No, you’re not the only one, and since this isn’t the Pit, I’ll refrain from elaborating on just HOW much of a (self-edit) silly person (/self edit) it makes people who do it look.
I’ve only read the first book, but I’ve seen the movies (thought the 3rd one was the best) and never had any call to interact with Harry Potter fans until a couple of days ago. I saw a test screening of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Chicago and made a short post about it on oscarwatch.comand started answering questions. That poor place got hit with SO many page views that it crashed the oscarwatch servers Sunday and Monday, so I moved over to a Harry Potter fan forum, The Leaky Cauldron, and have been answering questions for fans there
for the past few days. I must say, the people there are SO nice, and SO friendly, that I’m overwhelmed with warm feelings for them. I’m sharing their excitement and feel very protective of them, so I think the OP should just shut his eyes and ears and let the fans have a bit of fun with something that only comes along once every few years. It’s rude and unnecessary to piss on people who love something that other people don’t.
Harry Potter doesn’t need hype. The fans are anxious, but they all know about the book coming out. It’s the stupid media the OP should be upset with. It’s the media that’s making SUCH a big deal out of it.
What? Is there Harry Potter ceral? A wall of HP toys at the local toy store? I think that the whole thing is being played down. If it weren’t for the fact that I have a friend who works in a bookstore and the Dope I wouldn’t know that the new one was coming out.
That Joel Stein fellow is a douchebag attempting to get publicity by taking a wildly unpopular and ignorant view just like the tools who rip Lance Armstrong a new one when he wins a Tour since biking “isn’t a real sport.” :rolleyes: The OP hasn’t reached douchebag standards yet, but needs to chill out.
All seriousness aside, yes, of course I am over-reacting. But that’s part of the fun!
And on Saturday night, we are going to gather as a family, ceremonially open our copy, and read it aloud to each other. Like we did with HPatOofP. And it was fun. Lots of fun.
And more importantly, it was fun for everyone, and on the same level. We are all fans in my family, even the teenagers. All of us, all wondering How It’s Gonna Come Out.
That’s the good part. I and my wife can be as excited as the kids, and the kids can be as excited as kids too.
I don’t mind the Harry Potter fuss. Although I think the books are vastly overrated, it’s obvious that many people are enamored of them. The anticipation of a new Harry Potter book is a very big deal for these folks. I don’t feel that I have to share in the excitement, but I can honor the enthusiasm. People need something to look forward to. The Harry Potter phenomenon is much like the Star Wars hoopla. I can remember having been so eager for Return of the Jedi that it felt like a religious quest.
I liked the books up to the 4th, then the 5th came out and it lost all the dignity it had with its storyline: Harry is the One. He will bring balance to the force. :rolleyes:
What I find compelling, even troubling, is how much credit Rowling’s fans have given her. Everyone tries to fish out clues from each little redundant piece of dialogue and description. They bring other myths that have something to do with the Potter books (“Analyzing Bram Stoker Through the Eyes of Harry Potter: Is Voldemort Dracula in Disguise?”) and have huge philosophical debates about Ron and Hermione’s relationship and argue it’s actually an allegory to France and the U.S.'s world policies. I will never understand these people. Rowling writes interesting stories that hit a spot on children and adults alike, but is she the next Goethe? Knock it off.
Want to know if James Potter spells Voldemort too? Shut up and read.
When I worked for one of the nation’s largest booksellers, we pondered this question all the time. Not that HP is *bad, but there are plenty of series that are just as good.
Off the top of my head I could name:
Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series
Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series
Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series
(Piers Anthony is not fit to lick the dust off these authors’ – or JKR’s – boots, BTW)
It was just good luck for JKR, I’d have to say. The publisher got it into the right hands at the right time.
I’ve read them all and I agree with the OP. The frenzy over these books is kind of silly. In any event, based on the pattern of the five five books, the next one will be pretty much the exact same book as the last one.
