Joanne Kathleen Rowling, according to Forbes magazine, is currently wedged between Michael Jordan and Cher in terms of celebrity money-earners – having made approximately $40 million in the past year.
You could debate for hours the value of Jordan’s endorsement deals or the price of a ticket for a Cher concert.
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But Rowling … I think she deserves every penny.
Why?
Because she’s got people young and old reading like crazy. And that’s a good thing for society as a whole.
Last weekend, I witnessed the phenomenon that is Harry Potter.
Saturday evening, at a wedding reception in Bristol, a guest at my table – a financial consultant in his 40s – acknowledged that he had never been much of a reader. At least not until he became captivated by this Harry Potter character. He devoured the first four books and is anxious to get started on the fifth installment of the series, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which was recently released.
The next morning, visiting my sister-in-law and her family in Narragansett, I noticed that my 10-year-old nephew had already gotten his hands on the “Order of the Phoenix,” which is almost twice the size of the Yellow Pages.
My nephew and the wedding guest are not alone. A co-worker told me she spent part of her lunch hour the other day reading the first chapter of Rowling’s latest. Even in hard copy, it’s sure to be a staple on many a beach blanket this summer.
Yes, Harry Potter, is indeed quite magical.
In America alone, there are nearly 80 million Harry Potter books in print. “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” has already broken records with an initial print run of nearly 7 million copies and a second printing of an additional 2 million.
Rowling deserves all the acclaim, attention and financial security that Harry Potter brings her.
The unassuming author of the Harry Potter series was born in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, England. She initially found work as a secretary before teaching English in Portugal. That experience was followed by a move to Edinburgh, Scotland, where she now lives with her husband and two children.
If you are among the uninitiated, the world was introduced to Harry Potter in Rowling’s first book, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” in 1998.
The title character is a 10-year-old orphan who lives with his dull Muggle (non-magical) relatives, the Dursleys, until he learns that he is actually a wizard and is enrolled in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. That’s where the adventures begin. Along the way, you are introduced to several of Harry’s friends, teachers, a frightening three-headed dog named Fluffy and a game called Quidditch, which participants play while riding on jet-powered broomsticks.
Harry Potter, Rowling has told interviewers, strolled into her head “fully formed” while she was riding a train in 1990.
It’s a wonderful thing for all of us that he did.
You don’t have to be a fan of fantasy books – you don’t have to be among those caught up in the Harry Potter craze – to appreciate what Rowling has accomplished.
With Harry Potter, she has convinced so many young people that it is perfectly acceptable to shut off the television or the Sony PlayStation for a couple of hours and settle down with a book.
Imagine children pleading with their parents last week, as summer vacation got started, to bring them not to the movies, but to Borders or Barnes & Noble.
And imagine the message a child receives when he or she sees a parent transfixed by a book.
Sometimes it takes a character like a Harry Potter or a Holden Caulfield or a Hester Prynne to convince – or to at least remind us – that reading is a worthwhile investment of our time.
For children, reading has always been – and will always be – their ticket to success. Have you seen a fourth grader’s math text lately? It’s as much about comprehending word problems and concepts as it is about numbers.
Elementary school teachers will tell you that it is reading skills that hold the key to success in all subjects.
And for adults, how is it that you expect to expand your vocabulary if you aren’t reading? Are you required to give presentations to your boss – or a board? You can bet that the readers among you are far more comfortable in such a situation.
So go and buy your children – and yourself – a Harry Potter novel. Or some other book, for that matter. Shut off the television. And just read.
As for J.K. Rowling, good for her that she’s pushing Michael Jordan in earnings.
We’ll all get much more out of a good read – than a good jumpshot.
