Author JK Rowling and her books The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have ranked high in Amazon's authors and books of the decade lists.

On the "Top 10 best-selling books of the decade" list, Deathly Hallows took the number one spot, Half-Blood Prince followed in second place, and Beedle the Bard took sixth place.

JK Rowling ranks as the number one best selling author of the decade. She is followed by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, Julia Donaldson, and Terry Pratchett.

On a separate list, the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD ranked as the second best selling DVD behind Mamma Mia!

As we move toward 2010, The Telegraph is taking a look back at the top 100 books of the past decade. Coming in at No. 1 is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The entry reads:

If you don’t know what a Muggle is by now, you’re either Rip van Winkle or enormously stubborn. This is the seventh and final instalment in Rowling’s record-breaking series about Harry Potter, the world’s most famous lightning-scarred boy wizard and his tribulations with Lord Voldemort. We’ve seen Harry grow from a spindly, messy-haired 11-year-old into a heroic young adult. Children have grown up with him, finding in his battles metaphors for their own. This volume alone sold 15 million copies in the first 24 hours after it was published. Whether wickedly skewering suburbia, or bringing Harry, Ron and Hermione into mortal danger, Rowling is never less than absorbing. Some may sneer at her books, but they are triumphant sagas about the defeat of evil that tap into our basic hunger for stories. Most importantly, she makes reading a 700-page book seem easy. This one even has a quotation from Aeschylus as its epigraph. It stands as a cornerstone of the decade, a melding of high and low culture that appeals to all ages and nations.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came in at No. 41 on the top 100 films of the past decade list. Do you think Deathly Hallows deserves the top spot?

Thanks to Leaky!

J.K. Rowling donated an autographed U.S. deluxe edition Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book to the Little Auction that Could. Thanks to our friends at Snitch Seeker, we can now view pictures of the signed book here and here.

All proceeds from the eBay auction going on Nov. 6 through Nov. 29 will go to a shelter for abused and neglected children.

Amazon.com has announced that Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system is the first product to surpass Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in grossing pre-orders. From TG Daily:

"The launch of Windows 7 has superseded everyone's expectations, storming ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as the biggest grossing pre-order product of all-time at Amazon.co.uk, and demand is still going strong," says Brian McBride, Amazon UK MD.

Over the past three months, only Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol has sold more copies than Windows 7, which is an incredible achievement for a software product.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in paperback on July 7 and is now on USA Today's US Best Seller list at No. 2.

Here are the top 10 best sellers:

1. Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine by Glenn Beck
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
3. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
4. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
5. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
6. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
7. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
8. My Sister's Keeper: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
9. The Shack by William P. Young
10. Smoke Screen: A Novel by Sandra Brown

Thanks to Snitch Seeker!

The July issue of Nickelodeon Magazine has a cover story on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It includes new questions and answers with the cast, a Potter IQ test, and a new ad for Deathly Hallows paperback:

- Cover of Nick Magazine with Harry
- Half-Blood Prince feature (Page 1)
- Half-Blood Prince feature (Page 2)
- Deathly Hallows paperback ad

A rare copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, signed by JK Rowling, is being auction off by the Children With AIDS Charity. 85% of the proceeds from the book's auction will go towards helping CWAC continue to fight against paediatric HIV and AIDS within children.

Click here to see the signed book, and here to place your bid (bottom of the page).

You may remember that before we were told the seventh book would be called "Deathly Hallows," there were many domains for potential titles bought by WB or Jo which attempted to confuse Potter fans. In an interview with Melissa Anelli for Harry, a History, Jo concedes that "Hallows of Hogwarts" was one such title and that it was going to be the title of Book 7 for years. However, she adds that it was "wrong, just wrong."

On choosing "Deathly Hallows" as the title, some believed it Jo's way of getting back at those who had criticized her use of adverbs, to which JK responded, "yeah, about 12 adverbs in the final title. I love an adverb."

Scholastic has just announced that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released in paperback on July 7th, 2009 for $14.99.

The US book publisher also noted that over 14 million copies of Deathly Hallows have already been sold in the United States. From the press release:

“We have another big year planned for Harry,” said Ellie Berger, President of Trade, Scholastic. “As we look toward the tenth anniversary of the U.S. publication of J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel, we are thrilled to continue to bring Harry Potter to fans of all ages in new and exciting ways.”

