Well, due to being engaged to a major fan, I was forced to stop drinking at 11.30pm to go stand outside waterstones along with about 400-500 other people. All the drunks were walking by shouting "Harry dies" etc etc, being pretty moronic considering there were loads of kids around all dressed up and having a good old time. One bloke really annoyed the other half shouting "It's only a book, get a life" to which Ashley replied at the top of her (rather loud scottish) voice, "Least we can read" ... never seen a grown man look so small.
She bought it at 12.15 Sat morning, read cover to cover by 5pm that day, impressive I thought.
It can only be a good thing that so many people, let alone children can be into reading when it appears movies and video games are taking over. If they never make another HP book, at the very least inspiration has been given to many other writers that well written, interesting stories still sell.