You can consider the Mountains typically wild about Harry.
The Ten Hills family owns multiple copies of J.K. Rowling's first five books about wizard-in-training Harry Potter, and plans to buy at least three more when the latest, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is available to readers at midnight July 15.
The Mountains will attend their third "Midnight Magic" Potter book launch at the Barnes & Noble store in Ellicott City.
In 2000, Molly Mountain finished four chapters of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by the time her parents drove her home from the bookstore. The then-8-year-old managed to polish off the 734-page book within 18 hours - including time for sleep and a previously arranged play date.
There's no telling how fast Molly can devour the new book now that she's a teenager. Her most serious Potter competitor, 15-year-old Michael, will be out of town on the big day. But Charlotte, 12, and Jack, 9, are also Potter fans. And Diane Mountain, Molly's mom, can't wait to crack open the new book, either.
"We've reread the other books many times," she says. "I was just thinking that in order to get properly prepared for Half-Blood Prince, I should reread The Order of the Phoenix - my favorite book in the series."
Anticipating what some call "Christmas in July," booksellers have also stocked up on the other Potter books, audiobooks and paraphernalia - games, calendars, book lights and DVDs.
In fact, with heavy promotion and stories about the extra security to protect the book against early release, just about everyone has heard something about Potter No. 6, supposedly the next-to-last book in the series.
Its U.S. publisher, Scholastic Books, is establishing an American publishing record by printing an initial 10.8 million copies.
Barnes & Noble stores alone have more than 750,000 preorders for the Half-Blood Prince, and chain officials expect that figure to increase to more than one million over the next 10 days.
In addition, Barnes & Noble predicts it will sell 50,000 copies each hour for the first 24 hours, according to spokeswoman Carolyn Brown.
Although Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Central Library has not received its copies of the latest Harry Potter, there's a waiting list of eager readers, says Helen Blumberg, manager of the fiction and young adult department.
Once lodged in the children's section, Harry moved into the Pratt's "young adult" room when he became a teenager a book or so ago.
