What made this series so great to read is because it's easy to follow. Lots of secrets and mysteries for you, the reader to figure out. Not very many books do that.

Lord of the Rings is a great read, but at a lot of points gets a little boring. HP does have that at some times but that's where the hidden stuff is and when you should be paying attention the most which makes you say to yourself "Oh so that's why this and that was included..."

Are kids really reading more or are there just a whole lot of kids reading Rowling?

Also, when I was working at Borders, I noticed a lot of kids reading Manga. I didn't see them anywhere else.

I think every generation has its genre. We had Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley Twins/High, Christoper Pike, RL Stein and VC Andrews.

Not sure what was before that - but it seems to come in waves. RL Stein started writing for younger kids and the older kids turned to what seemed to be sci-fi and fantasy.

Of course, I could be wrong since I work neither in a library nor a bookstore. Just my observations of wandering the youth section of bookstores and seeing what is in your face.

Hard for me to say, to me it doesn't seem there is much more reading. But then where I'd put the bar is probably really skewed from reality.

According to a study in 2002 less than half of all adults had read even one book (novel, short story, play, or poem) in the previous 12 months. It was a survey based on self reporting so the real number is probably even less.

So if 80% of kids who read Harry Potter grow up to read one book a year that would be a significant boost over average.

But it wouldn't even show up on my radar. I can't imagine going 12 hours without having a book in front of me at some point let alone months at a time. So I think my perception of what constitutes "a reader" is just too high.

MSNBC has an article with more information [that was not included in the epilogue] about where everyone is in life. There is stuff about Luna too.

Click me

Ah, ya beat me to it, I was just coming in to post that :)

You are awesome.

Though we're in the same generation, BTD, I didn't read those (though I did spend a small portion of time reading Babysitters Club.) I did, however, spend much time in libraries (summer programs, anyone) reading mostly books that'd been around for awhile. A long while in some cases. E. B. White's Charlotte's Web, Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little... John Bellaire's youth mysteries... anything and everything Samuel Clemens... L'Engle and her various tesseract books... weird old books of fairy tales that were falling apart... strange adaptations of Robin Hood... From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler... The Westing Game...

None of these came out when I was actually reading them, but all of them have stood the test of time. I hope that the kids today are still encouraged to pick them up, even if there aren't midnight releases with costume contests and scavenger hunts and parties for them.

Ack, how can I save this as my avatar? If I click to save it all I get is a static image.

This is too good to miss!

God, I feel old, really old...... I was reading Beverly Cleary when they wre relatively new. I did love the Madeleine L'Engle books, but I came to those much later, in fact, I was in my late 20's when those were pointed out to me.

I tried and tried and tried to read Tolkein, never could get through them.

I was reading EB White, of course, and many classics, never a Nancy Drew crossed my threshold. I did read anything I could get my hands on, thank god we had a good library, I wore out my card.

The Potter books have been enormous fun for me, and I'm happy if one kid learns to love reading from them.