He seemed a little alarmed at my scream of terror and whisked off his mask to reveal a perfectly sweet smile, a young Chinese guy on his first work assignment after graduating, which was, he told me, to spook the kids who came to buy the book. Nice work if you can get it, I say.
At a counter near the door cauldrons smoked and evil green liquid bubbled in a test tube. Giant spiders and green snakes lurked, while witchily-clad sales assistants handed out forms for the treasure hunt to locate the half-blood prince somewhere in the store.
Today of course was Harry Potter day and around the world the same joyous lunacy prevailed. MPH opened at 7a.m. for the fans. At this one branch alone there were 1,000 pre-orders for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Just multiply that by bookshops across the city, by the bookshops of the world!
I love you, J.K. Rowling, Patron Saint of Getting Kids to Read!
How many kids will are holed up in their rooms in complete and eerie silence right now? How many will be forgetting to eat and going without sleep the whole night?
And along the way learning the best lesson of all ... with books comes pleasure and there are books you just want to devour whole.
(The cynical Mr. Raman says the problem is that kids just don't make the move from Potter to other writers. The trouble with Mr. Raman is that he is a mere muggle.)
Here I must confess I've read only Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. But loved it and am saving the rest for a time when I need to feel a kid again.
For adult readers who something more substantial than Potter, let me direct you to a novel I truly love and must read again pretty soon: Haruki Murakami's Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
It has a hero who goes through the back of a cupboard to discover a strange underground world. (Wherever did he dream up that idea?) It has horrible monsters called Inklings ... and a wood with unicorns in it, a passing nod to Harry Potter.
Rowling hasn't cornered the market in magic, thank goodness.
Postscript:
Was I over-hasty extolling the virtues of Potterdom? I laughed at this review from Kitabkhana.
4 comments:
the first three potter books were IMHO very good reads. Goblet of Fire was so-so. but by the time Rowling got to the fifth book, it began to get a bit ridiculous...
Eyeris! - I was staggered that you managed to read the whole thing in the bookshop yesterday, putting a whole new spin on "no free reading".
Patron Saint of getting Children to Read - that's funny!
"It has a hero who goes through the back of a cupboard to discover a strange underground world. (Wherever did he dream up that idea?)"
That sounds something like CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to me.. ;P
The book sounds really interesting, will prolly look it up on Amazon or WH Smith.
Thanks for the recommendation!
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