Desperate fans around the world waiting to read the latest adventures of schoolboy wizard Harry Potter will get a chance at the stroke of midnight, when "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," will finally go on sale.

Young fans were sharing their thoughts online through a panel created by Amazon.com. Sixteen-year-old Ben Johnson of Lancaster, Pa., said he feels a special kinship with the books because he's always been about the same age as Harry.

Eleven-year-old Kendall Westbrook of Dallas said her mother tried to read the first book to her when she was in kindergarten but it was too scary. A few years later she and a friend read them together, and she's been hooked ever since.

The penultimate installment of J.K. Rowling's Potter chronicles, has sparked a massive price war as retailers across the United Kingdom - and to a lesser extent in the U.S. and elsewhere - try to gain crucial early market share.

While bookstores are largely relying on huge late-night launch parties - complete with sorting hat competitions offering iPods and signed books as prizes - ahead of the midnight release, supermarkets and online retailers are trying to cast their own spell.