how come nobody has bought Rowling's new book?

[notactuallyme]

went into town at 4pm after work, thinking 'shame, they'll all be gone' only to find that every shop had them discounted - a tenner in Waterstones! HMV had piles of them and I gave in and bought one in Tescos for £9 - what happened there then?

*on

I always felt, especially in the later books, that she was in need of a really good editor. The story was still there, but the prose seemed to need to be tighter.

I won't be buying the new one (hype like this always has the opposite effect on me) but I'll probably grab it from the local library at some stage.

To be fair to her, it's a hard leap to make - children's fiction to adult fiction, especially with all the focus on her.

Enid Blyton tried her hand at writing for adults, I think a stage play, and it didn't work at all for her. Hopefully JK won't follow in her footsteps. Sad to think that no one's buying her book :-(

It got my back up that she was on the breakfast television programme holding forth about British politics every fifteen minutes. I missed the memo where I'm supposed to care about her political opinions.

Diana Wynne Jones wrote better more inventive books thirty years earlier. I still yearn to read those books again, I consider myself very lucky to have discovered her books. Whereas Jk Rowling books are okay but they ain't all that. No offence.

I will grab it from the supermarket and give it a go. I think JKR showed a great imagination and background knowledge, that kids would possibly never have known otherwise.

The thought of sitting through a stage play by Enid Blyton fills me with horror!

She really needs to just get on with it and develop at an adult writer at her own pace. Harry Potter has given her the financial freedom and publishing clout to do it without worrying about those things, but doesn't provide a shortcut. I'm not rushing to buy this one but I wouldn't be surprised if JKR wrote something really good for adults one day. Just like adult writers who switch to writing for children sometimes take a while to get into the swing of it.

Grr

It might be rubbish. I'll wait and get it from the library.

Because it was over-priced.

Rather like Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books. Not keen on the others though.
Never read Harry Potter.

DD1loved HP she was obsessed. I banned her from reading them in the end because I didn't think they were very well written, and I thought she should broaden her reading. Admittedly I had only glanced through one but I though it wasn't great.DD was still arguing that they were wonderful up until the summer. She's 14 and I said she could re read them in the summer. She gave up halfway through the first one and admitted it was because of her writing style. Score one to mum.

Ha ha.. if JKR wrote HP "weakly", I wish I could write such weak stuff....

I don't really understand the OP. It's normal for books to be piled high in supermarkets at a discounted price. Of course they have some left. They wouldn't have expected to sell out on day 1.
Jollytoddler, I really doubt that JKR is crying into her millions tonight at the lack of your tenner. She has a different political opinion from you. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy her book.

Perhaps any woman could have written them, but they didn't, she did.

The books would never have been so popular if it wasn't for the films

You know what else is badly written? The bloody Mr Men books and look how popular they are. Absolute nightmare to read out loud.

Dh bought one for me. I'll let you know how it is if you like?

AppleCrumble, I am happy enough to get her book from the library or second hand, I am just not comfortable giving her money because she might then give it to the labour party. Just because I disagree with her politics doesn't mean I dislike the HP books or anything else she may write - I just don't want to give her money.

I loved Harry Potter and I'm not ashamed about it. Lets face it, it was one of the most successful series of books ever and I would love to have written it, no matter how many people thought it was badly written.

I'll prob get her new one on Kindle once the price comes down.

Jollytoddler, it must be exhausting checking the political views of everyone before choosing how to spend your money.

Again, not their political views, their political donations.

I've just started a degree module on Children's Literature - first set text is a choice between HP and Northern Lights. I've read both - and think Northern Lights better written, but there is a lot of interesting discussion already on what makes good children's literature. It also raises the point - who are we to decide? Surely that is up to children. (unless of course you ate reading it as adult literature - in which case it is entirely up to you to decide if it is any good or not).
She obviously has a lot of appeal to children, and a rare gift to get inside their heads without being patronising or judgemental. She has the ability to write as a child, not for children.
Who cares if some of her writing is a bit off track.

As for the new JK Rowling novel... I'll wait for the paperback thanks

Sorry - extra full stop added itself, and I meant 'are' rather than 'ate'.