Harry Potter is the most hype phenomenon these days, probably followed by Himesh Reshamiya (Is there any magic H-factor here). Unlike Himesh, Harry is a world wide craze. Next Sunday, readers are going to line up in big queues to buy the latest book in Harry Potter series. In my opinion book (at least the Indian Edition) is priced higher than what it can bes worth. There is more of marketing (than literature) about this book. In my opinion, Harry Potter is not a book, it is a fashion.
Why people want to buy the book on very first day? We know there are great books which have been selling for hundred of years. Readers buy them without worrying about if they bought it very first day of the release, or after fifty years of first release. Whereas for the Harry Potter readers it is a question of prestige if they fail to buy the book ASAP after its release. People will stand up in queues for hours - if they were true readers, they would have rather utilized this time in reading some thing else (may be there is nothing as valuable as Harry Potter, but it still would add to their knowledge). For a true reader is it really necessary to buy a book very first day and then boast about this achievement?
Let us compare Harry Potter with I-phones. Consumer queued up for hours (just like Harry Potter fans) to buy the i-Phone very first day. But is i-Phone just a phone? No, i-phone is a fashion factor. Any other phone may be as good as i-Phone in connecting calls, sending and receiving SMS. What comes extra is the better looks, better style, and the pride of being first in the buyer’s list. Similar is true with Harry Potter. If one has to read Harry, to acquire some knowledge, it may not be a great loss if they do it after few days.
Other thing which I find irritating about Harry Potter discussions is that most of the readers do not discuss about the content of the books. They just talk about the number of copies which got sold. The collection which Harry Potter movies did. Number of fans who queued up outside the stores. When it comes to discuss the content of books, they can just say, it was “Great”, it was “Funny”, it was “Hilarious”… No one has any clue about what knowledge they gain from this book, or how this books might have helped them to become wiser, or how it would have changed their character …
Disclaimer: I am not anti-Harry. But I am anti-Hype. I am really very disappointed with the Harry-Hype. I feel that with Harry-sort-of-reading-habit, our kids are going to reach nowhere. Their focus has become so narrow that they do not know of any other book than Harry Potter. They may not know who are the other writers in this world. And they do not even seem to be interested to know. All they care about is how early they will get the book and not about what they will learn from this book. Disappointing state of affairs.
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