Lynn has read the Harry Potter books and she has also listened to them in audiobooks. The other evening, she said she would like to watch a Harry Potter movie. She watches lots of what I like so I agreed. I knew they were beyond extremely popular. How hard would it be?
Wasn't hard at all. Harry and the Sorcerer's Stone was a good movie and I definitely enjoyed watching it.
If you look at Amazon Charts, you can see 20 titles of the most purchased fiction and non-fiction and 20 titles of the most read. I am a good example of the difference between purchasing and reading. I have never been an especially fast reader and I am slower than even now. For one thing, I don't care about speed. I do care about enjoyment, comprehension, sharing highlights on Twitter and researching background and facts about the author, the setting and whatever comes up. Amazon can tell what page of what book I am reading and that is ok with me.
If you look at the most read fiction, it is dominated by Harry Potter stories. You can't outread little kids intent on devouring those books who have very little competition for their time and energy.
A couple of years back, we watched "Magic Beyond Words", the story of Joanne Rowling, a single mother who wrote out an unbelievably successful set of stories and became probably the best known living writer in English and maybe any language. It is a truly incredible story, one that most fiction writers of any genre and maturity want to be their story. The movie is available on Amazon Prime and on YouTube. There are many biographies of the woman but the movie is well done and memorable. It is based on the biography of her by Sean Smith, who specializes in British celebrity biography.
There are seven Harry Potter books and each is also a movie. Last night, we watched #2, with me an enthusiastic viewer. The movie H.P. and the Chamber of Secrets seemed long so afterward I checked on the length. It is so long it takes up an evening but fun and worth watching. Next up: #3.
