'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' Page Count Announced

A huge announcement for Harry Potter fans has come from Scholastic books today.

The U.S. publishers of the Harry Potter books has just announced that the seventh and final book in the series, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' will have 784 pages.

The 784 pages will be printed on recycled paper and will make the seventh book the second longest in the Harry Potter series. The longest book is 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' which, contains 870 pages. The announcement from Scholastic also came with a note to eager fans, saying that the total page count of 784 included all of the book's pages. This means that it is not just story but also pages containing information such as author details.

There has yet to be any confirmation from Bloomsbury, the U.K. publisher of the Harry Potter books, as to the total page count of their edition. However in the past the U.K. addition has had fewer pages. Harry Potter fan site, 'The Leaky Cauldron', estimates that the U.K. edition will have around 700 pages in total. They are hoping to receive a confirmation about the total pages from Bloomsbury soon, now that Scholastic has made the announcement.

This news will be welcomed greatly by Harry Potter fans that are hoping for a long book to answer all of their questions left from previous books in the series.

Also just announced by Scholastic, is that 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' will be printed on recycled paper. That includes the entire first print of the book, which has been confirmed to be 12 million. Scholastic said regarding this decision "all 12 million copies of the book will be printed on paper that contains a minimum of 30% post-consumer waster (pcw) fiber. Moreover, 65% of the 16,700 tons of paper used in the U.S. first printing will be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the global standard-setter for responsible forest management. This historic commitment is the largest purchase of FSC certified paper to be used in the printing of a single book title."

Scholastic has also said the U.S. special deluxe addition of 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows' will also be printed on recycled paper. In this case the 100,000 first print run copies will use 100% post-consumer waster fiber. These books and their jackets will also be produced using wind power energy.

Scholastic is making a concerted effort to increase its responsibility to the environment. It now also plans to print all future Harry Potter editions using FSC certified and recycled paper. In Canada and Europe past Harry Potter editions have already been using recycled paper.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be release worldwide on July 21.

Sources
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/index.php?articleID=9634
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/20/arts/NA-A-E-BKS-US-Green-Harry-Potter.php
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/20/ap3534090.html