‘Harry Potter’ Is Back — and So Is the Bookstore Hoopla We Haven’t Seen Since 2007

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CAPTAIN ROGER FENTON 9th.WEST MIDDLESEX VRC

On Saturday night, bookstores across the country will do something they haven’t done in a long while: Fling open their doors to host late-night parties for masses of Muggles looking to get their Harry Potter fix.

The last time booksellers were revving the hype machine for a new title in J.K. Rowling’s wizarding series, the year was 2007. Borders still existed. So did Waldenbooks and B. Dalton. Amazon was months away from releasing the first Kindle e-reader.

Now, even as the business has changed dramatically, the splashy sales expectations for Harry and friends have not: Barnes & Noble and Amazon each say that “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is their most pre-ordered book since the last Potter installment, and Barnes & Noble projects it will be the chain’s biggest-selling title of the year.