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Not so wild about Harry
Is the near-ubiquitous image of Harry Potter beginning to grate a bit? If so, you're not alone. The cheery wizard-in-training may be a literary and box-office bonanza, but there are those who'd like to replace his lightning-bolt scar with a bullseye. Austrian Alois Gmeiner even went so far as to launch an "Anti-Harry Potter hotline," where callers are invited to leave tirades after the tone. "It's the hype surrounding Harry Potter that gets on my nerves," Gmeiner told journalists. He plans to collect and publish the messages.
The buzz of activity was higher than usual aboard a Carnival cruise ship due to leave Miami for the Caribbean last Sunday. Departure was delayed for three hours after the discovery of 160 bees, smuggled aboard in bottles, allegedly for "medicinal" purposes. Officials became suspicious when six passengers repeatedly left and reboarded. They ultimately were removed, a loss of vacation that must have stung.
Palm Digital Media, the leading distributor and publisher of eBooks for hand-held computers, sold almost 180,000 copies last year - a more than 40 percent increase over its total for 2000 - and almost doubled its revenue. Author Stephen King claimed four of the top 10 fiction spots. Here's Palm Inc.'s list of best-selling fiction titles:
1. "Dreamcatcher," Stephen King
2. "Timeline," Michael Crichton
3. "Riding the Bullet," Stephen King
4. "The Talisman," Stephen King and Peter Straub
5. "Black House," Stephen King and Peter Straub
6. "The Hades Factor," Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds
7. "Digital Fortress," Dan Brown
8. "Star Wars: Darth Maul: Saboteur," James Luceno
9. "K-Pax," Gene Brewer
10. "The Jupiter Theft," Donald Moffett
- PR Newswire
