There was talk of Gwenog Jones, Snargaluff and reparo yesterday.

Holding the new Harry Potter book, Le Chen, 17, helped a fellow volunteer at the Princeton studios of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic pronounce the words, which are the name of a character, a flesh-eating plant and a one-word spell, respectively. (A muggle is a person without magical powers.)

Chen was among more than 75 people who participated in the nonprofit group's readathon yesterday, just hours after the 12:01 a.m. release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," to give members quick access to the book.

"I've always been a fan of the books," said Chen, a University of Chicago freshman from Plainsboro. "And at a risk of spoiling the books for myself ... I just thought it would be a good thing to do."

The recording organization, which has 29 branches nationwide, already had received more than 700 requests for the book by yesterday afternoon, said Stephanie Turner, the product-development program officer there.

The unabridged novel will be available free to members by this evening. The audio version that sells in stores lists for $75, with some outlets offering discounts as deep as 40 percent.

Barbara Brown, 68, a retired attorney from East Windsor whose grandchildren love the Harry Potter series, said everyone should have immediate access to such an eagerly anticipated book.

"It's really going to be a fun thing because kids are waiting with bated breath for this," Brown, who reads for the group, said earlier in the week.

Having listening formats is particularly pertinent considering the Harry Potter novels have gotten thicker over the years, said another reader, Priscilla Cunza-Marin, a 27-year-old Bloomberg analyst from Red Bank. Harry's latest adventure, No. 6, is 672 pages, more than twice the length of the first book in the series.

The recording group selected its New Jersey office and its headquarters -- both in Princeton -- as the only two locations for the readathon to maximize ease in coordinating the distribution of tapes and discs to members, said spokesman Mark Zustovich.

Turner, who camped out at a bookstore to purchase the 31 novels from which volunteers read, called herself "head witch" and donned a pointed black hat and shiny cloak to add to yesterday's ambience.

The group's New Jersey branch is housed on the ground floor of a building at St. Joseph's Seminary, off Route 1.

Volunteers say Harry Potter is lighter than the usual fare at the studio, where a steady bustle of volunteers give voice to written material that consists mostly of textbooks. Many who donate their time read books that match their expertise -- a cardiologist tackles technical science material, a lawyer pages through the small type of the criminal code.

"It's a pleasant change ... to read Harry Potter instead of the tax code or civil procedure," Brown said.

Mindy Langer, 47, remembers participating in the group's first Potter readathon two years ago when the fifth book arrived, and she describes the atmosphere as festive.

"I do medical reading for them, so this is something very different -- much more fun and recreational," said Langer, a retired pediatrician from Princeton Junction.

"I got to make the funny voices of the angry mother in the picture on the wall," she added. "You're not really supposed to, but it's really hard to resist."

All five others in the Harry Potter series are already part of the organization's library, in English, French, German and Spanish, adding to its collection of 137,025 titles. Volunteers recorded 5,134 new books in the 2004-05 fiscal year.

In one room at headquarters, shelves of archived tapes dating to the mid-20th century stretch toward the back wall in deep rows of slightly yellowed boxes resembling CD cases.

But after Harry Potter and "Chapter Eighteen -- Birthday Surprises" and "Chapter Fourteen -- Felix Felicis," the computers that volunteers use to keep track of their progress will display phrases like "Discrete Mathematical Structures" and "Organic Chemistry Principles & Industrial Practice."

Readers will tackle physiology and biology and translate complex charts, graphs and diagrams into sound.

Still, though the boy wizard's adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry may be less dense than regular material, reading Harry Potter is a worthy endeavor, said Adina Langer, 21, Mindy's daughter and a museum scriptwriting intern at David Sarnoff Library in Princeton.

"It's a great idea to have the books available so quickly for all the readers -- all the listeners we have -- so they can be up-to-date like everybody else," she said.

© 2005  The Star Ledger

RFB&D Press Release about Harry Potter Recording