EDINBURGH, Scotland -- The latest magical tome by J.K. Rowling has started to fly off bookstore shelves in San Diego and around the world.
Rowling launched sales of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" on Thursday with a tea party for 200 school children at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, where she lives.
The author is donating royalties from the book to a charity, which hopes it will raise millions to help vulnerable children.
The book was selling extremely well at two downtown San Diego stores. A clerk at a B. Dalton in Horton Plaza in San Diego said the book was selling well. A short distance away at Borders on G Street, a clerk named Ian said that there had been 63 presales for the book and at least another half-dozen copies had been bought by customers walking in off the street.
Not everybody is a fan, though. Zoe, a 9-year-old from San Diego, said she had not interest in the book.
Nevertheless, recession-hit booksellers hope the book -- a collection of five fables mentioned in Rowling's saga about boy wizard Harry Potter -- will give them a festive boost for holidays.
