J.K. Rowling has spoken out on her website about spoilers of the upcoming seventh (and last) Harry Potter book. She adds a bit at the end, though.
Even if the biggest secret gets out – even if somebody discovers the Giant Squid is actually the world’s largest Animagus, which rises from the lake at the eleventh hour, transforms into Godric Gryffindor and… well, I wouldn’t like to spoil it.
Nice of her to throw us that tidbit.
This is my to-be-read pile.
It is large. There are 18* books of one type or another in it. One is three books in one (“Confusion” by Neal Stephenson), two are compilations of short stories (Best of Lovecraft and Collected Stories of Arthur Clarke), one is self-help (“7 Habits of Highly Effective People”)one is an autobioagraphy (Ben Franklin’s) and one is a manifesto (“Common Sense”). The rest are novels.
Most every confirmed bibliophile has one of these stack. It doesn’t seem like much until you run around the dwelling and collect all unread books into a pile. Then it seems a bit daunting.
Here is my Manifesto to go with this stack:
“I will not buy more than 18 books before finishing this stack.”
This works out to 1 book from the stack per 1 purchased book. Note that books I check out of the library do not count against this. I can read as many of those as I want. I’m just not allowed to buy any more books than I read in this stack.
Now, if I stick to plan, I’ll read at least a few of these before I make my next run to Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com. Unfortunately, a few of these are pretty cumbersome. “Common Sense,” “The Confusion,” and the Autobiography of Ben Franklin may take me a while. However, I’ve also been know to ready three or more books at once…
*Alert readers will note only 17 books in the image. I found one more afterward.
I was alerted to the Infamous Harriet Klausner by SFSignal.com last fall. I posted once or twice about her.
Now there’s developments. Check out the SFSignal post for details
One of my favorite blogs is SFSignal.com. You know this if you read this blog as I link there frequently.
They have a new challenge! The Harry Potter Outreach Program, intended to convince all those people lined up at bookstores on July 21st (advent of the last Harry Potter novel) that HP is not the end-all and be-all of fantasy or science fiction. Check out the link, and make your own contributions.
It’s no surprise to anyone that J.K. Rowling is positioned to make a great deal of money from the 7th installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. USA Today had an article concerning the initial print run of 12 million copies for HPaDH, which is freaking huge! The same article says that the sixth book (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) had an initial run of 10.8 million and sold 6.9 million in the first 24 hours. I’m going to go out on a limb and project that HPaDH will sell 10 million copies on the first weekend, which conservatively means she’ll rake in $30M by Monday.
That’s a damn good pay rate.
Two months ago, author Brandon Sanderson had some thoughts about the publishing industry and why most authors don’t make much money.
But back to Ms. Rowling. I wish her all the best with the proceeds from her franchise. I hope that it does not quell the creative spirit that she has displayed with Harry Potter et al and that she manages to write more novels of equal quality for us all to enjoy.
Apparently, a large percentage of 4,000 Britons (32%) couldn’t finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
I suppose I can understand that; it’s a large book.
But what really prompts my post is the following quote from the linked article.
The figure was 32% for the fourth instalment [sic] in the Harry Potter series, while 28% said the same for James Joyce’s Ulysses, third on the list.
More people finished Ulysses than Goblet? Did they poll only Oxford literature professors? That is a screwy statistic. Goblet might be long, but it’s not a mental struggle like Ulysses.
Have I plugged the Baen Free Library recently?
No, I do not believe that I have. This is a wonderful resource for those of us who enjoy the fiction that is published by Baen Books. Do take advantage of it by reading these novels entirely for free! No strings!
And, once you’re used to reading electronic books, start buying from Baen Webscriptions, the least expensive way I know to acquire a novel, other than stealing it. There are four publishers represented now: Baen, Tor, Del Ray, and Meisha Merlin (who I’ve never heard of). I own at least 20 novels by now that I’ve never touched on paper. I heartily recommend it. If nothing else, they don’t take up space on our overflowing bookshelves.
This particular meme has been spreading through the blogging community I frequent, especially scienceblogs (of which I read about 1/3), and I thought I would chime in.
J.K. Rowling has finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She apparently likes this book best of all seven.
Ms. Rowling has this to say on her website. I quote it in its entirety, because she doesn’t seem to have an archive for past comments and I don’t want you to miss it. (more…)