I was browsing Amazon during my lunch break and saw the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pre-order counter nearing 600,000. What an amazing number, and I think it’s great that the Harry Potter series has been able to influence so many children (ahem… and adults) into reading. The series not only encourages reading, but it also encourages imagination and creativity through the creation and description of Harry’s magical world.
But pondering further, I can’t help but feel a bit of negativity towards the whole thing. In today’s constant messages about “going-green”, saving the earth, and cutting pollution. Printing 600,000 copies of Harry Potter just seems a bit wasteful to me. Parents will buy the book, often more than one copy per household because there are more than one kid, and then the book will sit either on the shelf or in some corner in the room collecting dust after being read once. What a waste of paper and resources.
I guess I feel the same way about books in general. I’m willing to bet that 95% of all printed books out there are sitting on someone’s shelf collecting dust. For some reason people like to collect books, maybe to show off how “smart” they are to outside visitors? What is the point of having books you’ll never read again, taking out space, and collecting dust? I understand that reference books are great to have around, so those are ok. But novels? Come on, do you really think you’ll reread your copy of Harry Potter or The Shining?
Go visit the local library… (and yes, I get 95% of my boos from the local library network)
