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Unauthorized Half-Blood Prince Update: News and Speculation about Harry Potter Book Six by J. K. Rowling Paperback – October 1, 2004

by W. Frederick Zimmerman (Author)

4.5 4 ratings

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An unofficial and unauthorized work of news reporting summarizing what is currently known and speculated about "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (tm), book six in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The author, W.F. Zimmerman, has read, analyzed, and synthesized literally thousands of news articles, Usenet postings, blogs, and on-line chats, including every public comment by J. K. Rowling since 1997. The book is divided into five parts: 1) information specifically about Harry Potter book six; 2) information pertaining to both books six and seven; 3) information pertaining to book seven alone; 4) information about books by J. K. Rowling beyond book seven; and 5) tips on how to have fun while you wait. An Appendix contains the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document from the Usenet group alt.fan.harry-potter, which contains useful information pertaining to all seven books in the series.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kudos to the author for... providing a very well written book full of interesting and pertinent information..." -- Mimi Cummins, HP6book.com

"Well done." -- Professor Glitch ErrorWeaver

Great read with lots of analysis and lots of information you won't find on many fansites or most places online. -- Andrew from Mugglenet

HPANA recommended book! -- Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator (HPANA.com)

Very well laid out ... excellent job of summarizing all the information ... organized ... easy to follow. -- Professor Scoots @ HPANA.com

very heavily documented ... an important source of information you'll want to refer to over and over again -- Dave Haber, Executive Editor, WizardNews.com

From the Publisher

Contact publisher directly with proof of purchase and you will receive a *free one-year subscription to PDF updates* of this book. (Don't contact your retailer as they will not know what you are talking about.) Contact info for Nimble Books is available inside the book.

From the Author

As research for this book, I read:

1. Every on-line chat that J. K. Rowling has ever done.

2. More than 250 news articles mentioning the quoted phrase "Half-Blood Prince" in a leading news warehouse and more than 320 articles identified by Google News as mentioning the quoted phrase "Half-Blood Prince".

3. 377 blogs mentioning the quoted phrase "Half-Blood Prince" in the blog search engine Feedster.

4. More than 1000 articles posted on Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.harry-potter.

5. Hundreds of posts on dozens of Potter-related websites.

6. Dozens of trademark applications at the UK and US patent offices.

7. Numerous biographies and critical works about J. K. Rowling.

8. And, of course, the entire series to date! This book contains the results of my research. Over the years and especially in recent months, J. K. Rowling and others have let slip quite a bit of information about "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." I think I was able to pull together a lot of interesting information. You will notice that there are many quotations and that wherever possible I have provided an "attribution"that is, I have identified author, title, date, and place of publication (often Internet). That way, you can judge for yourself whether my sources are solid.

About the Author

W. Frederick Zimmerman is the publisher of Nimble Books. He is also a Research Scientist for ISciences, L.L.C, an information sciences consulting firm located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He earned a B.A. with Honors from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from Wayne State University. More importantly than any of that, he has read all of the Harry Potter books with his daughter Kelsey. He read the first three to her aloud, before she got too smart for him.W. Frederick Zimmerman is the publisher of Nimble Books. He is also a Research Scientist for ISciences, L.L.C, an information sciences consulting firm located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He earned a B.A. with Honors from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from Wayne State University. More importantly than any of that, he has read all of the Harry Potter books with his daughter Kelsey. He read the first three to her aloud, before she got too smart for him.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nimble Books (October 1, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 140 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0975447939
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0975447932
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 0.39 x 8.92 inches

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W. Frederick Zimmerman

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I have worked at the intersection of computers and publishing for most of my adult life, beginning with a stint as Staff Writer for Sextant, the magazine for Heathkit personal computers, and most recently in product development for LexisNexis, a unit of the professional publishing giant Reed Elsevier plc.

I founded Nimble Books so that I could give myself the "green light" to launch new and interesting publishing projects.

Nimble Books publishes timely, relevant "living books" on a wide variety of subjects ranging from Harry Potter and Dan Brown to health, science, politics, and sports.

I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA with my beloved wife Cheryl and treasured children Kelsey and Parker.

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Andrew

A great read for any Harry Potter fan

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2004

"Half-Blood Prince" Update is truely a great read for any Harry Potter fan. Anyone who hasn't been up on the latest HBP information can find it all in this book, and with their "Print On-Demand" technology, the book is updated continuously (which is a great plus as more and more information comes out). My only complaint is that the book is not completely organized, and it seems most information was just thrown around throughout the book...although the author does try to organize it into 5 major groups.

Again, it was a great read with lots of analysis and lots of information you won't find on many fansites or most places online. I'd recommend this book to any HP fan looking forward to HBP!

3 people found this helpful

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Greg Davidson

The world's first information shepherd

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2004

Everyone can recognize that the internet brings unprecedented access to information - the key question has been over how humans will adapt to this new capability to extract maximum value. W. Frederick Zimmerman may be one of the first of a new breed, an "information shepherd". He takes a broad range on information available across the web and subjects it to a series of reasonable, logical tests to determine what makes sense and what is most logical. I loved the information in the "Unofficial 'Half-Blood Prince' Update", because I am a Harry Potter fan, and me and my kids will be in that bookstore at 12:01am on whatever day the next volumes emerge, but I was even more interested in the methodology used to sift and assess all those random bits of information (lost sheep?) roaming the internet. This is a pathfinder for a fundamentally new kind of book, and I would be interested in seeing the same methodology applied elsewhere. And as an added bonus the author's prose is both lively and concise, making this a very pleasureable book to read.

5 people found this helpful

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xmascookielady

Read this during the long wait for Half Blood Prince!

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2004

This book is basically a compendium of all we know about the upcoming installment of Harry Potter, which is to be titled "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince." The author has done his homework. He has compiled his information from comments made by JK Rowling in various interviews and on her website, as well as by carefully reading the preceeding books to tell what is very likely to happen. He also adds what will definitely NOT happen, and peppers the book with interesting tidbits such as the correct way to pronounce "Rowling" and some commentary on the question of "Christianity and Harry Potter."

If you just can't wait for HPB to be published, this book is a great way to pass the time and prepare yourself.

The author acknowledges that the book is up-to-date as of September 30, 2004. For any new information that has come out since then, visit HPBook6.com at [...]

6 people found this helpful

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"inquiring mind"

Always Up-To-Date Book 6 Info

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2004

The previous reviewer is incorrect in saying that the book is up-to-date as of September 30. I was privileged enough to correspond with the author of this book and he is taking advantage of "Print On Demand" technology to update the book whenever new information has been released. It has already been updated at least once since September 30. This is an excellent example of the merits of Print On Demand technology in that it allows the author to make sure that the book never becomes outdated. Kudos to the author for not only providing a very well written book full of interesting and pertinent information, but also for using new technologies that allows his readers to keep up to date.

3 people found this helpful

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