Whimsic Alley, a Potter merchandise store located in Santa Monica, California, is one of the coolest places to shop for Potter in the world. So cool, in fact, that they are asking fans ages 8 to 14 to come out on May 18th to be interviewed on their love for the Potter books.

The interviews are being recorded for a special project that cannot be announced yet, but they can say JK Rowling herself will be watching some of the interviews at a later date. For more information, check out their website! Best of luck to all you kids who participate.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone originally appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list back in December of 1998. The impact of Potter's popularity led the NYT to creating two new lists so other titles could make the list other than Jo's stories.

Now, almost ten years later, the May 11th edition of The Sunday New York Times will be free of any Potter novel. Check out the NYT's Book Blog for more.

Once JK Rowling's Potter Encyclopedia is released, we're sure Potter will make a comeback. Thanks to Pruneau for the tip!

The Harry Potter book series has once again won Favorite Book at the 2008 Kids Choice Awards. As most of you probably know, Potter has repeatedly won the award for Favorite Book in past years.

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed with the tip!

The CBS Early Show will be doing a piece on the growing sport of Quidditch on college campuses across the country this Friday morning. As previously reported in USA Today, Quidditch is becoming a very popular sport among college students and now the school that began it all, Middlebury College, is going on an eight-school tour during their spring break recess.

Starting tomorrow, they will be at Amherst College in Amherst, MA and that is where the CBS Early Show will be broadcasting from.

All the merchandise seen in the piece, including broomsticks, house ties and scarves, was provided by our partner Alivan's.

UPDATE: CBS News has posted video from today's earlier broadcast, which'll show you how to play. Check it out here! Thanks to everyone who e-mailed with the tip.

As mentioned previously and as many of you are well aware, J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. are involved in an ongoing lawsuit with RDR Books over a companion novel seeking publication by Harry Potter Lexicon owner Steve Vander Ark. The Associated Foreign Press is reporting this evening that Jo is expected to appear in court in New York City next month.

A New York Federal District Court Judge ordered today that the case go to trial beginning April 14th and Rowling's presence has been requested by RDR Books.

"We asked for her and they said they would provide her," said lawyer David Hammer. "I would say it would be very unlikely that she would not appear," he added.

The witness list must be submitted by April 4th. We will keep you posted as this story continues to develop. Thanks to Matt for sending this in!

As if anyone needed to tell us this, MTV published an article earlier today about research concluding that the Harry Potter series can in fact be addicting. The story notes:

In a just-finished study that's being submitted to the Journal of General Psychology, psych professor Dr. Jeffrey Rudski and two of his undergrad students at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, report that they found characteristics of addiction in at least 10 percent of the 4,000 Potter fans they polled online.

While the doctor discusses that the end of the series did have serious withdrawal symptons for some, likening it to going off a drug "cold turkey," he also said he chose to do the study on the end of the boy wizard's saga over the conclusion of the hit series The Sopranos because of his 15-year old daughter and the things she's taken from it:

"She's picked up guitar because she wants to be in a wizard-rock band," he said. "She's studying Latin because she wants to better understand J.K. Rowling's choices of names for her characters. She started reading Stephen King and John Irving because they spoke with Rowling at Radio City two summers ago." If that's being an addict, he's down with it.

On December 13th, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a book written by JK Rowling for The Children's Voice charity, will be auctioned off by Sotheby's.

This morning, Good Morning America discussed the book and read a few pages of it.

Check out a video of this here. Thanks to HPANA.

According to BBC News, a survey conducted found that the Harry Potter novels are the most re-read books in the United Kingdom.

J.K. Rowling's series beat out JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which came in second and third place, respectively.

The survey also found that almost a fifth of readers read their favorite book more than five times and roughly 77% of UK readers re-read books overall.

You can now register for the Harry Potter conference, Accio 2008. The event will take place from July 25-27th in Magdalen College, Oxford, England.

According to its website, "Accio 2008 seeks to enhance the appreciation of J.K. Rowling’s novels as works of literature in her home country. Paper presentations, roundtables, moderated panels, debates and workshops will evoke a lively, interesting and thoughtful discussion on the changes the Harry Potter novels have already made to our world, and on the potential for the novels to have a lasting influence."

Another set of JK Rowling's autographed Harry Potter books has been put up for auction by the National Braille Press today for the Hands On! Books for Blind Children charity. This organization "strive[s] to eliminate the literacy gap that separates blind children from the mainstream." The auction will continue until October 25, 2007 at 9:00 PM EDT and on the next day it will be featured live at the gala hosted by The Tonight Show's Jay Leno beginning at 7 PM and ending at 9 PM.

Previously we told you that JK Rowling had agreed donate and auction a signed set of her beloved series for Books Abroad, a charity that seeks to "help to educate children worldwide by sending free school books that are carefully chosen to match the need of each school." Earlier today at midnight the auction on eBay had closed with the winning bid at £18,200, or $37,100 with the starting offer at £100. To prevent the books from being stolen, they were locked in a jail prior to the auction. Books Abroad said they currently "don't have any specific use (for the money) in mind."

