Pottermania

According to my recent poll, the upcoming film that Kindle Taproom readers are most looking forward to, and by quite a wide margin, is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, out July 15. Industry projections also predict that the new Potter will be the big movie of the summer. For what's it worth, I think the movie looks quite good from the trailers, and I'll certainly be there come mid-July.

Mania for the last Harry Potter movie also coincides with J.K. Rowling's recent announcement that all her Harry Potter books will shortly be available in e-book editions, sold exclusively through her own special website designed for that purpose, www.pottermore.com. It will be interesting to see if devices like the Kindle and the Nook, which are tied to specific retailers, can somehow acquire and display the e-books offered at Rowling's site.

Interestingly, while the new Pottermore web site will feature lots of new background material, written by Rowling, about the characters and situations in the Harry Potter novels, there hasn't been any announcement thus far about any new novels set in the world of the previous Harry Potter books.

But I'm betting that an announcement in that vein is not far off. After all, why curtail the mania now? Especially in today's economy, where anything that resonates so highly with the paying public should not be taken lightly.