Dianavan, you ever so slightly miss my point.

I am quite aware of the various types of reading - comics etc have always had their place as have Mills & Boon. But they have always had their context too, and been accepted for what they are.

My concern with HP is that if the phenomenon continues, children (of all ages) will see this as the standard for literature because the marketing men will not bother to release anything else. As has largely happened to the pop music business.

So the delights of "real" literature will be lost because there's no money to be made in it. Like folk music.

I see a number of posters regretting that they will have nothing to read until the next HP comes out in two years time - as if to say there's nothing else worth reading, at the same time claiming HP has "literary merit" - surely that's the proof they've read little else of consequence!

cheers, Terry

(tongue heading towards cheek at the end)