BBC News is reporting that the first complete signed set of Potter books is now up for auction to benefit a charity named Books Abroad:

All of the books have been signed by the author JK Rowling and are so valuable that they are being kept in an Aberdeenshire police station.

They will be auctioned off on eBay in aid of local charity Books Abroad which supplies books to children in 80 countries worldwide.

The Potter books are expected to raise at least £20,000.

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed with the tip!

Scholastic, the US publisher of the books, today announced the launch of the J.K. Rowling and the Open Book Tour Sweepstakes on July 30th. One thousand lucky fans will be selected in a sweepstakes and will receive a pair of tickets to Jo's reading at Carnegie Hall on Friday, October 19th.

To enter: Print out and complete an entry form available at www.scholastic.com/harrypotter or by printing your name, home address, and phone number on a sheet of paper and mailing the entry to:

Scholastic
Attn: J.K. Rowling and the Open Book Tour Sweepstakes
557 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

Entries must be received by August 31st, 2007, and are limited to one each person.

Good luck!

For the past two days, fans have been lining up outside Waterstones Piccadilly Circus where MuggleNet staffers/MuggleCast co-hosts Andrew Sims, Kevin Steck, Jamie Lawrence, Eric Scull, and Laura Thompson will be podcasting from tonight, as part of the many REALLY superb festivities in their massive Book Seven release party!

We've compiled a video with footage from so-far, including several burly Waterstones staffers loading boxes of the books in through the back door of the six-story shop! Set to the video is "The Final Countdown" by Europe. There are no spoilers in the clip.

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Official Concept Art:
Hogwarts | Hogsmeade | Owl's View of Park | Logo

Latest Developments (10 AM EST):
- Official park website now open; visitors can sign up for e-mail updates.
- JK Rowling: "The plans I’ve seen look incredibly exciting, and I don’t think fans of the books or films will be disappointed."

Universal Studios and Warner Brothers made a joint announcement this evening from Leavesden Studios on the set of Dumbledore's Office to reveal that a Harry Potter theme park is currently in development. The image to the left is the first piece of concept art for the park: Hogsmeade Village.

Here's what we learned from Potter set designer Stuart Craig and a representative from Universal Studios (both of them hosted the big reveal):

- "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort"
- Announcement was made live via internet at 12:01 AM EST today to select media, including MuggleNet.
- Areas of park to include Hogsmeade, Hogwarts Castle, and the Forbidden Forest.
- 20 engineers working on project.
- Universal came to WB looking for authenticity.
- Potter park to be built in "Islands of Adventure" area of Universal.
- Stuart wants to "take his grandchildren" to the park.
- Opening early 2010.
- Universal's Potter website to be available at this link.
- JK Rowling has been involved "since the very beginning" of the project. Also "supportive and encouraging."
- Stuart thinks that the park will be better off in the United States.
- Have been in design "for at least a year and a half."
- "Important that the theme park represents the entire saga from Book 1 to Book 7"

In a rather cute way to end the announcement, the Universal representative asks Stuart Craig, "Now where's Dumbledore?" Stuart paused for a moment, looked around the office, and replied, "He was just here."

We'll be discussing these developments on this week's episode of MuggleCast (due out over the weekend). This post will be updated frequently as we learn more!

A judge in Gwinnett County, Georgia ruled on Tuesday that the Potter books can stay in school libraries (after local concerned parent Laura Mallory tried once again to have them banned from schools and libraries). After all of these attempts in court, Mallory has finally admitted she may "need a whole new case from the ground up."

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed with the tip!

The Guardian is reporting tonight that Great Britain will be releasing a series of Harry Potter stamps, with each depicting a book cover, to coincide with the release of Deathly Hallows. The stamps will be available beginning on July 17th.

Warner Brothers has announced that the popular 20Q game will be released with Harry Potter answers later this year. The game works by asking the player 20 questions. Once all of them are answered, the system tries to guess what person, place, or thing the person is thinking.

Radica, the company behind the game, is asking Potter fans to help train the system by visiting their official website and clicking on "Harry Potter" at the top. Go here to get started!

AbeBooks.com has commenced a new contest that asks for your best Potter poetry. The winner will receive a very cool bookshelf that is sculpted entirely from UK Potter books! From the website:

To enter the contest, we want you to compose a poem dedicated to Harry Potter. It can be anything from a limerick to a haiku to a love poem to an elegy to a sonnet. Be creative - the finest poem about the Boy Wizard will win and we'll also publish the best ones on AbeBooks. There is no limitation on length. You can enter up to three times separately but each entry must contain just one poem.

The deadline to enter is July 6th, and the winner will be announced on July 10th. Good luck to everyone who enters!

Thanks to Richard for pointing out this new listing on Barnes & Noble's website promoting an upcoming box set of all seven Harry Potter novels.

Due to be released on September 18th (according to B&N's website), the books will be enclosed in this cool case that includes a privacy lock and a sticker set. You can see what it looks like while opened right here (and we doubt that's a real copy of Deathly Hallows, but it's cool to see it with the rest of 'em).

The listing price is $195 but Barnes & Noble has a discounted preorder of $136.50. We hope to have more details soon!