Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, a follow-up to the Da Vinci Code has broke the first day record, selling more than 1 million copies in US and Canada, according to the publishers. The e-book edition also posted big sales, and is currently the top seller for the Amazon Kindle.

Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has sold 81 million copies around the world.

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Dear Michael,
Black or White, You Rock My World.
The Way You Make Me Feel, I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.
Gone Too Soon, Ain’t No Sunshine.
2 Bad, I Can’t Help It.
Speechless, Heaven Can Wait, Cry.
Whatever Happens, Dont’ Walk Away.
Keep the Faith, Remember the Time.

Love,
James Pong, a Michael Jackson fan

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J.K. Rowling replaces her "Harry Potter" fantasy books with The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a book of five fairy tales written and illustrated by Rowling, goes on sale Thursday. Advance sales of the $12.99 edition, which retailers including Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon are offering at a deep discount, are brisk on the three booksellers’ websites.

Amazon also is publishing 100,000 copies of a $100 collector’s edition. The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Collector’s Edition (Offered Exclusively by Amazon) in Hardcover.

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More books are sold on the internet than any other product and the number is increasing, research suggests.

Polling company Nielsen Online surveyed 26,312 people in 48 countries. 41% of internet users had bought books online, it said.

South Korea leads the world with 58% of online users who actually buy books followed by Germany at 55% and both Austria and Vietnam at 54%. US is no where near the Top 10.

Check out the cool books at Yowazzup? Store.

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w00t!

According to Reuters, “w00t,” an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was crowned word of the year on Tuesday by the publisher of a leading U.S. dictionary.

Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster Inc. said “w00t” — typically spelled with two zeros — reflects a new direction in the American language led by a generation raised on video games and cell phone text-messaging.

It’s like saying “yay,” the dictionary said.

Read the rest of w00t Is Now A Word in Dictionary

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There could hardly have been a bigger sensation if Russell Crowe, Rod Stewart or Sven-Goran Eriksson had come out of the closet. Millions of fans around the world were yesterday digesting the news that one of the main characters in the Harry Potter novels, Albus Dumbledore, is gay.

The revelation came from author JK Rowling during a question-and-answer session at New York’s Carnegie Hall. It instantly hurtled around the internet and the world. News websites in China and Germany announced starkly: ‘JK Rowling: “Dumbledore is gay”.’ One blogger wrote on a fansite: ‘My head is spinning. Wow. One more reason to love gay men.’

Read the rest of Dumbledore Was Gay, JK Rowling Tells Fans

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The scenario: Hypermarkets, Carrefour and Tesco decided to sell Harry Potter latest book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at a much lower price, MYR 69.90 (approx. USD 20.55) compared to the retail price of MYR 109.90 (approx. USD 32.31) and three bookstores, namely MPH, Popular Bookstore and Times decided not to sell the book.

In the U.S., Walmart is selling the book at USD 17.87 (approx. MYR 60.77) and is currently out of stock. Borders bookstore is selling at USD 17.99 (MYR 61.18). The price is not even discounted yet. The competition in the States and elsewhere is much higher even though these retailers are actually losing money but they are hoping customers would cash in on their other products.

You can get the book at USD 17.99 (MYR 61.18) by buying it online here at Yowazzup! Store. *Update*: If you live in Malaysia, please note that Amazon does ship books to Malaysia.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

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Once, someone asked in Yahoo! Answers,

“If you paid someone to kill yourself would that be called murder or suicide?”

