Fifteen years have passed since J.K. Rowling published her first novel for children — Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (June 26, 1997), which was followed by six more Harry Potter adventures till 2007.
By the time the first generation of children who grew up reading her written wizardry became grown-ups, Rowling came up with her first book for adults — The Casual Vacancy , which was received well by the readers here.
The DC Books outlet here, which set aside a separately decorated area to exclusively showcase the much-awaited title from the best selling author, already sold 142 copies of the book.
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Enquiries
“We had buyers coming asking for the title from day one of the world release of the book on September 27,” T.T. Aneesh, manager (retail) of DC books, said. College-going youth and senior citizens alike make a beeline for a copy of the latest from Ms. Rowling. A. Prabheesh, a salesman said most of the customers belonged to the age group of 19 to 25. “We had many students from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM-K) and the National Institute of Technology (NIT-C) asking for the title.
However, not all the book shops in the city had the same story to tell. “Though we kept some copies of the title, there were only a few takers,” said a salesman at Cosmo Books here.
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Meeting demand
“We only sold a few copies though we expected more,” said a salesman from TBS.
Interestingly, all online bookshops, including Flipkart and HomeShop18, are also selling copies of the title like hot cake. The face value of the hardbound book is Rs.850. While the retail bookshops are giving it for a discounted price of Rs.800, the online bookshops are selling it for Rs.560 to Rs.600.
Can’t wait
“But not all people would want to buy it online since they cannot afford to wait for a week till the book is shipped to them,” Mr. Prabheesh said.