Comments on: “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” J.K. Rowling’s Book of Handwritten Fairy Tales

By: munky

munky — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:41:31 +0000

Meh…

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:03:48 +0000

Munky, I seem to remember that Moby Dick was critically panned when first published, and that it’s only become a “classic” over time.

Your opinion differs from millions of other readers who enjoy the books. That makes you smarter, dumber, or just different. Either way, going to the effort of commenting on a neatorama post and so passionately responding with such a wonderful, if not pretentious, vocabulary shows which one you hope we believe.

By: munky

munky — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:37:27 +0000

Unfortunately, Binkster, I have read the first three Potter comics at the behest of friends and lovers, and that is how I formed my opinion of them.
Started to read the fourth and got bogged down in the tweeness and plain bad writing.
I read Moby Dick - and finished it - at 16, tvm.

By: Mr. Binky

Mr. Binky — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:24:29 +0000

Sorry man, there are millions of people (with impressionable minds), young and old, who would say that Harry Potter IS great literature. My guess is you read the first half of book 1 (the most child-oriented book in the series) and didn’t like, and choose to hate it. If you think Harry Potter is “predigested baby lit” or has a “candyfloss mentality” then it’s pretty clear you haven’t read them. Woohoo for you.

Again, I’m sorry you seem to hate fun, and other people disagreeing with you. Please, continue reading Moby Dick.

By: munky

munky — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:31:51 +0000

@ Mr Binky - I don’t ‘hate’ JKR, I just find her work puerile.
As for getting kids to read, yes, big ups to that BUT if that’s ALL kids are going to read then we’re back in the Land of Suck.
There’s a lot more to fostering a desire to read and a love of literature than foisting off second rate recycled pap on impressionable minds - come the day when they are confronted with a work that requires engagement of anything other than a candyfloss mentality (say, Moby Dick or Huckleberry Finn or Dune or War And Peace…), kids raised on predigested baby lit will likely as not throw said book in the too hard basket and never bother trying again.
The issue I have with the Potter series is that they are NOT great literature, not even great books, yet the works of JKR have reached the top of lists of the Greatest Lit. of All Time - voted their by people who’d previously never read anything more complex than a ketchup bottle.

By: Becky

Becky — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:06:16 +0000

@ Ali S. ~ Amazon is actually a great company to work for. I worked for their customer service for more than three years. The have customer service in the US, as well as MANY fulfillment centers and other jobs scattered across the country and the world. You can check out the jobs here: http://www.amazon.com/jobs ~ the benefits are fantastic, the pay is great, and they really try to foster an attitude that everyone’s job is just as important as the next guys. I had an opportunity to meet Jeff Bezos, even tho i was just in customer service. : ) (and i’m not sure if it matters to you, but it was a first for me ~ i had more female managers than male ~ seniority doesn’t matter ~ everyone is evaluated on an equal scale.)

By: Mr. Binky

Mr. Binky — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:29:52 +0000

Geez… I never understand why people randomly spout hate for no reason. Some of you guys don’t like Harry Potter… OK! We get it! How your opinion implies/shows that Rowling is an idiot or a terrible person, I don’t understand!

Is it so bad that many people enjoy something that you don’t?? Is it so bad that millions of kids started reading for pleasure because of these books? Is truly terrible that not everyone has your exact same tastes? “JK Rowling only donated over $4,000,000 to charity from selling one book, clearly she’s a terrible person because I don’t like Harry Potter.”

I’m sorry you guys are so angry that you can’t live and let live, and that you’re so opinionated that you can’t just calm down and enjoy an awesome books series, because you’re afraid it’ll ruin you’re angry person cred.

GEEZ

By: Tim Giachetti

Tim Giachetti — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:23:11 +0000

@munky & BikerRay: You both sound like you hate eating sour grapes. And besides, as my very “west coast” son says. “Don’t hate the playa, hate da game!” And you both are surely hatin right now. Munk your opinion that she is of purile abilities doesn’t matter. First place, opinions, like assholes, every body has one. Second, the masses dictate popularity and even if she shit a pile right on the entire series, people would pay millions again to have genetic material of the author.

I was even more amazed at the even more shallow opinions of the people at Amazon. Try to give you cherries and honey and allot would rather have the lemons. Go figure.
P.S. @Alex, loved your comments on this, nice to smile.

By: BikerRay

BikerRay — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:05:48 +0000

I agree with munky. Some day people will wake up to the fact that Rowling, like Stephen King, is an over-rated, mediocre author. Pullman is far better.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:22:21 +0000

@munky: I look forward to your literary masterpiece.

Oh, forgot to say, great find, Becky!

By: munky

munky — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:56:22 +0000

@ Quasi Mojo - JKR could quite easily have donated three times that amount of dosh to the charity out of the ill gotten gains from her puerile Potter series.

@ Alex - see above.

By: Ali S.

Ali S. — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:12:11 +0000

Not to veer this conversation over a cliff but I’ve always been interested in working for Amazon.

Now back to the article! I wish I had a bajillion dollars or so that I can console myself.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:48:53 +0000

@munky: thank goodness JK Rowling has all those billions of dollars to console herself over your opinion

By: Quasi_Mojo

Quasi_Mojo — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:40:34 +0000

@munky - As it states in the article:

The purchase price was £1,950,000, and Ms. Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.

While I have not read the books, and likely never will, the movies were pretty awful. But, then again, they were aimed at children.

By: munky

munky — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:19:22 +0000

@ Patrick…

Trolling..?
Not so much.
I just find JKR’s work arid, banal, dreary, humdrum, insipid, laboured, monotonous, tiresome and vapid - or did you miss that part..?
Far better speculative fiction for teenagers can be found in the works of Philip Pullman and Susan Cooper to name but two.
For younger children, Tove Janssen and her Moomin books are outstanding.
JKR fits into the literary tradition of Enid Blyton and Arthur Ransome - who, admittedly, were good in their time, but that time has past.
May it be soon for JKR.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:40:01 +0000

munky: Good trolling there. Jealous much?

By: Nate Deviate

Nate Deviate — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:42:47 +0000

I really like the featured page. It draws me in to these short stories.

By: aerio

aerio — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:17:12 +0000

I wish the jkr furor would extend to other works, this is ridiculous.

By: stacyj

stacyj — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:41:29 +0000

What a -cool- find, Becky - I’d heard about that book of Rowling’s but had no idea Amazon had a copy or that (better yet!) they were posting stuff from it. I think I’ll hold off on reading the synopses in the hope that someday soon the stories themselves will be available, but in the meantime just seeing what the book looks like is pretty darned neat!

By: Alexandra

Alexandra — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:58:19 +0000

I’m fairly sure Amazon purchased this book at least a month ago, if not earlier. My father, who works for Amazon, told me of the purchase when he last visited in December/January.

In other news of the book, Amazon is working on ways to share the stories within without publishing the book, so hopefully we’ll hear them soon!