Missing pages make Harry Potter a real cliffhanger
Louise Dickson, Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had Tessa Siegel in its grip.

Then something went horribly wrong. The book seemed to be repeating itself. Was Harry having a flashback? Siegel wondered.

"I skimmed over two or three pages," the 32-year-old massage therapist said Monday. "Then I started to get a little bit irritated, because the author only has 600 pages to tie up a whole seven years of Harry's life, and I wondered why she was wasting it. That's when I started looking and realized there was some obvious misprint, some flaw in the book."

Siegel's copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowlings's seventh and final novel in the series, went from page 352 back to page 289, then from page 289 to page 320. She is missing pages 353 to 384.

According to Raincoast Books spokesman Jamie Broadhurst, such misprints happen, albeit rarely.

"In any print run, there is sometimes a minuscule amount where there is a printing error for some reason," said Broadhurst. "It happens at the bindery, whether they've printed a signature upside down or the print has faded or the book has gone out without a dust jacket. ... It's not common, but in any print run, there's potential for this."

Broadhurst suggested Siegel return the book quickly for an exchange.

In fact, Siegel had already tried to exchange it, but Bolen Books, where she had pre-ordered the copy, had sold out - just three days after the book was released. So, she was off to find a new copy.

"I want to read the ending before somebody lets it slip," an anxious Siegel said on her way to the car. "The truth, I'm hoping for a Disney ending where Harry Potter doesn't die. Beyond that, I'm not too concerned."

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