To each his own, but frothing-at-the-mouth fan frenzies are not pleasant sights, for this or any other pop culture fad.
To each his own indeed. I found the 4th and 5th books dramatic departures from the earlier novels. And, mark my words, this is no fad. Children will be reading these for generations. Mine will be.
I’m not sick of Harry Potter per se, but I have become less of a fan as the series has progressed. The books started off good, but there’s a noticable decline in the writing with each volume. I read “HP and the Order of the Phoenix” and decided that that’s where I would get off the Hogwarts Express. The writing in that one is just plain bad, like the book wasn’t even edited at all. This is probably a byproduct of the success of the earlier books. Rowling’s probably like a lot of writers who hit it big–they stop listening to their editors and insist that every word is gold and must stay in the text. You get some leeway when you achieve success, but the bottom line is, the book still needs to be a good book. HP #5 wasn’t that good. So I’m not particularly interested in reading #6.
As for the movies, I have even less interest there. The first was decent, but nothing special. The second was just bad (the child actors really regressed between the first and second flicks). Didn’t bother to see the third, probably won’t see any of the rest.
So no, you’re not alone, but it’s not just a reaction to the hype–it’s that the hype, at this point, is undeserved.
My wife is an administrator on a role-playing game based on the story and characters of the Harry Potter books. She has all the first edition books and other memorabilia. She’s in the other room now, administrating.
I, on the other hand, have no feelings about Harry Potter one way or the other. I neither like the phenomenon nor dislike it. It plays no part whatsoever in anything I do. If you have no interest in something and you ignore it, it’s almost as though it doesn’t exist! Maybe you could try that, and soon you wouldn’t be sick of it anymore!
In defense of the OP, the word “hate” was never used. The OP is sick of Harry Potter, and of all the ridiculous hype that is going on about the release of the new book.
To the OP: No, you’re not the only one. And no, I haven’t read the books. I saw the first movie, it did nothing for me, so I have no desire to read the books.
I did read a news story about the injunction granted against those who, through no fault of their own, bought a copy of the book before the sacred date. Just a travesty of justice.
I think it’s cool that a book is this anticipated, this avidly looked forward to, and that there are going to be this many people reading it all at the same time. Kinda like when Sgt. Pepper came out?
That and she was a single mom who wrote them down in notebooks while frequenting cafes in the beginning.
No, she’s not exactly Faulkner. She’s not the world’s greatest writer and yes, there are things to quibble about with the Potterverse. But in the end she’s an excellent yarn-spinner, and she’s given me countless hours of enjoyment.
She’s like this generation’s Beverly Cleary. Harry, I think, is right up there with Ramona Quimby.
In my opinion, she’s done a great thing-she’s got kids excited about reading. That, my friends, is something you can’t overhype. I love seeing little kids being so eager over a BOOK, rather than the latest video game. Finally, reading is seen as “cool” again. I will always love her for that.
(Oh, and she pisses off the stick-up-their-asses religious zealots.)
Meh. Stein’s writing is full of hyperbole, for sure, but this is for comic effect. His core message - this is a pretty good book, but it’s written for children and young teens, there’s better stuff for adults - is debatable but certainly not “ignorant”.
But is that actually true? For all the hype, is it actually the case that the Harry Potter series has resulted in a substantial increase in the amount that kids read? Perhaps memories are getting short, but I remember a hell of a lot of kids in the children’s sections of my local libraries and bookstores BEFORE Harry Potter was big.
Aside from the PR and news releases, where’s the actual evidence the Potter series has “made reading cool again”?
That was just hyperbole on my part. The point is, I don’t remember this kind of excitement for the release of a BOOK, rather than a video game, prior to Potter.
A personal anecdote, my cousin’s wife got her nephew (well, he’s also my cousin, since his mother is my cousin) reading by starting him on Harry Potter. He was eleven, he has ADHD and a lot of issues, and he always had trouble reading, until she read the Harry Potter series to him.
