Harry Potter Mania (and possible spoiler?)

With each new book the mania seems to escalate. Remember the good old days when all you had to worry about was Harry Potter getting some impressionable kid into witchcraft? These days Harry Potter has grown-ups gambling and gun fighting!

Tight security over the book's release has led to some attempts to bust the embargo. London tabloid the Sun reported that thieves offered to sell it a purloined copy of the book three weeks ago, and that when its reporter arrived gunfire broke out. Two men were arrested. The Sun said it had planned to turn the book over to authorities, and Rowling has since obtained a legal injunction barring anyone from violating the embargo in England.

Earlier, British bookmakers suspended bets on which character would be killed off in the new book after they noticed a flurry of bets on Professor Dumbledore from gamblers in Bungay in Suffolk, where the book is being printed, suggesting details had leaked out.