A Progressive on the Prairie

Musing Mondays: Book crazes

How do you feel about wide-spread reading phenomenons – Harry Potter, for instance, or the more current Twilight Saga? Are these books so widely read for a reason, or merely fads or crazes? Do you feel compelled to read – or NOT to read – these books because everyone else is?

I don’t generally indulge in them but think they’re wonderful to the extent they encourage anyone, young or old, to pick up a book and read it.

I read the first couple books in the Harry Potter series as they came out but kind of gave up maybe half way in. There was no real reason I quit. I just had other things I wanted to read. My kids and wife, though, have read every book. More than anything, the series may also be a prime example of encouraging people to read.

As for the Twilight series, I kind of gave up on vampire books with Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire. I view the series and the growing array of vampire novels with a “to each his own” eye. If that’s what people want to read, that’s great as long as they’re reading. There just not my taste, regardless of their current popularity.

To read is to empower.

Jane Evershed, More Than a Tea Party