Well, it’s slightly easier to sell kids other really good fantasy novels by telling them ‘it’s like Harry Potter’! I work in a bookstore. I am thankfully not working on Friday. I have read the first four books, and intend to read the fifth and sixth, in spite of not liking them that much, because of all the, ‘you can’t judge, you haven’t read them!’ crap.
I don’t think they’re terrible. I don’t think they’re great. There’s better children’s fantasy out there, both series and single books. I adore children’s and YA fantasy and read a lot of it.
Thanks, Hello Again. I agree with your list. I’d like to add
The Old Kingdom trilogy, by Garth Nix (incidentally, there’s a new short story collection out by him, called Across the Wall), * Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen* Spindle’s End, and Rose Daughter, by Robin McKinley Fire and Hemlock, by Diana Wynne Jones A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
About the ‘Harry Potter has dramatically increased the number of children reading’ bit, I don’t know. In a grumpy bookseller sort of way, I don’t really like the way Harry Potter overshadows many other very good children’s fantasy novels. Nevertheless if it does lead them to pick up The Dark is Rising, or The Golden Compass, then it’s good.
I am still rather tired of Harry Potter, in much the same way that I’m tired of The Da Vinci Code and I’m getting tired of The Kite Runner. Simple job-related overexposure.
Certainly not caring or even disliking the Harry Potter books is anyone’s prerogative. But why disparage the passion of others?
Like others I can remember doing whatever it took – which in my case was waiting in line for over 3 hours – to see The Return of the Jedi the first day it was released, and I can well imagine that for many young people today, the anticipation for the release of the latest HP book is no less.
Has there been nothing in your life you have anticipated so much that you found yourself counting down the days and hours until its arrival?
I was never a sports fan growing up, and viewed with some disdain those who followed a team every day, live-or-die, as obsessed fools. Then I became one myself when I was 21 and the emotional attachment involved, however irrational, is genuine. I have even taken a vacation day on more than one occasion so I could wait all night and into the morning for the first day of regular season ticket sales.
I still get annoyed when football games push “The Simpsons” timeslot around or force the Halloween episode to air in November, though
As a non-religious person these are as close to a “religious experience” I’m going to get.
When I was in high school - when the first 2 books first came out, I saw a sign on the local bookstore saying that the author of Harry Potter would be there. I had no clue what the books where or why there was such interest.
Later that week, I was babysitting two little girls who hated to read. Their idea of a good time was watching Olsen twins movies.
This particular day was different. Both girls spent the whole night reading HP. I asked them what they liked so much about the books and they spent the next hour going over every little detail of the books. Then, they asked me if I knew any other books like that. I started recommending books I had enjoyed as a kid. They read what I suggested - and they liked them.
These two little girls had grown up with the belief that reading was something boring, only to be done in school. The HP books, which they only read because their friends were reading them, opened them up to the joy of reading. I sat for that family for another 4 years and both girls continued to read books I suggested. By the time I graduated, each girl had over 100 books in her room. I would read them to sleep. I would get them to do their homework by threatening to not read to them.
In my opinion - that’s why the HP books are so great. The first book attracts kids with the stories of magic and mystery and adventure. After that, you have to read the next and the next after that, just to see what happens. One good experience with a book has led to many of the kids I know becoming avid readers.
I don’t care what a kid is reading as long as they are reading. Now, we just need to get them to go out and play when they’re done reading.
So, as for the OP, you’re by no means the only one sick of the hype around the books. I am a big fan of the books - not such a big fan of the movies. Even I get a little sick of the hype. I preordered my book and I will finish reading it before Monday. But I won’t be at the store midnight Friday. I don’t really care if a secret plot twist leaked out in Canada - as long as no one tells me what it is. I don’t care if advance copies are sold and I don’t spend hours speculating on what the big secret is. Sometimes, I wish everyone would shut the hell up about the whole thing. But, if dealing with the hype means kids are reading, I can live with it.
