>Like many, I have been following the mysterious Pottermore site with interest. Today, JK Rowling revealed that it will be a site that provides at least 18,000 words of backstory on assorted characters, like McGonagall and the Dursleys, as well as some games and, here’s the controversial part, access to e-books.
No one can argue that JKR has not done way more than any individual’s (nay, any nation’s!) part to boost book sales. Still, like so many in the book business, I am worried about what electronic publishing will do to books and bookstores, especially small independent stores who have to find ways to hold their own against local competition like B&N and against online competitors like Amazon.
I have a Kindle, and I love it, but I admit that I read differently on the Kindle. I’m nearing the end of the fourth George R.R. Martin book. I bought the first one, and then got the second for my Kindle. My husband bought hard copy. I had a hard time reading the book electronically. I needed the maps. I needed to know how many pages were left in the chapter and who came next. Ultimately, I felt less invested in the characters and the narrative on my Kindle, so as soon as my husband finished, I picked up the hard copy with great relief.
I have enjoyed some books on my Kindle–mostly books that don’t feel important, that are just fun or informational–and I certainly enjoy having the Kindle and having so many books on hand wherever I am.
And this is where I get back to Harry Potter. I am a die hard HP fan. I love the books. I re-read them. I have multiple copies of each book, some in foreign languages. I even read Book 1 in Spanish to practice when I was learning the language. I have read all 7 books with my older child and am up to book 4 with my younger kids. I teach the HP books to my college students, and once, sometimes twice per year, I make classes of 25-35 students buy select books in the series. In other words, I have done my share of buying these books from booksellers small and large in four countries.
Now, I can hardly wait to have all seven books on my Kindle. I will always have them with me. Always. When I’m waiting at the doctor’s office, and I’d really like to re-read the scene when Harry first gets snarky with Umbridge, I can. When I’m on a plane, and I crave the Battle of Hogwarts, it will be right there with me. It will be like a literary security blanket.
And carrying around my HP blanket will keep the books present for me, not that I think anything could make them less present. It will remind me to teach them and to read them with my kids and to buy the real books for other children I know.
I don’t think children yet read e-books. Maybe they will some day, but we’re not there yet. Adults will continue to buy the hard copy HP books for children they know. Why? Because the books are important. Because you must have the experience of their heft in your hands or the words on the page.
Nothing sends a shiver down the spine like the last phrase of the first chapter of the first book, “The Boy Who Lived.” Seeing those words on paper is an experience everyone should have for the first time, and the second, and the third. But once that magic has become a part of you, it’s OK to read the words on an e-reader. Their magic simply cannot be lessened. And having those words with me always will be magical indeed.