Saturday Post
I’m on deadline, but the posts below – about the decline in blogging enthusiasm – got to me (see Matt, not just your stories affect people, your blog posts do to). So here I am in the dark, quiet office, on a Saturday, taking a moment away from typing up a story about the egantic (I try not to say ginormous, since Merriam-Webster made it all official) beastly phenomenon that is Harry Potter. Like Tara (who has had a series of good stories about the book release), I was out at the Potter parties with pen and paper present. Then this morning I made another round of stops at bookstores to catch a whiff of the hangover. Then to another party at the Dallas Public Library, where kids answered ridiculously obscure jeopardy questions about the series, dressed up adorably, and read.
Prior to this story, I had only read one of the books – the first one, in a Banned Books class at UT – but I knew it was big. I just didn’t realize how big.
The stats on how big this thing is are overwhelming. According to Nielsen, 15% of all Americans 12+ have read all the previous Potter books. 28% have read at least one. The first four movies grossed more than 3.5 billion dollars. The soundtracks have sold more than 1.1 million copies (and had more than 180,000 legal downloads). Since June 2002, Americans have spent more than 11.8 million dollars on Harry Potter food products.
I know this office doesn’t get busy on Saturdays until late afternoon, but so much quiet in a place that is normally so abuzz is surreal. The only sounds on this side of the building are the hum of a fan and the regimented meter of me typing this post.