Every other web site is reporting it, so it seems entirely redundant, but the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released on July 16, 2005. Unconfirmed early reports indicate that it will be slightly shorter than the mammoth 870 pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Booksellers are eagerly anticipating the release after another year of slow sales.

As recently as December 10 the prospect of a new book wasn’t looking good as author J.K. Rowling posted a message on her web site saying she had nothing “noteworthy to report, because I have been spending nearly all my time sitting in front of my computer writing, rewriting and taking the occasional break to bang my head off the desk in frustration or else rub my hands together in fiendish glee (I think the latter has happened once).”