It came out today! Book # 6!

Our local bookstore stayed open until midnight so that they could sell the book then. The kids dressed up and had a party. The Chicago library system bought 1,000 of the new Harry Potter books, and 500 were checked out by 11:00 a.m. And so it goes.... I suspect the excitement was even more so in England.

The Chicago Tribune editorial made a good point. It said how wonderful it is that this excitement is over a book, and not a video game or a sports hero or a concert...but a book! Kids are clamoring to read! How wonderful!

I went in to work early to get my reserved copy out of the delivery box and read some before work. Now the three of us are sharing 2 copies . . . hubby reads fast, though, so soon my son and I can each have our own.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
It came out today! Book # 6!

Our local bookstore stayed open until midnight so that they could sell the book then. The kids dressed up and had a party. The Chicago library system bought 1,000 of the new Harry Potter books, and 500 were checked out by 11:00 a.m. And so it goes.... I suspect the excitement was even more so in England.

I went into one of my local bookstore/stationery stores (for something else) and there must have been hundreds of HPs literally piled up on the floor.

Some people are reacting very differently though. A school near my ex mother in law was planning a Harry Potter Day where the kids would all dress up as HP characters, but several people - including the local Vicar - had it stopped because they said that it was "dabbling in evil and encouraging children into witchcraft" ! The headmaster protested that he only wanted to encourage kids to read but, no, it had to be called off. The new Pope is also condemning it - although, apparently, the previous one didn't mind it.

Opinion is sharply divided in the church - in all denominations. The Minister in my church (Baptist) likes HP and has bought his daughters every one of the books so far, so I suppose they'll have this one too. I went with a group of friends from church to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at our local cinema a couple of years ago, but I also know several people who tut-tutted disapprovingly when we said we were going.

Frankly, HP isn't that bad (the original Grimms' fairy tales before they were "sanitised" by the Victorians were a lot worse and I don't hear howls of protest about them) and if it encourages kids to read, then I wholeheartedly approve.

I also heard that JK Rowling is now "richer than the Queen"!

According to this article in the Chicago Tribune about the mugglenet Web site, it is run by a 19-year-old Indiana kid. JK Rowling called him and invited him to visit with her in Scotland. His Web site is so comprehensive about the Harry Potter books that Rowling refers to it to keep her plot lines and characters straight!

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several people - including the local Vicar - had it stopped because they said that it was "dabbling in evil and encouraging children into witchcraft"

Why don't you write to the local paper and ask why:

1. The Vicar is being so childish.

2. He isn't minding his own business.

3. He's not wondering why a million times more children read Harry Potter than visit his church.

4. He is bothered about witchcraft which is just another superstition (like any religion) and, in many ways, is a more gentle and considerate one than is Christianity.

5. The Headmaster doesn't just get on with his job (of which teaching the children to read is surely an important part) and tell the Vicar to get on with minding the business of that minority who are his parishoners.

6. People aren't more tolerant!

Great article and site, Kalleh - thanks for linking them!

Anyone finished the book yet? I see her as having wandered off into new territory with only dubiuous success, as she loses a lot of the charm of the earlier volumes.

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Originally posted by haberdasher:
Anyone finished the book yet? I see her as having wandered off into new territory with only dubiuous success, as she loses a lot of the charm of the earlier volumes.

Really? I think it's considerably better than the last book which I found dull and repetetive. The whole of the last book could have been condensed into about thirty pages without losing a single detail of the plot and would have been better for it. The latest would benefit from a decent editor explaining to her that more isn't necessarilly better and chopping about two hundred pages.

This time round though at least there is a book length story involved. The reason it looks as if it's wandered into new territory is that harry is five years older than when the story started. Where you the same person aged sixteen as you were aged eleven?

The biggest problem with JK Rowling is that she's now spent around 3000 pages telling a story that a good author would have told in about 500.

As a reference I reread all the Harry Potter's this past month so I could easily dive into the new one. What I noticed was that after the 3rd book it seemed that she started writing for the actors who are playing her characters instead of their original voices.

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The biggest problem with JK Rowling is that she's now spent around 3000 pages telling a story that a good author would have told in about 500.

I wouldn't go that far. I do agree that the last 2 books needed better editing, but I think you're exaggerating here. I agree with you, Bob, that this 6th book is better. I think she's finally found an editor that isn't intimidated by her success.

I don't see her writing to the actors all that much, either, although I can see it a bit.

I really like this new book. I am still adjusting to the ending, because it really upset me last night when I got to the bad part. I do think, though, that it's a good series.

Also, Hab . . . I think some of the charm was the discovery of the new world, the set of different rules in that world, and all the little interesting gadgets and so on, and that has worn off a smidge. I think Bob is right there, too, in that most 16 year olds are not as charming as 12 year olds.

One review I read remarked that she seems to use far too many adverbs in her writing. I wonder if future generations will play 'Harry Potters' instead of 'Tom Swifties'?

P.S. The same review did of course mention the glaring need for a fearless editor.

