*Thinks* Something to do with books and distribution.

Oh my God, you work for Readers Digest!!! The ebil book company you can never leave.

*Runs away crying*

Ah. I knew there was something important happening today.

One day I'll stop being lazy and use my overly saved up money to buy the damn books.

Or see the second movie.

Enjoy the book, and try not to stay up too late reading it, this time. 600 pages in one sitting is NOT healthy!

BTW I've been hearing rumors that...

Talk about unexpected if that's true.

And, uh, please do not confirm its legitimacy, I'd like to read it and figure it out on my own.

Actually, Craig, it's not released until tomorrow. Hence I feel qualified to feel smug. 😉

And like I said - I'm not handing out spoilers.

And I'm a librarian. 🙂

*smacks head repeadtly* WANTS NEW HARRY POTTER BOOK...
~Neo

I don't mind spoilers considering I'm not going to read it...

Aaaah. Lucky lassie!

Being a librarian has it's advantages, it would seem. I'd start envying you (more than usual), but you failed at getting me into Potter after Phoenix, I'll be sure to pester you for details sometime in the next few days ^_^

*Eagerly wishes someone would post spoilers*
I'm going to read it as soon as my school library has it in stock (Which should be next year ).
Oh and BTW, Harry Potter books>Harry Potter movies.

Never read a Harry Potter book...

Ooooo...

Meh. I'll wait till it's cheaper....sometime in 2012 then.

There're places here so convinced in how many copies they can sell that they're selling them for 4.99 each (abput $8.75) to undercut all of the other sellers. 🙂

Harry Potter books>Harry Potter movies

YES. VERY true.

Never read a Harry Potter book...

WHAWAWAWAWAWAWA?!!! Zone! You jest!

But yes I am so excited about these books it's unreal. The Order Of The Pheonix was brilliant- I still have it in my room. My friend and I are battling to see who will get it first- just like we did with the other five books.
But 4.99? That's great.
I dunno how she does it- but JKR manages to sell millions in like- WEEKS.
One day I hope to be a great author like her...

Sam- you're a lucky person...

*envies Sam*

I just got an e-mail claiming that Play has only *today* shipped my copy. Maybe there's not a lot of point with my plan to camp out on the doorstep tomorrow morning

DW

Hmmm...
Im not coming on the internet after midnight then in case of spoilers...

Unfortunately mum mum preordered a book for the family which will arrive in the post tommorow, amidst much bickering between her and my brother who gets to read it first.

Now the local WH is having a midnight party to people who come and collect the book at midnight, im not particularly desperate to get it at midnight but it'd be a fun excuse to be up late in the middle of town for INNOCENT reasons, it's not often that THAT happens 😛

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The Order Of The Pheonix was brilliant- I still have it in my room.

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Order of the Phoenix was existentialist. A children's book. Man. That floored me.

Genius.

I'll probably get mine this weekend. Definitely not at midnight though, being that I *still* don't have my driver's license, and so would have to convince my parents to bring me there, so that I can maneuver through a crowd. Nuh uh. Not gonna happen.

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Never read a Harry Potter book...

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WHAWAWAWAWAWAWA?!!! Zone! You jest!

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Heh, if I wasn't working for Scholastic when the last Harry Potter book came out (and got a free copy as a result), I never would've read a book in the series either. I did like it though, but nowhere near enough to pay the prices those books are selling for in general.

I'm half way through it and it's bubbling along nicely.

No spoilers, but I will say people who thought the last book was too angsty, with to much teenage anger thrown around should be pleased with the way Harrys grown out of that phase.

This could ALMOST be as good as the third book, which so far as been my favorite, i'm just waiting for the direction in which this is going to surface.

And everyone, ask yourself: Who is the half blood prince????

There was a party at borders last night that I went to over 400 people were there to get their books on a midnight sale but...well I was one of the few who were just there to hang out. XP I did dress nerdy because of the occasion, boy did I get compliments on my dark overcoat and cowboy hat. ^^

~T2K

. . . .

That book was excellent. My favorite book so far. I was guessing furiously about everything, up until the end. Brilliant. She's done it again.

Please, nobody post spoilers.

