Harry Potter 7 Discussion Thread (Full discussion acceptable)

[Naldru]

The failure of the book stores and publishers to jack up the price of the Harry Potter books is not due to ignorance.  There are strong market forces that stop them from doing so.

All of the major book stores give high discounts on new books that are expected to be best-sellers.  From the standpoint of the book stores, the Harry Potter book is a true commodity - a book purchased from Barnes & Noble is exactly the same as one purchased from Amazon or Borders.  Consumers will go to a different store to get a higher discount, as long as it isn't too great a distance.  In addition, the large book store chains are able to get high discounts from the publishers because they are purchasing in bulk.  Stores that charged over list price would not see any shoppers for the book and might suffer greatly in future sales because of consumer antipathy.

If the publisher doubled or tripled the price to the book stores, it would reduce the rate at which the books were sold.  Some consumers would decide to wait a few months, and others would decide to form small groups that would share one copy among members of the group.  It would antagonize the book stores and consumers.  Remember that the book stores purchase books in very large quantities and have a lot of bargaining power.  Scholastic Books is planning to sell many books other than Harry Potter and doesn't want to kill the golden goose of future sales.  In addition, anger by consumers over a price increase might anger the readers enough that their emotional attraction to the Harry Potter series would be damaged.

Part of the reason that publishers like the idea of selling a very high portion of the print run in the first few weeks is that it reduces costs by eliminating the need to carry inventory for long periods of time.

Another factor is that the emotional appeal of owning the Harry Potter book is that it is a group activity, their friends are also buying and reading the book.  If only one percent of the population could own a Harry Potter book, the value of the book would actually decrease.  If only one percent of the population can have a Furby or a Tickle Me Elmo, the value goes up because in this case the goal is to have something that others don't have.

[Eibborn]

I liked it. Ultimately, it was a fitting end for this series. The only gripe I have is throughout the book, especially toward the end, I was thinking: Whoever said earlier, I think it was Charline, said that 'everyone dies'. Disturbingly close. I kept thinking toward the end, 'Oh come on! The Harry Potter story isn't supposed to be turning into the Jack comic! But that's just me. I know it doesn't actually come near to comparing to Jack, but that's kinda what it felt like. But that's only a minor gripe, and I think the final end made up for it.

Huh, you're kidding! There was what, a dozen recurring characters that ended up dead... I expected much much more. I was even a little disappointed.

[superluser]

Huh, you're kidding! There was what, a dozen recurring characters that ended up dead... I expected much much more. I was even a little disappointed.

I had expected the death toll to include some of the other characters, too.  Judging from the Wikipedia article, enough of the main characters survived (no spoilers kthx) that the continuators will be able to...er, continuate.

[Eowyn]

What Eowyn Types- bbbbbkkkkkk,,,,,,,           rrrrrggggggtttmmmmm
What Eowyn says- no book, bed book. story
What Eowyn means- I don't know if I will ever read this, but from time to time Brun reads to me from the Grimm's fairy tales, some of those stories are weird and silly.

[techmaster-glitch]

My theory is that Hermione beats Harry within an inch of his life.  Because he forgot the safe word.

Holy shite, I just noticed that Super had invisible text in his quote!
Did anyone else notice that?

[Tapewolf]

I finished it last night.  A bit disappointing.
Half-Blood Prince had some sections - notably Harry's lessons with Dumbledore - which I kept re-reading again and again after I'd finished the book.  For the most part, I found Deathly Hallows to be pretty forgettable, with the exception of the final confrontation at the end, and the part where they talk to Kreacher.

Again, HBP had some wonderful lines, for example, where Harry asks Professor Slughorn the same question that Voldemort did decades ago and in exactly the same way.  I can't offhand think of anything which worked quite as well in DH.  It might grow on me though...

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

It might grow on me though...

... like mould. ;-]

[superluser]

I finished it last night.  A bit disappointing.

Well, you have to allow that it's an ending, and she had to include specific things in the ending, rather than allowing the story to develop as it would otherwise.  She may have included some things to make the story difficult to continue without her--which could detract from the story.

She also might just suck at endings.

[Tapewolf]

It's not the ending that was disappointing, it was how it got there...

[superluser]

It's not the ending that was disappointing, it was how it got there...

My point was that the whole book was an ending.