Excited fans dressed up as wizards

The fastest-selling book ever up to this week was the sixth Harry Potter book The Half-Blood Prince. However, author J. K. Rowling has broken her own record as the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series is officially the fastest-selling book in the world.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was finally released at midnight in the UK on Friday 20th July. Fans, dressed as characters from the books, lined up outside book shops hours in advance of the book going on sale.

One well-known book store in the UK claimed to have sold 15 copies of the bookpersecond in the early hours of Saturday morning. The book sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of its release, breaking the 9 million record set by the sixth Harry Potter book.

Book shops and supermarkets competed with each other by offering bigdiscountson the book from its recommended retail price.

Author J. K. Rowling readexcerptsfrom the book in a special midnight reading in London at the Natural History Museum. She then went on to sign copies of the book for the rest of the night for the 500-strongcrowd who had been specially invited to the event.

It wasn't just in the UK where the frenzyto buy the book took place. In Hong Kong book shop staff dressed aswizards. In Australia special "magic" breakfasts wereservedto customers buying the book. In Indiacustoms officesworked on a Friday, which is a holiday there,to ensurepeople got the bookon time.

It's been a wholedecadesince the first Harry Potter book was released. Since then, 325 million books have been sold and Harry Potter has becomea global phenomenon. The latest book is being released in 93 countries.

Author J. K. Rowlinghintedin advance that some of the characters do not survive a final meeting with the Dark Lord Voldemort.

But it's not up to BBC Learning Englishto spoil the plotfor you all. Have fun reading the book in your own time. But don't tell us what happens - we haven't read it yet!

GLOSSARY 词汇表 (收听发音, 请单击英语单词)  

broken her own record 刷新本人创下的纪录	officially 官方的
released 发行	per 每一（本）
competed 竞争	discounts 折扣
recommended retail price 标定零售价	excerpts 节选
Natural History Museum 自然历史博物馆	500-strong 500多
frenzy 疯狂（抢购）	wizards 巫师
served 提供服务	customs offices 海关部门
to ensure 保证	on time 准时
decade 十个年头	a global phenomenon 全球热
hinted 暗示	to spoil the plot 提前透露故事情节

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