He says, “Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people… The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.

“It’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it’s not particularly threatening because it’s not overtly sexual.

“A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet.”

It seems the French agree with Mr. King, at least in part, offering JK Rowling a place in the French Foreign Leigon

In 2003,  prior to the publication of the French language edition, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix became the first ever English book to top the French bestsellers list.

From a whopping $37,000 for a first edition of Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone to a paltry sum of only $3,000 for a set of all seven American first editions, they’re all here. Not available anywhere else – even Flourish and Blotts!

The value of the collector’s edition of Beedle the Bard is already rising and very few copies of the auction catalog were distributed. In terms of pure collectability, the auction catalog is a very special item.

Amazon won the bidding at the charity auction by shelling out £1.95 million (nearly $4 million) for the last hand-written edition of Beedle the Bard. The catalog is small but beautiful with lots of close-up pictures of the hand-written book, including images from its creation. Rowling writes the introduction and the charity aspect of the auction is detailed.

Good luck. Enter here.

His research found ‘Hufflepuff’ readers take the tales at a slow, steady and systematic pace and enjoy re-reading the books over and over.

“People will look back and say ‘Why did we ever read this stuff?’”
‘Gryffindor’ readers are eager and energetic and will devour the latest Potter book in one sitting, but quickly move on to new things.

‘Ravenclaws’ are subversive and take the stories with a pinch of salt, while ‘Slytherin’ readers are not fussed about the books.

They prefer the films but pretend to have read the books when it suits them.

From the Daily Telegraph