Bloggasm

“It’s every critic’s nightmare,” writes John Crace at the Guardian Unlimited. “A publisher gets snotty and refuses to send out any advance copies of a well-hyped book – even if you agree to sign an embargo letter – and you know that your editor is going to want you to write something the day it’s published for the following day’s paper. It happened this week with the Alastair Campbell Diaries; and it will almost certainly happen later this month when the seventh, and final, volume of Harry Potter is published.”

In Crace’s case, he doesn’t worry, because he just doesn’t rush it. Rather than waiting at the bookstore doors at midnight, he reads it at his normal pace. Fortunately, all the Harry Potter books usually take less than a day to read, so he doubts that critics will have too hard a time reviewing it for the next day’s paper.

“There again, anyone who’s read the first six Harry Potter books, could probably knock off a review of the seventh right now,” he says. “So here’s mine.The book will start witph Harry making his way back to Hogwart’s for his final year and his scar will be hurting. Ginny and Ron will be flirting a bit, while Harry tries to take himself seriously by almost swearing. There will be loads more unedited, not very interesting back story that should have been cut and there will be a ‘terrifically, exciting denouement that I can’t reveal as I don’t want to spoil the plot in which two much-loved characters die’. Oh, and JK will make another fortune.”

via bookslut

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