A thousand pages of Harry Potter
January 15, 2003 (4:41 PM) ( link )

So both Reuters and AP report that the new Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) is coming out June 21 (the weekend after my birthday!).

What's most noteworthy about this fifth book is that it is one-third longer than the fourth book. The publisher claims the book will be only 768 pages long, but clearly the text has shrunk; if the text were the same size as in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the book would be almost a thousand pages long (976, to be exact).

That's insane. But I suppose it makes sense if J.K. Rowling's goal is to escalate the book for the growing age of her readers. This is a lot more like a hefty young adult novel than a children's book. Perhaps by the time the seventh book comes around, we can expect a multi-volume angst-filled epic.