for one day, a nation of readers

[kaigou]

I just realized: on the day the final Harry Potter book came out, in the US alone... one book was purchased for every thirty-six people in the entire U.S.. That is, if you know 36 people, you know at least one person who bought the book. That's not even how many have read, or will read, the book -- the proportion drops further when you add in how many of those copies were for libraries or gifts where a parent reads it first before handing it over to a kid, or vice versa.

One in every thirty-six people in this entire nation.

That's just... wow.

Comments

[roseya19.livejournal.com]

Sorta mind boggling, isn't it. And we've got TWO copies in this house. Amazon did not deliver mine when expected, so son#1 decided he couldn't wait...went out and bought his own. Finished the book Sunday; handed it to son#3, who finished the book on Tuesday. My copy finally arrived yesterday. >_< But... it's mine. ALL MINE.

[clowe.livejournal.com]

Holy crow, that's an amazing number. I bought it and was pretty enthused about the novel. Then again, it actually takes a lot of work for me not to like a novel, so maybe my opinion isn't the greatest.

[driftingdoll.livejournal.com]

And then there are people like me. I know, in person, 20 people who bought the book. In fact, we had a book party, went to the store at midnight, and stood in line with at least 200 other people. In my family alone, we have 3 copies and there are 5 of us. Every single one of my friends is reading or has read the book. I finished it on Sunday.

Check out this article. (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20044270_20044274_20044682,00.html) It's by Stephen King about the final Harry Potter. No spoilers, and he wrote it before the book came out, but it's a great article about the phenomenon itself and how it's effected people.

But yes... wow.

p.s. It helps when I actually put the link, doesn't it?

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

hehehe, I was thinking of calling you at 1130 pm and asking, "so are you first in line, or second and Zeal's first in line?" but then I figured you'd be so intensely focused on THE DOORS ARE OPENING IN TWENTY NINE MINUTES AND FORTY-SEVEN SECONDS that you'd probably not even notice the ringing phone...

Glad to hear you survived the madness. But, oh, the woe, whatever shall you do now that the series is complete?

(Oh, wait, there's still, uhm, two more movies to be made? One? I can't remember. Sorry.)

[okaasan59.livejournal.com]

It's also amazing that so many people sat down and read that entire frikkin' huge book in one day.

[elanivalae.livejournal.com]

Ugh, no wonder I can't get away from that crap. -_- I'm not just paranoid; it really is EVERYWHERE.

[kraehe.livejournal.com]

I'm glad there's someone out there writing a good rip-roaring read for kids (and adults).

People used to line up at the docks waiting for the next installment of Dickens. So Potter-mania is nothing new, really. If the books sucked, it wouldn't be there.

[c-chan13.livejournal.com]

That is a huge amount of people for only one book that has just come onto the market, imagine what it could be in a year or two from now and I'm not even taking into consideration the people that are re-buying the book due to various reasons. Although in my household there are already five copies of the book, but all are currently being hidden away in the deepest recesses of a closet and being held hostage as bribes.