I guess we're lucky we didn't have to bring back the War Measures Act: it seems some store in Coquitlam accidentally sold 14 copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before the holy minute of its corporate launch. Fiends.

Before you could say Jack Robinson (or Dumbledore), Raincoast Books, the Canadian rep for Potter Inc, was in the BC Supreme Court asking for and getting an injunction that forbade anyone, including the innocent purchasers, from "displaying, reading, offering for sale, selling, exhibiting in public" the aforementioned Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

We have state secrets in this country that would get this kind of high-powered, immediate and sweeping response. Someone could steal the NORAD command codes or, to keep this in context, Kentucky Fried Chicken's secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices -- and even then, I bet the legal response would take longer.

The big deal about this particularly ill-named installment of the Potter franchise is that it is the subject of a global marketing blitz unprecedented in scale and fury. It was to secure the success of the midnight launch, meant to gather all the world's little Potterphiles and their long-suffering Potterparents, that Rowling Inc. put the muscle on any "breach" in the grand logistics of the massive publicity event. These folks ma prattle all they wish about not wanting to "spoil it for the millions of Potter fans", but ordering some dozen kids who legally bought the book not to read it -- not to read it! -- before 12:01 or else, belongs more to Kafka than to Alice in Wonderland.

The speed of the legal work to protect what is basically just a hyped-up marketing campaign is also unbelieveale. The legal force apparently available to prevent anyone, prior to launch time, from sampling the familiar prose of the series, is astonishing.

Essentially, this is because, whatever merit Harry Potter may have had in its early and innocent days, it has long since wandered out of the realm of a good piece of fiction for young people, and into the drear territory of mass hype and 21st-century marketing.

It's being peddled every way imagineable. It's a toy! It's a book! It's a movie! So the alarm over a few kids reading a few pages before the "official launch" is mere sputter. The sun would not have stayed its rising this morning if one or a hundred kids already half knew the plot of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

But what it may have beenand what it has become are in opposing categories. Literature is, at its primary level, meant for the individual imagination. The reading of a good book is an autonomous experience. The contact between story and reader, between style and reader, is distinct. Literature is a sharpening of the individual consciousness, and in its finer operations, especially for the young, the opening of the reader's individual powers of discrimination, taste, judgement and confidence.

It is not, nor can it be, by the very laws of imagination that govern real reading, a mob event. The Harry Potter phenomenon is anti-literature. It employs the same mass tecniques, the same mass-marketing hypersell, that every other disposable amusement and trinket in our already vastly overselling world employs. It's a "brand" in the derogatory sense of that word. It's a group response with all the Pavlovian stigmata.

Kids are rushing to buy Harry Potter with the same fever that little girls would line up for Britney Spears or the lates Hillary Duff movie. Harry Potter has been "translated" from a good, lively and inventive read into another precociously over-amped commodity, guarded by lawyers and publicists and all the add-ons of a ruthlessly commercial enterprise.

I'll read it, sure. I have a feeling, however, that regardless of how entertaining, well-thought, and ruthlessly-paced it is, I won't enjoy it.

And everyone, ask yourself: Who is the half blood prince????
I bet it's V-- *hauled away by the RCMP*

Spoilers please...pretty please?

PM me if you really, really, really want 'em.

Essentially, this is because, whatever merit Harry Potter may have had in its early and innocent days, it has long since wandered out of the realm of a good piece of fiction for young people, and into the drear territory of mass hype and 21st-century marketing.

Believe me, I'm right with you on that.

I'm not just a librarian - I'm a children's librarian. So I spend eight hours per day in close study of the target Harry Potter age group.

But even before I got the job - since the marketing push really went crazy with Goblet of Fire - I've always had a fear that the films and the amount of marketing would either deflect too much attention from the books that've done so much good for reading, or the amount of pester power whipped up by same would put off the parents who control the purse strings and do likewise.

It's a concern I've voiced on this forum a few times. Some people may remember it.

I was observing a colleague taking an "Introduction to Fiction" session with a class of seven year olds about six weeks ago. He tried to create a bit of enthusiasm by saying that he knew that there was a new Harry Potter book coming out, and asking if they could name it.

Most said "Prisoner of Azkaban": the last film/DVD release.

