Harry who?

I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone because of the word-of-mouth marketing hype it received soon after its publication on June 30th, 1997. I think I read Sorcerer's Stone in July of that year, solely because everyone else was doing it. Everyone was talking about it and it seemed like everyone was reading it. I think I may have even bought a copy because the wait list at the library was up into the hundreds. I don't usually go in for 'what everybody else is reading,' but I think the positive, warm and fuzzy connotations that were lent to the book by its followers got the best of me. Did it stand up to the hype? I enjoyed the book. Didn't read any of the others in the series, but liked Sorcerer's Stone and passed on the recommendation.

I think consumer behavior was changed, to a degree, because of the Harry Potter series. According to a Washington Post article by Ron Charles, adults reading the Harry Potter series but few other books may represent a 'bad case of cultural infantilism.' I don't know if I agree with that. At least they're reading a good book would be my retort to Mr. Charles. But the world sought out, and was touched by, Harry Potter and friends, due in large part to unpaid marketing.

Interesting facts about the Harry Potter Series:

Nine million of the initial 10.8 million initial print copies of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince sold in the first 24 hrs

The final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, became the fastest selling book  in history, moving 11 million units in the first 24 hours of release

Because of its appeal to adults in addition to the children it was originally targeted to, each book in the series has been released with two covers

In 2000 the New York Times created a separate best-seller list for children's literature, just before the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The series has been translated into 67 languages

JK Rowling has become the first, and, so far, the only billionaire author

In 2007 the Washington Post called the word-of-mouth marketing 'hysteria' but conceded it was 'through no fault of Rowling's.'

The word Muggle has become one of the few pop culture words to land in the Oxford English Dictionary