Given that this is the biggest thing in the book universe at the moment, thought it might be interesting what the always literate Mudcat crowd thinks. Certainly it is cheery having people going nuts over a book that is not the Bible or the Koran or The Valley of the Dolls for that matter. Personally, having gone to a boy's school exactly like Potter (without the magic, but with the houses, ties, and Lord of the Flies type wars), I enjoy them, but am not lost in them -- but then I am not 12 years old. They are certainly very dark, which is interesting. They certainly show the power of suspended story lines -- shades of people on docks waiting for the lastest segment of a Dickens novel!! The movies are sort of dull: nicely cast though.

yours, Peter T.