Saturday, July 21, 2007

The End of Harry Potter





(No spoilers here, sorry)
Hello,


It's Harry Potter weekend and I hope the book ends well. Lots of people are reading it now. The interesting news I read online was about research related to the reading habits of kids. A lot of people have said that Harry Potter has gotten kids to read more. I guess the truth is that kids are not reading more. The rates of reading are actually down nationwide. The real question is what would the rates be if Harry Potter had not come along?


I just hope that the end of the Harry Potter books will not be a huge blow to the book business. I guess time will tell, but I wonder what you all think? Will kids (or adults) read less now that the series is over?


Paul




Author of The Pirate Witch
in Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms


Author of The Golden Cord
Book One of the Iron Dragon Series
Five Star Books (April 2008)

1 comment:

Patrick M. Tracy said...

Paul,

I haven't read "Hallows" yet, but I've read all the others. I don't know if they've changed my life, but they're fun books, and I'm sure that a lot of people have been pulled into the "magic" of the series. I hope it ends well, and that there's some "halo effect" for the rest of us out here scribbling down our own fantasy stories.

The problem of low reading rate, though, is a bigger issue than even a phenomenon such as Harry Potter can overcome. We're so over-entertained now, with cable TV, XBox, Text Messaging telephones, the Internet...

It's difficult to pull young people (or old, for that matter) away from all those time-gobbling activities with something as simple as the written word. (although it is wireless...).

Anyway, all we can hope for is to remain a legitimate form of expression in the days ahead.