May update
I haven't posted in a month, so here's a quick update into the things that have been consuming my attention recently.
I joined Palimpsest in late April. It is my antidote to other online communities or to browsing the Guardian's pages over lunch. Here is intelligent debate (excepting when I post, of course) about books, films, and decent telly, and a community of people who get on well enough to spend a day each year in each other's company. I am suffering unbearable teasing from Phil about having 'strange friends I met over the internet'.
I've been catching up on the Harry Potter books, since the latest one is due out in July. I can't quite decide what to think about them. I know that I am entirely enthusiastic about the next book, looking forward to the final installment in the story. My enthusiasm is entirely undiminished by the fact that the quality of the writing might have diminished throughout the series, that the later books are unwieldy and over-long, that there is too much media hype surrounding the books. Even the irritating fact that many fans insist that J. K. Rowling is 'the best writer ever' and that 'Harry Potter is the best book ever' has not dimmed my liking for the series. I was planning a post on Harry Potter - a review of the books and series, or a comment on why I like it, but I have no idea why I have so much tolerance for it. I am compromised as a person.
Becca
2 Comments
Reader Comments (2)
I can't think of one other title which has even made a dent in the steady decline in reading standards - and not just in the UK, around the whole world. Maybe it was a 'right time - right place' book, but there is something magical (no joke intended) about the effect it has had - backed up by university studies on reading standards apparently (although I can't find any). Without books like Harry Potter (and I'm not saying it is alone in this regard) to ignite interest in reading in childhood, in another couple of decades time there is a danger of not having a viable literary fiction industry.
Disagree if you like, but name a more widely influential work of fiction in the last 2 decades and we have a competition on our hands. Why should the 'best book' award go to the 'best work of literature'?
1. The term 'best' is too loose.
2. Harry Potter has had an effect on children's reading. As I recall, though, the jury's still out on whether Harry Potter actually encourages children to read books other than Harry Potter. But yes, reading Harry Potter has undoubtedly opened many children's eyes to the fact that reading can be fun, and has helped standards of literacy.
The more widely influential work of fiction. Well, by the same token, you could make a case for the Da Vinci Code, which has sales to rival those of HP, and has done a great deal in getting infrequent adult book buyers to read. But I would perhaps go for something like Captain Correlli's Mandolin, or Peter Hoeg's Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, or some other suitably popular, literary, transatlantic or global phenomenon.
Quickly written reply, so forgive the poverty of my argument!