The Harry Potter mania hits a feverish climax as the launch date for JK Rowling's last book in the series draws, reports The Wall Street Journal.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" flies into bookstores July 21, completing a 10-year run of consistent Potter frenzy.
That doesn't mean the hype begins and ends with Rowling's offerings, however. Rowling's work has spawned a "literary ecosystem" that includes countless critiques deconstructing Harry, as well spin-off novelty books, all fueled by massive online interest.
Harry Potter fan fiction also proliferates the Internet. These sites collectively generate hundreds of millions of pageviews month. Harrypotterfanfiction.com, for example, holds over 34,000 stories and enjoys some 40 million hits per month.
