Stores are tipping The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's long-anticipated follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, to smash sales records when it hits bookshelves today.

The thriller, which will again feature Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, will have a global English language first print run of 6.5m copies, the largest first print in the history of publisher Random House worldwide.

The massive launch has been hailed as the biggest publishing event since JK Rowling's Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows two years ago.

“This is undoubtedly the most anticipated release of 2009,” said Amy Worth, head of books buying at Amazon.co.uk.

“We are expecting a high demand for this title for many months to come and over the coming weeks, you will no doubt see readers in every coffee shop, on every bus and train, enjoying this latest instalment and unravelling the mysteries within.”

Meanwhile, Waterstone's Piccadilly will open its doors two hours early at 7am to sell 200 special copies of The Lost Symbol — the only signed copies of the UK edition available — on a strictly one-per-person basis.

A spokesman for Waterstone's said: “The book is destined to become the biggest selling adult fiction hardback of the decade.”

Waterstone's Jon Howells is to become the first person in the UK outside of the publisher to read the book, accepting delivery of a copy this evening.

Conspiracy theory novel The Da Vinci Code was released in 2003 and saw Langdon investigate a murder in The Louvre museum in Paris.

The book sold more than 81m copies worldwide and is the UK's biggest selling paperback novel of all time.

The film adaptation starring Tom Hanks was a worldwide hit, as was Angels and Demons, the adaptation of the first of Brown's thrillers.