My answer was chosen as the best answer. Sometimes, when I read back, I thought it was pretty humorous, so I’m sharing it here. Here is my answer:

actually it depends on these scenarios:

1. if the someone I paid managed to kill me and then feel too depressed and killed himself, then the cops will call it ‘group suicide’.
2. if the someone I paid managed to kill me and then someone saw that and he killed that someone and another person saw that and he killed that person too before killing himself, then the cops will call it ‘heavens gate’ cult suicide.
3. if the someone I paid managed to kill me and managed to erase all the evidence and put up a show that I actually killed myself even though I didn’t have the guts to do it, then it will be called ’suicide’.
4. if the someone I paid managed to kill me and managed to erase all the evidence and put up a show that I actually killed myself even though I didn’t have the guts to do it, then it will be called ’suicide’. but, later on the killer went to the police station and confessed, then it will be called ‘homicide’.
5. if the someone I paid managed to kill me but didn’t manage to erase all the evidence that lead the police to him, and he didn’t have enough evidence that I actually paid him to kill me, then it’s called ‘homicide’.
6. if the someone I paid managed to kill me and managed to run away and then, he starts killing more and more people, but the cops could not find out who, then it’s called ‘mysterious murder spree’.
7. if the someone I paid managed to kill me but beforehand, I already have a terminal disease and the killing method is by lethal injection, then it’s called ‘assisted suicide’ or ‘euthanasia’.
8. if the someone I paid didn’t manage to kill me but injured me, and the cops caught him red-handed, then it’s called ‘attempted murder’.
9. if the someone I paid didn’t manage to kill me but injured me, and then he run away, I will report it to the police and call it ‘attempted murder’ and claim my insurance for a ‘major injury’.
10. if the someone I paid didn’t manage to kill me but accidentally killed himself, then it’s called ‘accident’ or the court would categorize it as ‘homicide by misadventure’. I would call it ’stupidity’.

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.?? p??? o? u?op-?p?sdn p??? ?no? u?n?

LoL! Alright, turn your head upside-down to read it.

Pretty cool, ain’t it?

This cool webpage lets you ?s????? whatever text you type into it, not only horizontally but also vertically!

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He met her on a party. She was so outstanding, many guys chasing after her, while he was so normal, nobody paid attention to him. At the end of the party, he invited her to have coffee with him, she was surprised, but due to being polite, she promised.

They sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything,she felt uncomfortable, she thought, please, let me go home.. suddenly he asked the waiter: “would you please give me some salt? I’d like to put it in my coffee.”

Everybody stared at him, so strange! His face turned red, but, still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it. She asked him curiously: why you have this hobby?

He replied: “when I was a little boy, I was living near the sea, I liked playing in the sea, I could feel the taste of the sea , just like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have the salty coffee, I always think of my childhood, think of my hometown, I miss my hometown so much, I miss my parents who are still living there”. While saying that tears filled his eyes.She was deeply touched.

That’s his true feeling, from the bottom of his heart.
A man who can tell out his homesickness, he must be a man who loves home, cares about home, has responsibility of home..Then she also started to speak, spoke about her faraway hometown, her childhood, her family.

That was a really nice talk, also a beautiful beginning of their story.They continued to date.

She found that actually he was a man who meets all her demands; he had tolerance, was kind hearted, warm, careful. He was such a good person but she almost missed him! Thanks to his salty coffee!

Then the story was just like every beautiful love story, the princess married to the prince, then they were living the happy life… And, every time she made coffee for him, she put some salt in the coffee, as she knew that’s the way he liked it.

After 40 years, he passed away, left her a letter which said: “My dearest, please forgive me, forgive my whole life lie. This was the only lie I said to you—the salty coffee. Remember the first time we dated?
I was so nervous at that time, actually I wanted some sugar, but I said salt It was hard for me to change so I just went ahead. I never thought that could be the start of our communication!

I tried to tell you the truth many times in my life, but I was too afraid to do that, as I have promised not to lie to you for anything..

Now I’m dying,
I afraid of nothing so I tell you the truth: I don’t like the salty coffee, what a strange bad taste..
But I have had the salty coffee for my whole life! Since I knew you, I never feel sorry for anything I do for you.
Having you with me is my biggest happiness for my whole life. If I can live for the second time, still want to know you and have you for my whole life, even though I have to drink the salty coffee again”.

Her tears made the letter totally wet.

Someday, someone asked her: what’s the taste of salty coffee?

It’s sweet. She replied.

Source: World Wide Web

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