[bksvol-discuss] Harry makes waves: Potter "has made glasses cooler" saysR N I B

"Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> · Sat, 09 Jul 2005 17:19:28 -0400

The Times Online (UK)
Friday, July 08, 2005

Harry makes waves: Potter "has made glasses cooler" says R N I B

By HELEN RUMBELOW

BOOKSHOPS

The sheer scale of the Potter phenomenon has transformed the industry, and 
not everyone has been a winner. The release of Harry Potter 5 boosted the 
quarterly revenues of Amazon by 40 per cent, but these kind of profits can 
cause ruthless price-cutting by the big chain booksellers and supermarkets. 
Since 1997, the Booksellers Association says the number of independent 
bookshops has declined by about a quarter, with a boom in chain bookshops 
leading to a slight overall increase in numbers.

GLASSES

Harry was bullied in younger years, so he knows the taunts that used to face 
playground spectacle-wearers. No longer: many opticians reported that sales 
of glasses to under-16s rose by 40 per cent after Potter. Some people asked 
for frames when not needed. "We hear a lot from parents, how much easier 
their children find it now that Harry Potter has made glasses cooler," the 
Royal National Institute for the Blind said. Dollond and Aitchison is 
licensed to sell Potter look-a-like frames.

TOURISM

Why do tourists flock to eat at an average Chinese restaurant in Edinburgh? 
To pay homage to the place where J. K. Rowling wrote most of the first 
Potter book - when the Buffet King was the coffee shop Nicolsons. Other 
places to see a big leap in visitors: Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, the 
film version of Hogwart's School; "Hogwart's Express", or rather the 
Jacobite steam train across the Glenfinnan Viaduct, and Goathland station in 
North Yorkshire, where Harry alights.

BOARDING SCHOOLS

Boarding school treasurers have been keenly awaiting the next Harry Potter. 
In 2000 the number of girl boarders went up for the first time in 20 years, 
and rose for another two. But then the boom burst in 2003 - caused by a lag 
in the release of Harry Potter 3? - and the trend has been down since. 
Boarding places fell by 1.4 per cent last year.

BROOMS

The Nimbus 2000 flying broomstick is, to muggles, a hazel and birch sweep 
called a besom. This ancient but vanishing British craft has now been 
revived by the film - and the handful of surviving "broom squires" (broom- 
makers) have received orders from all over the world. "The game of Quidditch 
has been brilliant for the besom," said Adam King, one of the last broom 
squires.

FIRST EDITIONS

Although ubiquitous, the Harry Potter books have transformed the collectors' 
market. The first editions of the original book are the most prized as the 
print run was in the hundreds, and these fetch £20,000. A 13-year-old from 
Fife sold a first edition of the second Potter book for £3,500. The 
preliminary drawing of Harry Potter for the first cover sold for £85,750.

SINGLE PARENTS

No sooner had J. K. Rowling become a millionaire than she wrote a cheque to 
the charity One Parent Families for £500,000, followed by the same amount in 
2002. She has criticised the way single mothers are derided by politicians. 
"Single parents feel tremendously grateful to her for standing up to them," 
said the charity. "I don't think it's an exaggeration to say she has really 
changed attitudes."

TREES

J. K. Rowling insisted that the million copies of the Canadian edition of 
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix be published on recycled paper. 
Under her influence, Bloomsbury has said that Harry Potter 6 will be printed 
partly on paper deemed "ancient forest-friendly", the first British 
bestseller to do so. It is thought that 96,000 trees will be saved by the UK 
edition alone.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-1684672,00.html

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