CNN July 21, 2000

The nation's No. 1 best-seller won't be at the top of the nation's No. 1 best-seller list. Neither will the second, third and fourth. Americans young, and not so young, may be in the grip of Potterphilia, but "Goblet of Fire" and the others will not be in their rightful slots.

In the first revamping of its lists in 16 years -- a change that casts a cool light on the hot war of competing best-seller estimates, both in print and online -- the New York Times Book Review has created a new children's list and consigned the Harry books to it. Instead, this week's list has a truly mature book at the top: "The House on Hope Street," the latest potboiler by Danielle Steel.

The Times' decision was a response to complaints from many publishers -- not Scholastic, of course -- that Harry Potter was hogging and clogging the top of the best-seller list, depriving the public of access to other popular fiction.