France, for example, reads 10). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the top selling book in the country this week. I suppose that this some of Ms. Rowling magic, mixed to some of the Italian explanation that Stefano gives us.

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