The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Muggles are relieved as the wait ends

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 22, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Muggles are relieved as the wait ends

Staff Reporter

20,000 copies were sold in the first 12 hours on Saturday

— PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR

At last!: A fan reads a copy of the last Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in Bangalore on Saturday.

BANGALORE: Twenty-something Jacob Joseph found it worthwhile to wait overnight near a mall to buy his copy of J.K. Rowling’s last Harry Potter book. He would have waited at the bookstore itself but was shooed away by the security personnel. So he spent Friday night with his two buddies outside the mall.

When The Hindu went around the city checking out bookstores for the marketing event of the decade, at least as far as books are concerned, very young fans were scarce. Mostly it was college students and working professionals who had turned up to buy Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, priced at a hefty Rs. 975 but available at discounts ranging from 15 per cent to 30 per cent.

The myth that Potter is a children’s book seemed to have been dispelled, going by the early morning crowd. With the exception of Gangarams Book Bureau, children were few and far between. “I read the first book when I was 13 and have basically grown up with the book,” said Shreya, a college student. Not that the little Muggles kept away. Nine-year-old Anusha A.V., who was at Landmark, said she started reading Harry Potter when she was four-and-a-half. “I’m waiting for the book,” she said, from her place in the line along with her bleary-eyed father at 5.30 a.m.

Pester power

Pester power was very much in evidence. A mother, accompanying her nine-year-old said, “He got up at 3.30 and wanted us to come to the bookstore. But I felt it was unsafe. So we came at 4.30.”

In fact, those who turned up at 5.30 were shocked to see serpentine queues. “We didn’t expect crowds so early,” was the general chorus. Surely they did not know about 12-year-old Adrien Frank who took his place (the first, of course) at 2 a.m. outside Gangaram’s.

With frenzied speculation over Harry’s fate, some buyers went straight to the last page. Niket Dhami, manager at Sapna Book house, Indiranagar, said, “The hype around Harry Potter’s (possible) death made a lot of them read the last page first. This however did not dim the sales as people are still interested to know the rest of the plot. The hype has definitely added to the sales.”

The owner of Blossoms, Maya Gowda, expects to sell 1,500 copies the first week alone.

Sibling rivalry

The book also seems to have aggravated sibling rivalry in some cases. The proprietor of one of the best loved bookshops in the city said there were some parents who preferred to spend on a copy for each child in the family in return for fraternal harmony. Other more frugal parents advised their offspring to flip a coin for the privilege.

In the midst of all the gloom of young people turning away from books, with the exception of the Potter series of course, there are also instances of Rowling showing young people the way to the magical world of words. Varun V.J.R. (9) said, “I really like Harry Potter. But now I also like Tolkien and C .S Lewis.”His words were corroborated by Premier Book House owner Shanbhag, who said that the Potter series has inspired many to pick up books such as Christopher Paolini’s Eragon.

Detractors

But then again, there exist detractors such as Harsh, (10) who said, “Harry Potter is alive out of sheer dumb luck and by my calculations should have been dead 17 times over.”

However, such nonconformists are definitely in the minority.

According to Penguin spokesperson, Hemali Sodhi, the city snapped up 20,000 copies in the first 12 hours on Saturday, including online bookings.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka