Sunday, July 22, 2007

Harry Potter

I read the entire book. Yes...the ENTIRE book. It was a beautiful day saturday and I read outside on my deck. I can say that the ending to the series was very satisfying to me.

Rant Alert!

One thing that was irritating me was the comments that I read from reviewers (professional), reporters, commenters on blogs, etc. Many people are criticizing this book, and people's choice to read it. A reporter in my home town was doing a story and interviewed a small bookstore owner who made comments that we should only read GOOD books because we don't have enough time to read. Well who decides what is a GOOD book? Ok, so this series has not won the Nobel prize for literature or the Pulitizer prize for fiction. Who cares? It is a good story with interesting characters. A commenter on a blog I ran across (no one who usually reads this--it was a professional reviewer and I can't remember who it was) said that everyone he knows that reads Harry Potter does not read anything else. Well, I have read all 7 in the series now. And last year I read almost 400 books of all types. I would like to know how many he read.

The thing is, if you do not want to read the series, thats fine. But do not criticize people who DO. As I librarian and a reader, I believe that people should read what they want. If they don't want to read classics or prize winners, who cares? And those people out there who get self-righteous about only reading"good" books can stuff it. :-)

Rant Over. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

9 comments:

Bearette said...

Definitely, people should read whatever they want! My husband got the Harry Potter book, and he definitely reads other stuff. I peeked at the ending ;)

Kathy said...

Everyone who reads Harry Potter doesn't read anything else?! I read a lot of other things -- probably a lot of things that self-righteous so-and-so would actually consider "good." And I still read HP -- I'm on the the last one now -- since I have to share it with my husband and son, it's taking me longer.

Anonymous said...

That's ridiculous. What did the bookstore owner consider to be a "good" book? Did he/she name any titles?

Joan said...

I absolutely agree! I had a very wise 6th grade teacher who told my mom (who worried about my comic book obsession at the time) that she didn't care if her students were reading the back of the cereal boxes at breakfast...reading is reading!!!

Iamthebookworm said...

Bearette...this has always been a sore spot with me. Especially since I don't read a lot of "message" books.

Katya...the commenter was an idiot! And the bookstore is kind of a half bookstore half gallery type place. Kind of pretentious.

Liz...no he did not name any titles. But I got the impression he was suggesting something with a message. Something that was NOT popular fiction.

Joan...I agree. I inherited my bookworm qualities honestly. My grandmother actually read cereal boxes when she could not get hold of anything else!

Caro said...

I only read Playgirl. Does that count? But I only get it for the articles.

Just kidding. I'm reading HP right now.

Iamthebookworm said...

Caro...sure that counts ;-)

Sarah Louise said...

hear hear!

I could rant about this exact topic forever, thanks for taking care of that...

Iamthebookworm said...

Sarah Louise...you are so welcome! This has always been a sore spot for me.