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As of
the writing of this (the wee hours of July 21, 2007), the
West Coast of America is still in the grips of Harry Potter
fever. Thanks to time zones, the rest of the world may already
be asleep—with pre-ordered-and-picked-up-at-midnight
copies of the final Harry Potter novel clutched to slumbering
breasts. Or perhaps they're staying up all night trying to
find out who kills whom and if Harry marries Ginny and if
Hermione comes to life and puts her smooches on me. This is
on everyone's mind.
In the
interest of science, I walked to my local bookstore for their
midnight hullabaloo. The regret of not experiencing part of
what is easily the largest book release in the history of
Earth loomed large in my mind. The media saturation over the
release of a book has been insane: the hype, the ridiculous
security, the internet folks taking pictures of every page
of the novel they somehow obtained early, and the NPR interviews
with Harry and the Potters (a full two weeks after
we posted ours!). It's so refreshing to have the public clamoring
for the written word, as opposed to, say, the latest antics
of drunken heiresses or the paternity tests of pain-killer'ed
ex-nude models.
 The
only analogous situation I can think of, in my lifetime, are
the premiers of the Star Wars prequels, but I can't
think of any record albums to warrant the same fervor and
certainly not any books. Even those Star Wars fanatics
didn't have the fervent security this novel has had. This
is certainly a unique phenomenon.
As I
walked to the local bookstore, I had to turn a corner before
the store came into view. I thought, "Either this place is
going to be insane, or I am going to see an empty parking
lot with everyone having gone to bookstores that had bands
and fifteen-foot-long snake cakes." Thankfully, it was neither,
but it was more crowded than I had ever seen it. It wasn't
the bedlam I had hoped to see, but it was a good crowd. It
simply looked like the winter holiday shopping crowds turned
up to 11. There were, however, roughly 20% more people in
costumes. This is less a comment on the amount of fanatics
there (and there were many) as it is a comment on the amount
of batshit crazy acid casualty C.H.U.D.s
that inhabit my local bookery.
At any
rate, we are all soon to experience what my heroin addict
friends call the "come down." The last book is done and read
and everyone will need to find that next hit. It is one of
my deepest hopes that all those kids who grew up with Harry
Potter, or discovered reading because of it, will continue
to do so with the same intensity that drove them to midnight
release parties. Heck, I hope more books warrant midnight
release parties. Sure there will be toddlers and kids not
yet born who will "discover" the series as a classic when
they come of age, but we'll never again experience such intensity
(with the possible exception of the final film adaptation,
starring 33-year-old Daniel Radcliffe).
All that
aside, we once again welcome you back to our website. Thanks
for coming back. In this issue, we have our usual array of
book reviews and columns for you to enjoy. Additionally, we
also have, as a special guest, recent HBC favorite Tao Lin
interviewing Noah Cicero. The interview
takes a quicker left turn into discussing pornography than
we're used to, and there seems to be a certain fascination
on hipster neckwear (they prefer the scarf), but we sincerely
hope you enjoy it. If not, we can still say we got authors
to write for us for free. Suck it, people with money.
Sleeping
soundly, knowing we bested NPR,
Kyle
(August,
2007)
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