Friday Books Blog Report: Harry Potter Fans, After Literary 'Heart Attack,' Keep Pondering Pottermore

On day 2, the owls are still sitting there -- and blogger fans of the captivating boy wizard with the lightning bolt scar keep wondering what J.K. Rowling's new Pottermore website will turn out to be.

By rolling out her big tease of a website, J.K. Rowling decided to give half the literate world a momentary heart attack, as TheLastShelf describes it.

Speculation is running wilder than a rogue hippogriff about J.K. Rowling's Pottermore website which will reveal itself in around 5 days' time, says Brandon Johnston at SciFi Mafia. One of the loudest hypotheses is that Pottermore stands for 'Potter Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Experience.'

For more on Warner Bros.' Pottermore trademark filings, see this EW post and this entry by Elmer Montejo at AndroidAuthority.com. One of the filings says Pottermore would provide users access to a global computer information network.

Montejo guesses that Pottermore will be an Android smartphone that is irrevocably cursed with 'Imperio.' Having fun with Hogwarts wizarding spells, he predicts that saying Alohomora would open up magical access to digital content on the Pottermore site, as well as Potter goods in the online store, that Accio would allow you to instantly download content or buy stuff, and that Legilimens would give recommended content to the smartphone owner.

Monica Mansfield says that her peaceful vacation was interrupted by the torture of another Rowling teaser from Rowling.

For years she dropped clue after clue about the Harry Potter books and as fans we hypothesized, reread the books and lost sleep over the possibilities, she writes at Storytelling & Me, calling the pre-announcement announcement just evil.

Mentioning various possibilities -- including a London theme park and the Harry Potter encyclopedia -- Mansfield says she doesn't know what to believe.

Rowling is tricky and even though they say it is not a new book, I question their honesty, she says. Remember when Dobby swore whatever was happening at Hogwarts had nothing to do with Voldemort? Rowling loves to torture us with semantics.

Rowling's spokeswoman in Scotland has not yet responded to questions about Pottermore that the International Business Times emailed her yesterday.

At the NPR blog Monkey See, Linda Holmes points out that the creation of rampant speculation is the only reason to do something like this in the first place -- leaking word of an announcement a week ahead of time to bring on a round of heavy breathing from fans eager to know what that announcement, when it eventually comes, is going to be.

Anticipation giveth and it taketh away, really, and Rowling knows that very well from the excitement surrounding the publication dates of her books, she concludes. In a week, we'll know whether this experiment in fan torment has worked as well as intended.

As the guessing and excitement continue (Mike at Eurekamatic claimed MY HEAD JUST EXPLODED! after contemplating a Harry Potter massively multiplayer online game), Katherine Coble is putting her money on a 1-2 combo that would take advantage of a peak in revenue stream and awareness as the last movie hits theaters this summer.

As Rowling rides that wave, she might take a page from George Lucas and re-release her series as e-books, Coble predicts at Just Another Pretty Farce.

So my bet is that we'll be getting a branded smartphone with the long-awaited e-book formats available for purchase, she says. And don't I hope so, having not been able to hold my copies this year and do any Potter reading.

Edward B. Colby is the Books editor of the International Business Times.

Are you interested in contributing a piece in the coming days on your thoughts on the Pottermore hubbub? Email e.colby@ibtimes.com.