Save your pennies

A rare set of the Harry Potter book series, signed by J.K. Rowling, is to be auctioned off for charity.

They will be auctioned off on eBay in aid of local charity Books Abroad which supplies books to children in 80 countries worldwide.

The Potter books are expected to raise at least £20,000.

Also, the release dates for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix have been confirmed as November 12 in the UK and December 11 in the United States (no word official word on Canada yet).

Do you feel lucky, punk?

Scholastic has finally kicked off their sweepstakes to distribute tickets to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows reading at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The date for the event is Friday, October 19.

Rowling will be doing a total of four readings on her U.S. tour, but the Carnegie Hall gig is the only one that adults have a shot of attending.

Contest rules also state that if you win, you must bring Yav with you.

Fished in!

Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin admits he was only joking about J.K. Rowling working on a crime novel.

“This is a joke that got out of hand,” said Rankin, describing how the remark was made on stage during the course of a [Edinburgh] festival event.

“There were 600 people in the audience, and only one person didn’t laugh,” he added.

The AP and other wire services picked up the story, and it was all over the news last weekend. Good one, Ian, but you should have gone for romance novel!