Bookwitch

It’s best to admit immediately, before clambering up on this soapbox, that I’m far from an expert on this subject. But I obviously support it wholeheartedly.

It’s very easy for all of us who can read normal print, to assume that not only are there not all that many people with sight problems (as if a low number would make it all right), but that their needs are being taken care of by the authorities. After all, there are audio books out there.

For every one hundred books published in Britain, less than three make it on to audio cassettes. And when they do, they are nearly always more expensive than the paper book. I’m guessing here, but I expect that those who are registered blind get their audio books free from the library. Always assuming the library has them. But just as “ordinary” library users sometimes want to own a book, so might readers with sight problems. Except they will have to pay so much they possibly can’t.

Take Pride and Prejudice. A new paperback might be six or seven pounds, or in one of these cheap classics ranges, possibly only a pound. Used from Oxfam maybe two pounds. The last time I looked, an audio book in MP3 format was as cheap as twenty something pounds, while the more accessible cassettes cost around seventy. You’re not going to own many books like that.

Jacqueline Wilson has joined the campaign for more large print books and audio books, and she’s setting a good example by demanding they are available at the same time as the book is published.

For Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows JK Rowling had also joined. Except for audio cassettes. Anyone who wants (or needs) those can wait another month or so, while the rest of the world joins in the reading frenzy.

This reminds me of the children’s television cartoon Arthur. Some years ago there was an episode featuring the much awaited publication of a thinly disguised Harry Potter. All the children got their copies, while the blind girl had to wait for her Braille version.

Years ago when one of my children needed audio books to access age appropriate books, but not on grounds of eyesight, I wrote a wish list to the local library of books they should buy so we could borrow them. I was pleasantly surprised to find enthusiasm and a new code on the library card giving entitlement to free audio books due to the “handicap”. But they never bought anything that I could see, and after a while they got irritated when I asked if they had anything we hadn’t already had.

So, we headed into the arms of Cover to Cover audio books, who were excellent, until they sold up to the BBC and things started to slide downhill. Plenty of titles, just not the right ones.

Any author reading this; if you haven’t already done so, could you add a clause to your contract asking publishers to produce books in all formats simultaneously? Please.

It’s the Slave-girl of Jerusalem all over again. My young, innocent child is in tears and there’s no-one to offer support, except in a vague sort of way.

This is what happens when the child reads faster than the parent. The sibling is off at work, and can only read on the job, so to speak, so lags behind. The Resident IT Consultant is off to the wilds of Caledonia, so can’t read any more until next weekend. And the ever self sacrificing bookwitch is last in the pecking order for Harry Potter, so hasn’t got far yet.

I think that Bloomsbury should offer a counselling service for the first few days, while early readers have nobody else to talk to. Should the needs of my child come before my own needs not to have the plot revealed? Surely not..?

The New York Times’ rather early review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a very good review. But is it really a review of the book, or a clever piece of fiction?

I’d like to think it’s real, as it feel very true to the spirit of the other books. It makes pertinent comments about many things in a way that makes it sound true.

But, could someone really read the whole book with proper consideration in a day? (I know this is what fans do, but they don’t sit down and write a carefully thought out review of it at the end.)

And, this Michiko Kakutani kills off half a dozen characters, when we have been led to believe that there’s two (that matter, anyway).

Whatever, it felt very satisfying to read a long and thorough appreciation of not just book seven, but the earlier ones as well. Kakutani has treated Rowling and Potter as though they are worthy of the real thing, rather than the countless tongue-in-cheek comments most blasé journalists manage.

I’m looking forward to tonight even more now. And I foresee worse logistical problems of two books for four readers than expected.

As I cross the landing, even in the middle of the night, I’ve got used to hearing Stephen Fry in Daughter’s room. Sometimes it’s Nathaniel Parker, but usually Fry. They’re not just there to send her to sleep, which I suppose makes them sound boring, but to keep her company whenever she’s awake at night.

Those audio books are a blessing. They are so dreadfully expensive, but when I consider how heavily used some of them are, the cost per hour must be quite low.

At first they were mainly used for the children either before they could read very well, or to provide more complex “reading” than a book. Now, they are simply companions. Some were made to be listened to, like The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Son listened to that at an early age, and can still quote far too much from it.

Now he has a nightly diet of old radio series, regular crime and classics. Some you can no longer buy, which worries me for the day they collapse and they can’t be replaced.

Daughter has listened her way through most of Jacqueline Wilson, before settling on a very steady diet of Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl. But they are lovely boys, so I see no harm in it.

The bookwitch, who has steadfastly refused to read the Lord of the Rings, or for that matter to see the films, has listened to all thirteen episodes of the excellent BBC radio dramatisation of the book. So, I sort of know what it’s like.

With Harry Potter day approaching, I’ll need to fork out for the last in the series with Stephen Fry. But for the first few days, at least, we should be kept busy with the book book.

Then I’ll just have to do a lot of ironing.

It wasn’t bad at all. Bookwitch and Daughter quite enjoyed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Son thought it wasn’t very good. But you can’t really put a Rowling length book into a two hour film and not leave things out. Looked at purely as a film this one was a good action film, where someone who hadn’t read the book might just grasp what was going on. And it left me with the same feeling as the book; that friendship matters.

Neville Longbottom is getting more and more wonderful, and Fred and George continue being adorable. (Well, I think so.) And in my next incarnation I’ll be Tonks.

Can it be the Harry Potter effect that has so many good books out in July? First I thought it was strange. Then I wondered if publishers were trying to make me particularly happy for the summer holidays. But now I suspect they are hoping to compete with Harry. Which, being a Potter fan, I feel is silly, but I suppose if you don’t want the much awaited number seven, then you’d feel hard done by if there was nothing else.

But surely, publishers don’t really believe that I will make a choice between either Harry Potter or their new book? It’ll have to be more than one. And no beach life for me, with a mountain of books to read. I feel the risk is that for those who will buy only one book in July, and that book is Harry Potter, there are some excellent reads that will go un-noticed.

I can tell from the Guardian Review that summer is here. Wouldn’t know it fom the weather. It’s time to discuss holiday reading matter.

It’s all very well having the likes of Martin Amis list five books, and probably very long ones at that, to carry them through their holiday. What I want to know is, if you could only take one book this summer, which one would you choose?

I am re-organising my holiday dates, so I expect to have finished Harry Potter when it comes to going away. So looking at my current most urgent pile, I’d probably pick Mary Hoffman’s City of Flowers. It’s long(ish) and has had a long wait.

But I hope you understand that my suitcase will be full of books. Interesting exercise, though. And so difficult I’m relieved it was only an exercise.

If you’re in the Manchester area on Harry Potter night, may I suggest coming to Bramall Hall? Simply Books are launching the last Harry Potter book in grand style, transporting their customers on the Knight Bus (hot chocolate and all, I believe) to the local Tudor mansion, set in a beautiful park. Lots of things will be laid on, before book boxes are opened at midnight.

For those who can’t stay awake, Diagon Alley will magically appear in Bramhall, for one day only, on the Saturday. Drinks at the Leaky Cauldron, anyone?

Bloomsbury seem to have issued an embargo on Harry Potter quizzes, from what I hear. Sounds like megalomania to me, as I can’t see how we can be prohibited from having a quiz on a well known public subject. I’m particularly interested in this, as I’m supposed to write the quiz. My legal advisor is currently swanning around China, so I don’t know who to ask. Though Meg Rosoff has promised to visit me in jail, so that’s OK then. (What I want to know Meg, is what’s your baking like? Can you do cake with a file in it?)