Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on July 16

[VeeJay]

They're selling spoiler T-Shirts now!

***SPOILER IN THE LINK***
Do NOT click unless you want to know what happens at the end of the Half-Blood Prince.

Click here to see HBP Spoiler T-Shirt

How evil can you get?

[Aalydah]

I really loved the book! I couldnt even sleep! Im really sad and ive been reading theories and well I dont think Snape is......
Just my thoughts...

[r0guish]

Really loved this book. So much background information - It seems that JK is preparing us for one heck of a finale!

[haejin]

With Book 7, I'll probably order it from Amazon to be delivered on the release date and then stay inside and offline, with the TV off until I finish it!

Yes, except that my preordered copy didn't come until the Monday following the release date. I'm still a little bitter over that. Because I couldn't stand not being in the know, I spoiled myself before I read the book and robbed myself of probably all the fun I could've had while reading it.

[Harvest]

My library hold finally came in yesterday! Having started to read, I'll say my first comment is about the set-up of wizards' coming of age at 17, not 18. That sounds like an arbitrary decision not to continue the series for an extra year. I doubt she had that in mind from the very beginning. I call Shenanigans!

So far the book isn't as good as the first ones, so maybe being so rich and successful has impaired her abilities and made shortening the series by one book a blessing in disguise? I'll have to see if it gets better as the book progresses.

[RBmumsie]

Fred & George mentioned being "of age" in OoTP, when they got ready to leave Hogwarts (a truly lovely scene - especially Peeves salute). So, I don't think it's shenanigans - Harry turns 17 during the summer, but we still get a final book.

[Miss Filangi]

I kind of figured that making '17' the coming of age for wizards just was another example of the differences between the magic community and muggles. It's never bothered me.

[snow-phoenix]

[r0guish]

In response to Snow-Phoenix...

[chesara]

I don't know how to type things in secret - do you just change the font to white or something? But anyhoo, I don't think this is a spoiler because it's not fact, just rumor.

I remember reading a long time ago that JK Rowling made a comment that she would like to write other stuff beyond the Harry Potter series and if Harry lives, people would always press her to write more books in the series. Not an exact quote because like I said, it was a while back when the series first became popular.

I also remember reading something early on that she pretty much already had the whole story played out in her mind with story boards and notes and she knew even with the first book how she wanted to end the series. I'm hoping that with the unexpected popularity and legions of fans that the series has attracted that if she did have it in mind to kill him off when she first conceived of the series, that she will change her mind because that would just be too depressing to know that the only way good can pervail over evil is for good to be sacrificed.