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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
I've just booked tickets for J K Rowling at The Edinburgh Book Festival in mid August, so I promise to ask her about her reasons for the the change in title. I'll let you know what she says. Any other questions while we're on the subject? http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
I picked up my daughter's copy of the new Harry Potter yesterday (under instructions, she is away) and I'm only half way through (page 300) - I wonder how many ten year olds will get through all 600+ pages! I'm glad to see that they have given up with the separate titles.
I don't think I'll be posting for a few days - I've just got to find out the ending.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
These books sure do have some hooking power in them. Not only have they set book selling records, but my little brother (11) got the book from the library Saturday morning and he's already done with it! If any book can keep a kid quiet like this I'm all for it.
But about sex in the media reaching children, I read that as the characters in the Potter books get older they're getting into troublesome relationships. Is Harry Potter Jr. next?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
No sign of any teenage pregnancies at Hogwarts yet. All I can report from the fourth book is that they have faced the grueling task of choosing a member of the opposite sex to take to the Hogwarts Christmas ball. I think Harry feels, alongside many fourteen year olds, that he'd rather face a flame throwing dragon than ask a girl to the ball. All in all he might get his first kiss by the age of 21, we wait with baited breath.
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679
addict
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addict
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679 |
> I've not read the Potter books, though I've seen them on the shelves -- it is possible that "philosopher's stone" (the
alchemist's tool to convert metal into gold) is not as widely-known a term in the U.S. as it is in the U.K., hence the
cross-Pond title change to something more "magical"?
This is interesting because I have noticed that there is a major US film company called 'Touchstone pictures' and the touchstone was the alchemist's tool. It certainly was a prophetic title for the company since they have produced many successful (relatively) low-budget movies.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Excellent point, Rubrick!!
However, they weren't fleet of feet (foot?) enough to beat out Warner Brothers for the Harry Potter movie rights.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
>>they weren't fleet of feet (foot?) enough to beat out Warner Brothers for the Harry Potter movie rights.<<
Man--greed runs the world, doesn't it? :-(
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Jackie, I guess we can take some small consolation in Rowling's published refusal to allow Harry Potter action figures in Happy Meals 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
>>I guess we can take some small consolation in Rowling's published refusal to allow Harry Potter action figures in Happy Meals<<
Just to clarify, in case the author somehow (!) sees this:
I was thinking that WB wouldn't have rushed so, if they
hadn't thought there would be $$ to be made.
A side note: I cannot get my computer to make the
symbol for the British Pound.
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 112
member
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member
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 112 |
Harry Potter hype has also reached New Zealand . The visuals are run and re-run of the excited (and sometimes bewildered) children at the opening of a bookstore, waiting for the stock to be rolled out. I read a quotation from a critic's column yesterday - he seems to think that reading HP is about as intellectually stimulating as watching an episode of NeighboursWhatever he thinks, tens of thousands of the books have been sold, prompting me to wonder if the hype around the book has transferred to the ownership of the book, rather than a real desire to read it, for reading's sake? A bit like owning ALL the Pokémon toys? 
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