Thursday, July 21, 2005

Harry Potter Hard Ball

The decision has been taken that Harry Potter 6 (& The Half-Blood Prince) will not be published electronically. However, that hasn't stopped a group from putting a pirate copy on the web. There's probably a few sites from where it can be downloaded - but I wasn't about to find them yesterday when I had a quick look. I suppose there may be a better way than googling "harry potter pirate download" - which was one of the many options I tried. I did finally manage to find links to what looked like the sites, but I was a little concerned about going there fear it lead to a virus breeding ground, or be a place for contracting other computer nasties.
Besides, I'm more than happy to pay J.K.Rowling and her publishers for an electronic copy. This is how I read these days. And it's how a lot of other people read. If you check with Fictionwise, you'll find I'm a paying customer; happy to part with my money to keep writers writing (please be as kind when you see one of my works available for money - heh heh).
So why isn't Harry Potter 6 available as an ebook? I suggested to Sooz that it might be because J.K.Rowling wants people to know that other people are reading her book too! Which led me to thinking - wouldn't it be good if you could get the latest novels as an ebook either electronically or on disk at the local bookstore - and it came with a little sticker or something you could wear or pop on your electronic book reader - letting people know what you're reading! It might also be a way of converting more people to ebooks as a reading medium! Yes, there will always be people who want to read "books" - I do it if there's not an e-version available - but one day there may not be enough trees to go around - and wouldn't it be nice if we never reached that day! (Which is to say "wouldn't it be nice if we could hang on to the trees" - rather than, "wouldn't it be nice if we ourselves physcially in a living breathing sense didn't reach the day when there were no trees left" - and by "hang on to" I obviously meant "retain" rather than "swing from"). [Love that English language.]

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