NP Harry Potter Redux

[Doug Millison]

I suspect that it's the adults who purchased the Harry Potter book 
(for a child of their acquaintance, perhaps) who purchased the other 
books on the list Derek quotes.  Including the publisher is a 
bonehead move, the result of a database glitch I suspect.

I have mixed feelings about the media event aspect of the Harry 
Potter books (but have to admit that the publication of M&D in '97 
was, in its own way, a publicity-driven media event); at the same 
time, I'm glad that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came along to 
jump-start my son's reading this summer.  He whizzed through it and 
has moved on to some books on the suggested reading list his school 
provided:  from Harry Potter to George Orwell's 1984.

I read the first three Harry Potter books to keep up with my son, 
found them a bit thin compared to Tolkien perhaps, but it's easy to 
keep turning the pages, mindless fun.  I don't think they're as rich 
as another current series of novels, for young adult readers, that 
received some attention at first but got swamped by Potter -- Philip 
Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy.  The first two volumes have 
been published here, _The Golden Compass_ and _The Subtle Knife_.
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