A couple said "Goblet of Fire": the next movie.

A grand total of one said "Order of the Phoenix".

And nobody had heard of Half-Blood Prince.

I just felt like banging my head on a wall.

One of my managers said as we were packing those copies of ours for distribution that she was depressed at the number of reservations from adults rather than children. I wish I could say that I was shocked.

The traditional marketing hard-sell, coupled with today's teaching that doing something fast is good and the "I want it all and I want it now!" culture encourages lazy routes like marketing and movies so much more than it does books...

And one of the things about the Potter franchise was that it was knocking some of that prejudice out of the less literate and/or more stupid parents up until around Goblet of Fire (ie. before the movies came out).

It can't do that any more. And today's kids may be more media-savvy than they used to be, but they aren't that self-aware.

No matter how good the book is, the franchise has sold out the good work it did. And I pity kids for that.

If that worked im going to put a light review, not really spoilerific but I dont want to accidentaly give something simple away.
EDIT: Arghh, it's not working. I can never get it to work...

I dont think this IS a childrens book any more, it's grown up WITH harry. What started out as something magical has turned into something MUCH darker, but it's somehow kept the magic, which is rare.

Well done to JK Rowling, but I do pitty the kids who'll read this book, and finish sighing thinking it wasn't that great beecause they didn't get quite as many laughs as usual.
Although, according to JK Rowling she always intended to make the range grow up with Harry...
I wonder if that's true or just taking advantage of what she's doing anyway?

The tag is <spoilers> with an "s", and must be done in html (as far as I can tell).

Yes, that's how you make the tag.

Although, according to JK Rowling she always intended to make the range grow up with Harry... I wonder if that's true or just taking advantage of what she's doing anyway?

I heard that, too. And I believe it. It's not as though she's got any particular reason to lie about it - although children can often handle more than they're credited with.

And if she keeps her word on the final Harry Potter book being the last book writren by "J.K. Rowling" and writing any other work under a pseudonym to avoid comparisons, she may even get some of my respect back.

Well, I just finished reading it (and as a forewarning, there's no spoilers to be found in my following post. ^_~), and it's another excellent addition to the highly popular series. There were quite a few interesting and, needless to say, surprising revalations within, and I found the ending to be quite the deviation from the norm, but all in all, pretty damn good as usual.

If it's all very well, I'm getting absolutely SICK of hearing about nothing but the marvellous Harry Potter.

Sure, the books are good, but now kids are just getting them because they're cool to have, not because they know anything about reviewing books.

And I for one am sick of hearing about Harry Potter and the Dead Horse, or whatever they're bringing out next.

Pedant note: the horse'd only be dead if nobody was interested.

Here's a question worth asking: how will Harry Potter be remembered 25/50 years after the release of the seventh book? Given their popularity it's not impossible that they would be considered "classics", next to the likes of Narnia or LotR (well, maybe not QUITE that calibur, but still). Then again, it's also fully possible that after that time span HP will have been proven to be a mere fad and wouldn't be particularly well-remembered.

Thoughts?

So many people have finished reading this already? I can never read a novel in one sitting. I think a lot of the time it helps to take breaks every few chapters to fully absorb the experience.

I still haven't read any of the Harry Potter books. I guess at this point I may as well wait for the boxset once the 7th book is released.

I have a lot of respect for Rolwing. The merchandising is a bit much, more than I'd ever allow for any of my creations, but as long as she allows the books to retain their quality and integrity that's the important thing.

I don't understand the mass appeal of Harry Potter. I mean, I suppose I understand why I like it, but I don't see why everyone likes it. The books have an unusually large amount of substance to them.

The thing I hate about the hype is that it overshadows the quality of the books and detract from people's ability to enjoy them for their own merits (which are many). I think that in thirty years or so, the hype will just be a memory but people will still be enjoying the books.

>I suppose I understand why I like it, but I don't see why everyone likes it. The books have an unusually large amount of substance to them.

Can't you appreciate the simplicity of it all...
The sheer fun and delight that's been poured into some characters, the plot lines tingling under the strain on others.

