Browsing the Bookshelves

I've just seen the Guardian article reporting attempts by armed gunmen to sell advance copies of the new Harry Potter novel to the Mirror and the Sun for £30,000. (Read story here.)

The whole Harry Potter phenonema leaves me a little cold. I love the fact that Rowling's little wizard has fired enthusiasm for reading for a whole generation. I get a warm glow inside when I hear of queues outside bookshops and of booksellers opening their doors in the middle of the night and hosting midnight events to mark publication.  Our local bookshop, which will be opening at midnight on publication day, has hired entertainers to keep the queuing crowds amusing.  Wonderful I love the books too - Rowling has done much to make it socially acceptable for adults publicly to read children's books for pleasure.  And, of course, strong sales of Harry Potter titles have helped our bottom line over the last few years.  But there is something quite surreal and chilling about the fact that something as innocent as a novel can lead to armed crime.

Personally I think the high prices which first editions of the early Potter novels now attract are unsustainable. Rowling is no J R R Tolkien and Harry Potter is not a Hobbit. I very much doubt that the prices will hold. Those who have invested tens of thousands of pounds in search of elusive, signed first, will, I think, be disappointed in the long term- whether their purchases were made for profit or pleasure.  So perhaps it is inevitable that some will try to make a quick buck out of Harry Potter while they can.  But guns? Rotweillers? Really! This is a children's book. It's fantasy.  It's pure pleasure. Putting aside the moral issues of breaking embargos, breaking the law, endangering life, what these people are doing is destroying happiness and exploiting dreams. These are deep and significant sins, the consequences of which are hard to demonstrate, but nonetheless very real.  We don't what Harry Potter in our real world. We want him just where he should be, in the wonderful world of Hogwarts and muggles, witches and spells, and quidditch.  Destroying innocent pleasure should be a statutory offence.  And so should any act that puts Harry Potter out of the books section and on to the front pages of the popular press.