There's never been anything like Harry Potter.

"I think of Rowling as being almost the Second Coming," says Scott Rice, professor of literature at San Jose State University. "Her books have reminded people of the pleasure of reading, gotten millions of kids all around the world to know the reward of reading. People need to be reminded there are rewards and benefits in reading that you don't get anywhere else."

Young wizard Potter is about to cast another spell. Legions of his fans are eagerly waiting for July 21, the day when "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and last book in J.K. Rowling's series, will be released.

What started in 1997 as a modest publication of a children's book in England has become a literary, financial and pop culture phenomenon.

It's a phenomenon fueled by fans such as Jonathan Weed of San Jose, who was 10 or 11 when he first read "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

"I liked it right away," says Weed, now 19 and a student at Princeton University. "My mom got it for me on a Friday. By Saturday night I had finished and was ready to start reading it again."

Then in 1998, Weed's father picked up a copy of the second book, "Chamber of Secrets," in England before it was available in the United States.

That same year, Weed was one of the lucky few who went to Hicklebee's Books in San Jose to meet Rowling. He shared memories of that book signing for a story in the Mercury News in June.

In an e-mail, Weed wrote about meeting Rowling: "Before I left, I asked her to sign a Post-it note for me to give to a British girl at school, the only other person I knew who had read the Harry Potter book. The Hicklebee's staff said that this wasn't allowed, but Jo did it anyway. I gave the note to the girl later, and though she probably didn't keep it, I'm sure by now she wishes she had. "

The magic of numbers

In the mid-'90s, Rowling had been given an advance of about $2,250 by her publisher and a grant of about $12,000 from the Scottish Arts Council that helped her finish the first book in a planned seven-book series.

The book's premise didn't seem that promising: a young British boy is surprised to learn he is a wizard and that he is a key part of a major war between good and evil.

But it struck a chord. Nine years later, thanks to the Potter series, Rowling is a billionaire.

Try to quantify the impact of the Potter series, and the numbers become mind-boggling:

There are 121.5 million copies of Harry Potter books in the United States alone. Worldwide, it's 325 million copies in 65 languages in more than 200 territories.

Twelve million copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" at this moment are being delivered in sealed cases to bookstores around the United States, where they will be distributed starting at 12:01 a.m. July 21. Millions of other books are also on their way in Great Britain, and millions more will be distributed around the planet.

That many copies of a single book have never been published in such a short period of time. By July 22, "Deathly Hallows" will break the previous record for most books sold in 24 hours, a record set by Book 6 in the series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." That book broke the previous record, set by Book 5, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which broke the record set by Book 4, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."

"Goblet of Fire" and the first three, "Sorcerer's Stone" (known as "Philosopher's Stone" in Britain), "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" changed the way the New York Times formed its bestseller lists. (The Times created a children's books list and put the Potter books on it.)

The reach of Harry Potter

Beyond the sales numbers, one also can argue that no other book has gotten more families to read together, or been more discussed in print, on the Internet, in bookstores and libraries, and around office water coolers.

Valerie Lewis of Hicklebee's was working for CBS in New York when she became one of the first major media journalists to bring attention to Rowling and Harry Potter. She remembers being happily surprised, as a bookseller, by the reaction to "Sorcerer's Stone."

"That families suddenly discovered that reading together made sense was probably the biggest shock of all to us."

"There's nothing I can think of that compares to reading aloud to children and having them read aloud to you," Lewis says. "What happens is you get to know them at a whole different level. The literary stuff, the academic stuff, is not as important as sitting around finding out what they think."

And at a time when children are bombarded with images from television, movies and video games, Lewis values the way literature gives children the experience of creating images themselves.

"Reading aloud, the kids experience forming their own images," Lewis explains. "They hear a sophisticated vocabulary . . . and there is an undercurrent that this is cool - they are doing it together, and it's just right."

Harry Potter found another welcoming fan base on the Internet. A Google search for "Harry Potter" brings up more than 6 million results.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Web sites are home to communities of people who have spent years thinking about, discussing and arguing about the series that began when "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published in June 1997 in England.

"It's a very attractive world for children," Weed says of the Harry Potter books. "When I was in the sixth grade, a school fantasy is to be transplanted from where you are to a place where your job is to have fun and do magic all day - structured around the school year. It is sort of the alternate education fantasy."

The mystery of Book 7

Until July 21, the world waits and wonders how Rowling will wind up her seven-book story of "The Boy Who Lived."

Will Harry live or die? Will the evil dark wizard Voldemort be vanquished?

To San Jose State's Rice, the theme of good vs. evil in the Harry Potter story is a powerful, relevant one in today's world.

"There are Voldemorts out there in different sizes and shapes doing bad things to human beings," he says, "and we can look the other way or we can use our powers to intervene."

And, the book's other themes also are appealing, Rice says.

"Friendship is practically a sacrament. These people do things for their friends, including risk their lives in a very serious sense."

There's also Hogwarts - the school of wizardry in the books and among the finest facets of the books, Rice says.

"Hogwarts is a benevolent place. It's a school for wizards, but it's understood by the students that the teachers are trying to empower them and to give them more control over their lives," he says. "It's grinding work, some of the teachers are taskmasters, but it's understood that Hogwarts is a good place."

For fans, part of the fun has been the exciting anticipation of each new book in the series.

"Anandi," who posted on the Mercury News Harry Potter blog (http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei), speaks for many others: "Another Magical Person here, who came late to the Harry Potter party. I heard all the hype and thought the books couldn't possibly be that good. So I didn't read the first one until well after Book 4 was released. But it was great having several to read all at once, and it was painful waiting for the release of 5, 6 and now 7."