Harry Potter, It's what's for dinner.
Well, more like a midnight snack, actually. Tonight is the night when thousands, nay, millions of happy children, crazy teenagers, and slightly weird adults will wait in line to buy a book(!). That's right. They've been pre-ordered, reserved, hoped for and speculated about. And as we approach that magical mystical time of 12:01 am on 7/21/07, even I can't help but get excited! Yay!
This series has stirred up a huge amount of controversy, mainly because it is so very popular. There are tons of books out there with magic or wizards or any of the other complaints about these books that exist (and have gotten them banned in school libraries, classrooms, and homes across the country.) However, it seems there are other complaints coming from a less vocal minority. Here's an entry from David Anthony Durham's blog: http://www.davidanthonydurham.com/blog/2007/07/harry-potter-and-death-of-reading.html#links . The argument seems to be that, really, the Harry Potter books are nothing but a craze, and they aren't helping to launch young or new readers into reading. I suppose that the only way to know for sure would be to conduct some sort of world-wide study to find out. I doubt that such research will be forthcoming.
It may be that I'm just not enough of a book snob to care, but so what if some people only read fluff. So what if they don't want to branch out, and only want to stick with best-sellers with huge amounts of media time. Either in time they will pick up something new, or in time they will continue to stick with only high-profile books and authors. I would certainly suggest to them that they branch out, and they may or may not listen. But I really don't find that type of reading behavior any more or less annoying than fantasy fans who think that all other genres are crap, and shouldn't be read; or middle-aged housewives who only want to read romance novels. If that is what they are interested in, fine. But in the end, they are going to remember that they enjoyed reading such books, and they will more than likely continue to do so in the future. If they aren't going to transform into bookworms, oh well. Some people would rather watch T.V. or play video games. I would rather read. In the end, even if we aren't helping to create an entire generation of budding literary critics, we at least have a large group of people who can understand the appeal of reading for pleasure.
This series has stirred up a huge amount of controversy, mainly because it is so very popular. There are tons of books out there with magic or wizards or any of the other complaints about these books that exist (and have gotten them banned in school libraries, classrooms, and homes across the country.) However, it seems there are other complaints coming from a less vocal minority. Here's an entry from David Anthony Durham's blog: http://www.davidanthonydurham.com/blog/2007/07/harry-potter-and-death-of-reading.html#links . The argument seems to be that, really, the Harry Potter books are nothing but a craze, and they aren't helping to launch young or new readers into reading. I suppose that the only way to know for sure would be to conduct some sort of world-wide study to find out. I doubt that such research will be forthcoming.
It may be that I'm just not enough of a book snob to care, but so what if some people only read fluff. So what if they don't want to branch out, and only want to stick with best-sellers with huge amounts of media time. Either in time they will pick up something new, or in time they will continue to stick with only high-profile books and authors. I would certainly suggest to them that they branch out, and they may or may not listen. But I really don't find that type of reading behavior any more or less annoying than fantasy fans who think that all other genres are crap, and shouldn't be read; or middle-aged housewives who only want to read romance novels. If that is what they are interested in, fine. But in the end, they are going to remember that they enjoyed reading such books, and they will more than likely continue to do so in the future. If they aren't going to transform into bookworms, oh well. Some people would rather watch T.V. or play video games. I would rather read. In the end, even if we aren't helping to create an entire generation of budding literary critics, we at least have a large group of people who can understand the appeal of reading for pleasure.