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deathly hallows

Crazy for Magic!

Sunday, July 22nd, 2007

diagonalwand.gifYes, this is a post about Harry Potter. No, there are no spoilers in it.

The media craze surrounding this book is truly remarkable. I rarely stand in large lines for books. Movies? Sometimes. Concerts? Absolutely. An iPhone? Never. But a book?

Due to the immense popularity of the Harry Potter series in the last few years, the publicity and media have latched onto the fame of the young wizard. There are Harry Potter movies, glasses, toys, temporary tattoos, wands, and even philosophy books (no I’m not kidding). He’s a popular guy. ABC News last week even did a report from the city in which the books were supposedly being printed. It’s amazing that such an insignificant story could make the cut with everything that happened in our country last week; Harry Potter keeps people tuned into the news.

Overall, however, I enjoy seeing Harry Potter information in the news (as long as the New York Times isn’t ruining anything). To have the biggest celebrity craze of the weekend be over a book and not, say, Paris Hilton is a good thing. Harry Potter gets kids reading; there are precious few instances where young children ask their parents to go to the bookstore or library. So many valuable things come from this. Kids are excited to read; parents are excited to read to (and spend time with) their children; nerds get to hang out in bookstores until all hours of the night.

If we have to resign ourselves to the fact that celebrity news is always going to sell, we might as well be grateful that this celebrity actually has something to offer.

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Posted in Media, celebrity, deathly hallows, harry potter, spoilers, wizards | No Comments »

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