Unimaginative Observations

I need to write a book. Or Seven.

I guess I’ll never comprehend what drives people to queue through the night just to get their hands on a product that won’t be sold out in the morning, even if tens of millions of copies do fly off the shelves in a single day. What’s all the more amazing to me is what they’re queueing for, we’re not talking about a recently discovered, never before published, literary masterpiece from Shakespeare, but (another) sequel to a rather lacklustre series of not-so-original books chronicling the adventures of a not-so-original character and his band of not-so-original friends. I’ve tried to read the books, I’ve tried to watch the films but I just don’t seem to get caught up in he hype that is Harry Potter.

I’ve been rather disturbed by the level of racket surrounding the latest book in the series, apparently the last (thank god), though I’m sure that J.K. Rowling and her publishers have been lapping it up. I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but in the UK many stores have been undercutting each other to the extent they’re selling the book at a massive loss, probably in some desperate attempt to entice customers into their stores to buy something else. I wasn’t surprised to walk into ASDA-Walmart and find huge banners advertising a sale price of £5 (RRP £17.99), pointing shoppers to the book section in the furthest corner of the store. While ultimately the customer wins, it’s another case of the supermarkets ruining it for everyone else in business, now that they have their dirty fingers in the sales of every single type of tangible product available to the country. I feel sorry for the legitimate bookshops that are forced to either match these ridiculous prices or not sell the book at all. How long can this kind of idiocy across different markets continue? At least J.K. and her publishers get their cut, and the supermarkets can claim yet another increase in their ever expanding market share.

Maybe I’m missing something, there seem to be millions of other adults (and kids?) who thoroughly enjoy the series and empathise with its characters and the world which contains them, but from what I’ve read and seen it all feels a little… unchallenging. It’s amazing what marketing hype can do, and regardless of actual quality there’s no doubt that the insane price wars all over the world have contributed to the indubitably amazing success the latest addition to the series has had. Or maybe it just is that good, what do I know?