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karl_moebius (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} karl_moebius) wrote,@ 2007-07-21 12:47:00 |
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Potter...
I got to see a major book release last night.
People lined from one entrance to the other, the store handed out rubber bracelets each a different color and stamped with a different House name. I haven't seen anything quite like that before.
In a new console release, the market the console is primarily aimed for comes to the store and waits. Wii people were often around my age, 360 people were mostly late teens/early 20's, and the PS3 were, well, they had a lot of money, to be sure. But Potter brought kids, teenagers, adults, some dressed up, some with just a flash of makeup in a very recognizable way. Some of my coworkers are disdainful of the book, for a variety of reasons, but... this is the only time I've ever seen anyone line up from such a broad group of ages and backgrounds for a book.
Sure, promoting literacy, discovering books and the like. I'm all for this, but that people lined up waiting for a midnight release of a book is incredible enough, and should make even the most ardent critic pause a moment and consider the sheer amount of people that are reading now because of it.
No more Potter books, and soon no more Potter movies, I wonder what will be next; there've always been attempts to do the same thing, and some haven't even gotten close, but in the end, no matter how 'good' or not they are, I am curious what all these people, after reading a series of books, will do next. Forge ever deeper into the jungles of the literary world, unbound by tests or reports to give to someone else?
People are reading. For enjoyment. They might have been introduced by the movie, by the news, or by someone denouncing it, but they're reading it, and talking about it. A book!
Maybe there is hope for the human race, after all.
I got to see a major book release last night.
People lined from one entrance to the other, the store handed out rubber bracelets each a different color and stamped with a different House name. I haven't seen anything quite like that before.
In a new console release, the market the console is primarily aimed for comes to the store and waits. Wii people were often around my age, 360 people were mostly late teens/early 20's, and the PS3 were, well, they had a lot of money, to be sure. But Potter brought kids, teenagers, adults, some dressed up, some with just a flash of makeup in a very recognizable way. Some of my coworkers are disdainful of the book, for a variety of reasons, but... this is the only time I've ever seen anyone line up from such a broad group of ages and backgrounds for a book.
Sure, promoting literacy, discovering books and the like. I'm all for this, but that people lined up waiting for a midnight release of a book is incredible enough, and should make even the most ardent critic pause a moment and consider the sheer amount of people that are reading now because of it.
No more Potter books, and soon no more Potter movies, I wonder what will be next; there've always been attempts to do the same thing, and some haven't even gotten close, but in the end, no matter how 'good' or not they are, I am curious what all these people, after reading a series of books, will do next. Forge ever deeper into the jungles of the literary world, unbound by tests or reports to give to someone else?
People are reading. For enjoyment. They might have been introduced by the movie, by the news, or by someone denouncing it, but they're reading it, and talking about it. A book!
Maybe there is hope for the human race, after all.
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