There REALLY IS something for everyone, the crude humour which pulled kids in the first few books with their sense of magic and wonder, the plot lines set up in books 2 and 3 which would pull in a more discerning audience.
There's romances aplenty for the fanboy/girls who want that kind of thing, there's excitement, danger, fun and it all makes a great deal of sense.

It's like Taking Tolkein or Tolstoys work and presenting them in a way that a 10 year old could understand BUT keeping the scale and intensity that made the old books great.

It's like the Philip Pullman books a few years ago, or my own personal favorite, the unexpected (by media critics who thought the age of family viewing was gone, pfahh*) sucess of the return of Doctor Who.
These are things which HAVE the incredible plotting and characterisation of masterpieces but present it at a level which everyone can enjoy.

THATS why Harry Potter has been a runaway sucess, the only people who DONT like it are ones who dont want to be reminded what it was like to be a child when everything was fun.

...

OR, those who have recently become dissilusioned by the media hype and hypocricy of business, but I suspect they'll stillenjoy the books all the same, just be peeved at the excess baggage that comes with them.

While I enjoy the Harry Potter books, and will get round to reading the 6th at some point, I wouldn't say that they are as great as the hype may suggest. There are several books, and series of books, that I would consider to be at least as well written and just as captivating, but which are not as popular as the Harry Potter series.

That said, I do respect JK Rowling for actually keeping up the quality of writing for the fanbase, and avoiding allowing spoilers to be spread around, which I do believe ruins the initial reading. Given that she could just live off what she's earned, or simply ride the wave of celebrity, I do find it fairly commendable that she hasn't "cashed in" on the hype as much as she could have, and avoids publicity for just everyday life, only for her writing. If she does go on to write under a pseudonym, and manages to keep what the psuedonym is quiet, then I believe that would just further demonstrate her integrity in not allowing celebrity status to become her source of income, but the quality of her work, which has, rightly or wrongly, already made her rich enough to live comfortably for the rest of her life.

I have to say that personally I couldn't care less what the marketing bandwagon does. I got severely annoyed on an old university bulletin board a few years ago when someone I'd never talked to before told me the only reason I read Harry Potter was because it was cool.

I read books because the plot sounds interesting. I reread them when the plot *is* interesting (hence I think I've reread Howl's Moving Castle twice in a two week period).

If I listened only to marketing hype, I'd never have read Biggles, or Lord Peter Wimsey, or Diana Wynne Jones' books, or Helen Cresswell...

Sure the hype's a bit annoying, but you can always avoid it. And the plus side is you're guaranteed to be able to find a copy if you want one, rather than having to trawl through several bookshops and eBay looking for them (yes, Sylvester McCoy Dr Who books, I'm looking at you).

As for this latest instalment, I loved it. I'm currently rereading it for clues to various questions I am now going to have to wait years to answer. It was dark but realistic and still had several points where I was laughing out loud. And others where I nearly cried.

Personally, I'd say read this one if you liked any of the others. If not, or you're put off by the marketing department (which, let's face it, appears to have done its job - far better than some of the rubbish adverts I've seen in the past few days that make me wonder what lolo hired the agency), then don't. Each to their own has always been my motto

DW

And I for one am sick of hearing about Harry Potter and the Dead Horse

I don't see why everyone likes it

Maybe because it appeals to everyone. There are certain authors who only direct their books to a particular audience. Example:Jaqueline Wilson only directs her books to teenage girls(eventhough I don't like her books, she's still done well).

But because JK's books are for everyone- there's a wider audience so more people buy them, and they're just well written! There's a few inside jokes here and there, good grammar and whatever...

But still- because of her books there are other authors out there who have been pushed to the side and deserve much more praise then they're getting.
Lemony Snicket is my favourite author- his books are well written, have clever jokes and are unique. The only thing they could do was put his book into a film which did him little benifit.

Yeah- I really like JK's books, and there are much better books out there, but it's just how she appeals to everyone.

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Enjoy the book, and try not to stay up too late reading it, this time. 600 pages in one sitting is NOT healthy!

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...Wish I was told that sooner. I assume its BAD I read the book from 10:00 sat. night to 6:07 sun. morning, basically with no interuptions?

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Well done to JK Rowling, but I do pitty the kids who'll read this book, and finish sighing thinking it wasn't that great beecause they didn't get quite as many laughs as usual.

