Harry Potter: Often Unread
Monday, March 12th, 2007The BBC reports that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the second most “unread” book in the UK. Meaning…it’s a book often not finished in whole by those who bought it.
According to this study 32% of people who bought Goblet of Fire admitted to not finishing it. Really, though, if you stop to think about it, this is just a matter of numbers. It has large “unread” numbers because it has astronomical sales numbers in the first place. Anytime you have a book as popular and hyped as the Harry Potter books are, you’re going to have people that buy them just to buy them. They see them in the book shop and say, “Oh, there’s the new Harry Potter…I should buy it.” But if they haven’t yet finished the second or third book…or are new to the Potter series, they may not get around to reading it.
Also working against Goblet of Fire is it’s length. Let’s face it…there are a lot of people who think they can make their way through a 700+ page book, but they end up just not having the stamina or attention span for it. Even though the pages may turn at lightning speed for fans of the series, if you’re not invested in the series 700 pages can be a little daunting.
Although Goblet of Fire ends up on this list of “unread” books, it’s hardly a strike against the book itself.
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