I Hate Harry Potter and I'm Glad It's Over

Last night i was passing a bookshop at about 11:30pm. There was a queue of about a hundred people outside awaiting the release of the latest Harry Potter book. "Nerds," our taxi driver said, shaking his head, "why are they doing this?".

It's a broad-brush analysis but one I am inclined to agree with. I guess most of the people there could have been buying for their children, but the sad truth is there are enough sane but slightly weird adults who have fallen under Potter Inc's spell.

Through clever marketing, the Potter series has blurred the line between adult and children's fiction, making it acceptable for adults to join in the hype.

Rowling has encouraged adults to lower the bar in terms of what they read. Where will it lead? A is for Apple at the top of the NYT bestsellers repackaged with an adult cover?

And how many other books do the Potter fanatics really read? I suspect that Harry Potter is a bit like a literary David Gray (the anodyne British 'soul' singer popular a few years back) in that the books are largely bought by people who don't normally buy them, explaining the huge sales.

Before Potter, people who dressed as wizards and rambled about Dumbledore's and Hogwarts were rightly on the margins of society, normally to be found only at fantasy conventions with food in their beards and carrying tankards with their names inscribed on in Elvish.

Now, for a sickening week or two they will be in the ascendancy.

"Whats the problem with having fun?" I hear you cry. "Lighten up, its only a book."

No. Its part of a dumbed-down consumerist nonsense that encourages adults to behave like children.

I hate Harry Potter and I'm glad its over.