July 25th Update: Me and my better half went to visit this Chapters bookstore yesterday and we both wrote a message for JK Rowling. My message of thanks to JK, “Thank you for creating a generation of readers.” JK manages to make reading books hip again and that is no easy task.
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For the adults non Harry Potter readers out there, here are two interestingly “not really Harry Potter” entries about Harry Potter from Freakonomics and WSJ Law Blog (quite funny) for your reading pleasure.
Now, I am a little bit of a Harry Potter fan (OK, I have “read” all six books and watched all five movies). And I plan to “read” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow. OK, by “read”, I mean — “scan for the dialogues and plot advancements” and try to skip the boring bits.
Now, I am exceedingly pissed off (pardon my language here) when I read or heard news (including even CBC) about potential plot points in HP7. I hope the print and TV news will respect the readers and not spoil the fun for us. After all, if we really want to spoil it for ourselves, we can always walk into a bookstore and flip to the last page and find out.
I think I am going to cover my ears and skipping any news about Harry Potter for a while. You know, the worst thing I did today was I watched the news about UK bookies talking about odds of this or that happening to Harry. Since the book was leaked, I doubt people would willingly bet the wrong outcome. Now, I just have to resist reading the Wikipedia entry of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow”, which I am sure will have things that I don’t really want to know printed rightly or wrongly. (smile)
Now, here is a video of the mountain of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow with tons of promotional stuff in my local Calgary bookstore.
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Kempton - ideas Revolutionary 
Well, i managed to read it without reading the Wikipedia entry before. It was very difficult =)
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Hi,
Good for you. :)
K
how can i get an e-book of this? thanks
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I am sure if you Google it you can find an e-book. But why not go to the local bookstore to check it out or try to reserve a copy from your local libraries?
that thanks message was superb… she literally created a generation of readers :)
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Hi Dinsan,
Yeah, a generation of readers have JK to thank. The love of reading opens up doors to other opportunities.
Kempton
I’d just like to point out that, while the Harry Potter books are amazing and I’m a huge fan, I did read before they came out, continued to read during the huge gaping pauses between books and still read now. While most of my generation may have been opened to the wonders of the printed word by HP and JK, I certainly wasn’t and I know a lot of my friends weren’t. It annoys me when people assume that most of our generation just wouldn’t have read anything ever if it wasn’t for Harry.
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Hi,
I think you and your friends are in the exceptional group that love to read.
Now, at least for what we can see, would you agree that there are more teenagers holding Harry Potter books to read in the public? And I bet some of the video games playing boys and girls, men and women probably shifted some of their time to read HP.
I know I am generalizing and there are always exceptions to the generalizations. But at a time when there were no video games, the HP series certainly bring reading back as an acceptable activities and even a cool one at that. And for that, I am grateful to JK.
Best Regards,
Kempton
She created a generation of Harry Potter readers, not readers, the distinction is a large one.
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Hi,
You are almost right. And I am almost right as well.
The way I see it, a generation of HP readers have now been created. And at the same time, a portion of them may have also become readers (with their visits to libraries and bookstores) themselves which is a great development thanks to HP.
Will you agree with me that without the HP series of books, and with the plentiful entertainments (video games, sports, etc) it will be hard press to see many teenage boys and girls going into libraries or bookstores to read?
Best Regards,
Kempton