Yes, I've read that, too. I wonder how much all of those negative comments influenced this tighter style of writing.

But - more importantly than all this . . . something that has plagued me for years now . . .

What is a rock cake? At first I just thought it was something funny that Hagrid made that Rowling had made up, but then I heard it referenced in something else.

Ah! Along with steak and kidney pudding and spotted dick, another British treat that the Americans have never heard of!

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that the Americans have never heard of!

Ah, pobrecitos.

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Ah! Along with steak and kidney pudding and spotted dick, another British treat that the Americans have never heard of!

Right - so what is it, then?

Small hard scone like cake, sweet not savoury.
Usually containing dried fruit.

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P.S. The same review did of course mention the glaring need for a fearless editor.

I've heard this criticism before and never understood it. I think Rowling has a very concise, cinematic style. The first book takes 8 hrs to read aloud, the second 9, the third 11. Take, for example, the level of detail in her description of the Knight Bus: it is purple; it is a triple-decker; it has "Knight Bus" in gold letters across the front. That's it. Tolkien would have spent two paragraphs describing the hood ornament.

I think Rowling understands something very important about children. Children don't read to find out how it turns out, or to appreciate great writing, or to finish so they can get the review finished by the deadline. They read to be transported. I think the increased length of the 4th, 5th and 6th books is a response to the desire of her readers to be transported for longer periods of time. She's short on description but long on atmosphere. Our kids listen to these books over and over and over again. We have lots of other audiobooks, but they never listen to any of the others more than once.

Ooh - good point, neveu. I read to be transported, as well. My son has listened to the HP books many, many times.

I just realized I read to be transported also...! My 2 children, 19 and 16, are sharing Harry Potter 6, and having a grand time.. when they are finished, I will complete it...

In my public elementary school, my students cherish Harry Potter, and do not want to turn the book in, even when they have finished it! It's a GOOD problem.

Hooray for JK Rowling, I say!

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Originally posted by KHC:

In my public elementary school, my students cherish Harry Potter, and do not want to turn the book in, even when they have finished it! It's a GOOD problem.

Not quite such a good problem at the middle school where I work. We went out, at the beginning of last year, and bought 10 copies of the then new 5th Harry Potter book. At the end of the year we only had 2 back. They were not returned and not paid for and that was not a good thing. With school starting in 2 weeks we now wonder if we should go to the expence to get the 6th book if it is just going to be stolen.

More in sorrow than in anger: Thoughts on HP 6

I take no issue with the editing, nor with the plot turns. My disappointment is more about what I see as deterioration of style.

It's true that sixteen-year-olds aren't as cute as eleven-year-olds, but that's not the problem. There were teenagers in all the other books too, and they hadn't refrained from pairing up, either, but they weren't snogging in the Common Room, arms twined around so closely that you couldn't tell whose hands were whose. The writing is more casual now, coarser, even cruder. The King's English has degenerated into Cockney; Henry Higgins has been replaced by Alfred P. Doolittle, only without his charm. There was a reserve in the earlier volumes, a dignity, that has been discarded, or at least devalued and sacrificed.

Also missing is the feeling of spontaneity that used to pervade. Instead of the kids talking, there is too much an air now of amateurs reading lines. Things used to happen naturally, inevitably, and Rowling just related them to us; but now it is rather that the Author Says So. It's forced, Deus ex machina to advance a plot. "Using his Mysterious Powers, the Green Hornet escaped from the trap, once again." How convenient. It was not always thus.

I know it's very hard to avoid this kind of problem with multiple sequels. Unfortunately. I hope she does better with the last volume.

Or will it be the last volume? There are still four Horcruxes ("Horcruces"?) left, and then Voldemort himself to deal with, and that's an awful lot for one final book. If Harry leaves Hogwarts, the limit of a seventh and final year is lifted...At this point I'm not sure whether that's an appealing thought or not.

I keep starting to reply to this, but I don't want to give away anything from the ending, etc., so I stop myself. One thing I really enjoy about book 6 is that she has some gripping action very early on. I think that was lacking in book 5.

What is up with the word scive? I have found the slang definition from Cambridge:
skive
verb [I or T] UK INFORMAL
to be absent from work or school without permission:
Tom and Mike have skived (off) school today to watch the football match.

skiver
noun [C] UK INFORMAL
a person who is absent from work without permission

And another definition from Merriam-Webster:
skive
Pronunciation: 'skIv
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): skived; skiv·ing
Etymology: probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse skIfa to slice
: to cut off (as leather or rubber) in thin layers or pieces : PARE

Took me a while, in book 5, to figure out what Fred and George were talking about when they made Skiving Snack Boxes.

Can someone give me an etymology?

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Originally posted by Caterwauller:
I keep starting to reply to this, but I don't want to give away anything from the ending, etc., so I stop myself.

I'd like to hear what you think - try a PM? We can open the thread again later on maybe, so as to let others read uninfluenced in the meantime.

Right - PMing going on now.

So - about the Skiving thing . . . should I move that question to another thread or forum?