Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix worked magic for Ottakar's in the first six months of this year and the regional bookseller is hoping the hype around the fifth JK Rowling book will create a general uplift in book sales during the crucial Christmas season.

Ottakar's, which specialises in book stores in market towns and small cities where the large chains have little presence, has so far sold 140,000 copies of the Harry Potter novel. But managing director James Heneage believes its real impact has been to increase awareness of books as gifts, especially as there are no must-have toys this Christmas.

"I think books are very much current and at the top of people's minds, partly because of the Harry Potter phenomenon but also because of the Big Read that the BBC has got behind."

Voting for the top 20 in the BBC's poll of the nation's favourite books will begin next month.

"Last year Christmas was all about blockbusters and a chain like Ottakar's does not care for massive blockbusters because they tend to become discounted heavily by supermarkets. What we like is a really good broad spread of quality that we can get behind," added Mr Heneage.

He said the Christmas market was shaping up well with the David Beckham autobiography, a Monty Python compendium, an official Rolling Stones book and the second What Not To Wear book all appearing on the shelves.

The Christmas market is crucial to Ottakar's as it accounts for about a third of overall turnover. The company, which has 117 stores, yesterday announced a first half pre-tax loss of £2.9m, up from last year's £2.3m loss.