Why isn't "Harry Potter" on the best-seller list?

Bobbie Hawkes, an alert reader of our book section's best-seller list, wants to know, "Where's Harry? Why hasn't 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' shown up on any of your best-seller lists since its release?"

Good question. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is selling like ... well, there's no adequate comparison. Earlier this month Scholastic, its American publisher, announced that the book had sold 11.5 million copies in the first 10 days and that it was ordering up another 2 million copies of the book (the original print run was 12 million).

So why isn't it enshrined at the top of our best-seller list? It's because we print the Publishers Weekly version of the best-seller list, and PW categorizes "Deathly Hallows" as a kids' book. So, while it sits atop the kids' best-seller list, it hasn't made an appearance on the main (adult) best-seller list.

This is a bit odd — the single most-read-book-by-adults I have observed on my daily bus ride since the book's release date July 21 is "Deathly Hallows." But we have to run the list as it stands, or not run it at all.

Meanwhile, total sales for all the Potter books are 350 million copies worldwide ... and counting.

Mary Ann Gwinn, Seattle Times book editor