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Really? While I can understand that about the end of the book, I found myself laughing at quite a lot in the beginning.

Anyway, I found the book to be GREAT. I'm currently re-reading it, slower this time. Same as I did with OotP, where I did one quick read through, and then slower to check for anything I missed. What I do dislike is how much of the story has turned into romance. I can understand some, and would have expected it, but I think it was far too important than other parts, and at times it looked more like filler. I found a few things were far too obvious, chief among them the person who dies, and how it happens. Altogether though, th ebook was a great experience.

Oh, and as a sidenote, I agree that these books are getting way too much special treatment. Seriously, a few kids buy a book, and they get jumped on with all this legal stuff. Cmon, its a book! Blame the people who sold it, maybe, but don't penalize the people who bought it.

Also, the movies are seriously messing with the books' impact. I mean, for one, I don't even like them that much (While some would compliment it, I find that the movies stray too far from the books, I'd actually RATHER have a direct copy.). I have a friend who told me he doesn't like the harry potter books. He read the first paragraph, and he thought it was boring compared to the movies.

About the book itself, and the plot:

What if....

In response to your spoiler idea.

I JUST finished rreading Book 6 (no spoilers in this post) and it was wonderfully done. I was lukewarm to the ending of Book 5 even though I loved it, but the ending to this one was SO much better than the last and so somber as well. Harry's angst phase is indeed over and to be honest - I dont know HOW I managed to avoid spoilers for so long but I did.

So that made the revelation of what happened THAT MUCH MORE of a shock when it actually did. If something very painful doesnt happen to a certain somebody in Book 7 I will be VERY VERY dissapointed.

As far as the marketing machine goes I tend to look at Potter marketing VS the Potter books as separate entities. As long as JK Rowling keeps up the integrity of her books and ends it when she says she will I will have kept all my respect for her. Im kind of thinking that the deal she made with WB concerning marketing was something that not even SHE expected in the long run, so I kind of cut her slack on that because HP became something of a major phenom around Goblet Of Fire and I dont think anyone could have predicted it would get that out of control.

Either way if the ending of 6 is any indication, then 7 is going to be very VERY interesting.

I heard some Religous folks were going around and saying "Harry Potter is aganist the Bible" crap. Well, people will be people I guess. *shrugs* Personally, I dunno if I will read the book but Harry Potter has always been "interesting". XP

If something very painful doesnt happen to a certain somebody in Book 7 I will be VERY VERY dissapointed.

if you and i are thinking about the same certain somebody, i don't think he's really a bad guy; if anything, he was just following someone's last wish (hence the 'please...') if anything, he's going to die at the end of the seventh book, after we find out he's really on the good side all along. then there will be much ANGST. i am willing to bet money on this one.

there were some really good quotes in this book -

particularily "you dare use my own spells against me? it is i who invented them - i, the half-blood prince! and you'd turn my inventions on me?"

(then again, i'm biased.)

and then, my personal favorite:

"'snape!' ejaculated slughorn,"

(taken, of course, out of context. but the word choice! the WORD choice! eee.)

i was, overall, pleased with this harry potter, although i still think jk rowling is overhyped as a writer.

Heh well the Christian camp is split on the HP issue, some like FOTF don't like it but then you have people like Chuck Colson (Yes that guy of Watergate fame) who think it's harmless. Course my parents are in the former camp but I don't care. I already read part of the books and didn't find them interesting at all and the movies sure didn't help either...

We were talking about this in the chat.
My church hates HP as well, but then again, they also hate Pokemon because some bot was seeing pokemon demonds or something...

I don't think there's anything wrong with HP. It's all fictional, afterall...

JK Rowling apparently refused to release an e-book version of the latest installment, out of fear of piracy. Well, Boing Boing points out that the book was scanned via OCR software, proofread, and circulating via IRC channels 12 hours after it hit book stores. What's more, pirates have released a net.radio performance of the book. Maybe Rowling will issue an e-book edition next time around?

That, and the fabulous audiobook read by Jim Dale was easily available online by Saturday night.

I wouldn't mind doing that- but I have church.
Yes- I go to church on Saturdays.