LONDON (AFP) - Booksellers in Britain were expecting to sell thousands of copies of Japanese author Haruki Murakamis latest novel on Tuesday after some stores held special midnight openings. Hardback versions of the book, 1Q84, went on sale across Britain and it was in second place in the hardback sales lists on Amazons British website. Waterstones, one of the biggest booksellers, said it expected the 1Q84 trilogy volumes one and two have been released in Britain with the third part to follow on October 25 to be one of its big sellers at Christmas. This will be a massive book for us today and it should be one of the big novels for Christmas, Waterstones spokesman Jon Howells told AFP. It is quite rare for a hardback novel of this kind to sell in the tens of thousands, but we would definitely put this book in that category. One of Waterstones central London branches held a Murakami Mastermind quiz on Tuesday night for hardcore fans who then got a chance to be one of the first owners.