Just a year after Deathly Hallows went on sale in the United States and United Kingdom, the final book in the Potter series went on sale today in Japan.

"I'm so excited I feel like crying. I'm totally enchanted," said a breathless young Japanese woman who gave her first name as Erina. She said she had waited outside the Tokyo bookstore since Tuesday afternoon.

"I feel sad that this is the end but since I've followed him throughout the years I will be seeing him out, and that comforts me," she said, wearing a blonde wig as Luna, one of the main characters.

July 21st, 2007 was the day we all began to read the final book in JK Rowling's tale of Harry Potter. Can you believe a year has already passed? MuggleNet held two live events; one in Chicago, one in London. 11 million copies were sold in the first 24 hours. And who can forget the much-criticized early review from the New York Times?

Share your thoughts about this one year anniversary in the comments! MuggleCast 154 will be released later today, where we'll discuss the release and the state of the fandom.

Thanks to MuggleNet reader Kevin for pointing out a sweet deal on Amazon: they're currently selling Deathly Hallows Deluxe Edition for 80% off it's regular $65.00 cost. Pick up a brand new copy, featuring full size chapter art and a special cover, for only $13.00!

We don't know how long this offer is going to last, (Amazon may be trying to clear out their inventory) so pick one up soon if you're interested!

As revealed in ITV's JK Rowling Documentary which aired back in December, May 2nd, 1998 was the day Harry finally defeated Lord Voldemort within Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

A couple of visitors have asked us to post this wonderful anniversary. And why not? The Battle of Hogwarts within Deathly Hallows was one of the coolest scenes ever created by Jo. It held what we've been waiting to witness since closing Sorcerer's Stone. And who can forget Molly Weasley's infamous line to Bellatrix Lestrange: "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"?

So here's to Harry and his triumphant win against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Leave your thanks to Harry and Jo in the comments, and ask yourself: Do Wizards have a name for this anniversary?

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.

UPDATE: Four pictures from the event can be seen here, here, here, and here. Big thanks to Stephen Boyle and Daniel Lynch!

Last night, Jo Rowling was presented by the Literary and Historical Society of UCD in Dublin with the James Joyce award. Over 600 fans turned out to see the author read from Deathly Hallows and answer 10 questions.

Jo said she would "never say never" to another book in the series, but also felt "that the Harry story is now done." She also revealed the character she would most like to meet is "Dumbledore -- to apologise for outing him," even if she had been tempted by a hug with Hagrid (reports La Gazette du Sorcier).

As for the opposition of the Pope to Harry Potter, she confesses that she doesn't follow the issue. Basically, she is definitely opposed to censorship and sees Harry Potter more as a moral book than a proselyte one.

Agence France-Presse is reporting this evening that JK Rowling has halted printing of the Finnish Deathly Hallows translation due to environmental concerns. Jo insists "that it import paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as being derived from wood grown and harvested in a way that promotes sustainable forest development."

Read the full story right here. The Finnish translation is still due out on March 7th.

USA Today recently named J.K. Rowling's final novel in the Harry Potter series book of the year. A huge factor was due in part to the record-breaking numbers in sales made by Deathly Hallows — 11.5 million copies were sold within the first ten days of the July release. But the decision came down to something much deeper:

Hallows is the book of the year because Rowling gave her story an ending that was as graceful, unpredictable and satisfying as the series itself. She reaffirmed that magic can exist when someone opens a great book and enters a world created from words on paper. She made us believe that the imagination — like her own little wizard, now all grown up — still lives.

Ah, and what a year it was. 2007 was BY FAR the biggest year for Harry Potter fans that we have ever seen. It was filled with book releases, movie releases, theme park announcements, gay character announcements, and oh-so-much more.

We now present to you our fourth annual Year in Review, highlighting the biggest and most interesting stories of 2007.

Feel free to use the comments of this news post to reflect on this year and discuss what's coming in 2008. Also, look for two more big projects appearing here from MuggleNet within the next week!

Jo Rowling recently appeared on the Harry Potter podcast, PotterCast, and part one of this interview is now available for download here (right click and save)! Stay tuned for part two next week.

Some of the items discussed in this part of the interview include:

-The morals of Beedle the Bard
-Who was right about Horcri?
-Who made the first Horcrux?
-Creating a Horcrux vs. splitting the atom
-Will Jo tell us how to create a Horcrux?
-The things that made her editor look like she wanted to vomit