Jackie, on a Mac the £ is made by pressing option 3. Can't help you with a Gates machine.

David, I'm sure there's some of that collector's frenzy, as well, unfortunately. In fact, some of the books printed in the US are missing pages; others have a few pages printed upside down: apparently those who bought these books are auctioning them off as collector's items.
But for the most part, I believe kids are actually reading again. The bookstore I work in admittedly caters to a university community and is no cross-section. But the kids who were there for our Harry Potter party last Saturday knew every single detail in the first three books. There was no winner for the trivia quiz - they all scored 100.