Pennsylvania Loves Harry Potter

This is perhaps old news, but I love the fact that the town in which I live is in the top ten of Amazon.com's "Harry-est" towns in America. Amazon apparently used the data from the U.S. census (town population) versus the number of pre-orders of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows per capita (per person). The 2007 population estimate at the website of the U.S. Census Bureau for Doylestown, PA is 8,149. In 2000, the U.S. census revealed the population in Doylestown to be only slightly higher (~8,200), of which nearly 14% were those under 18 years of age.

Now, the "Harry-est" town in America was Falls Church, VA, which in 2000 had a population of 10,377 people (according the U.S. census), and which steadily rose through the year 2007 (the U.S. Census Bureau reports this info as a 10,948 population estimate). The second "Harry-est" town was Gig Harbor, WA, and this is impressive - they only had as their population estimate in 2007 by the Census Bureau, 6, 621. So Falls Church was the "Harry-est", but had over 3,000 more people living there than the second "Harry-est" town, and over 2,000 more people than my hometown, which was the 9th "Harry-est" town. Are you confused yet? The point is this. There were less people in Gig Harbor and in Doylestown, which means that there were probably more Potter books in Gig Harbor per square mile than in Falls Church, VA, and you can be sure that there were many Potter books in households per square mile in Doylestown, PA. Of course, this doesn't account for all the books sold by the local bookstores and the chain bookstores (Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.). I had reserved my book at the local Doylestown Bookshop, and picked it up at midnight on July 21st. I luckily got about fifth place in line - the line itself went around the block outside and I heard that the cashiers were in place until after 2 AM.

At any rate, why do I find this so fascinating? People sometimes smile awkwardly when I talk about Harry Potter analysis in Doylestown, acting as if this is a foreign subject, but let's get some things straight. We were the 9th "Harry-est" town in America for that last book, and while some of the people here might be closet Harry readers, the books certainly aren't gathering any dust.

As a side note, the "Top 100 Harry-est Towns" list includes some other towns in Pennsylvania. I will bold the towns that I've visited in the past.

6. Media (this is west of Doylestown; dang, they beat us on the list)
14. West Chester (I went to college here)
20. Downingtown (15 mins. from West Chester)
24. Mechanicsburg
35. Collegeville (between Doylestown and West Chester)
51. Kennett Square (15 mins. from West Chester)
82. Ambler (on the way to Philly from Doylestown, about 40 mins. away)
89. Lewisburg
97. Stroudsburg (WCU marching band was better than East Stroudsburg's, sorry East Stroudsburg, the truth hurts)

The majority of these locations are Philadelphia suburbs, and Mechanicsburg and Lewisburg are closer to the center of the state, but not quite the center. Mechanicsburg is in the south of Pennsylvania and Lewisburg is further north. So, Pennsylvania did have nine towns out of a hundred as the "Harry-est" in the nation according to Amazon.com. Whew! Alas, Pennsylvania was the 23rd "Harry-est" state in the nation according to Amazon.com's ranking of the states. But I guess we Pennsylvanians can content ourselves with the fact that one of the two epithets in Deathly Hallows that Rowling selected was by William Penn, after whom Pennsylvania is named. So, take that, capital of the nation, Washington, D.C. (who is the "Harry-est" state - which is not a state). Or take that, Vermont, who is actually a state and is the "Harr-est" after D.C. HAH!

Oh, and don't forget that Amazon.com's list doesn't include the free-loaders at the library. lol.

A Meet-Up with John Granger!

This past Saturday, February 21st, I had the opportunity to meet (for the second time) John Granger and discuss the Harry Potter books. The HP discussion was hosted by Potterdelphia, a group of which I am now a member. They had a general Potterdelphia meeting the following day, but I fell ill overnight and so could not attend. There were only five people in attendance, but this didn't depress John; he gave a wonderful lecture called "The Eyes of Deathly Hallows" in which he explained that the last Harry Potter installment was all about eyeballs. (Really all about the logos, and to understand that you should really read his book, The Deathly Hallows Lectures in which this particular lecture is a chapter).

We also got to hear his interesting story of how his first Potter-analysis book was published, and some other experiences in the Potter-world he'd had over the years. When I asked him if he'd read logospilgrim's bring forth the best robes (lower-case letters are intended here), he stated that he knew logospilgrim, herself. This was a delight to me, as I loved that small work. And I also asked him what he thought about Nancy S. Villacruz's new book, Does Harry Potter Tickle Sleeping Dragons? I told John that I thought her book was intriguing, but entirely too arrogant in either disregarding or merely waving away other Potter analysis books. Villacruz then says that her book is unique (you can find this phrase firstly on the dust jacked back flap). But she hasn't quite proved this, because she hasn't compared herself to any of the other books (ex. Granger's, Prinzi's, Thomas', Neal's, Heilman's, etc.). Please don't take this as a message not to read her book. No, no. Not at all. To me, all Potter-analysis is intriguing. Just as a person holding a BA in History, I know that in any analysis, while we are supposed to rely on primary sources (in this case, Harry Potter canon and all the other canon pieces that Villacruz mentions in a nice three-way definition - props to her here), we are supposed to acknowledge secondary sources. And if we don't agree with them, we are supposed to take them on and contest their points. Anyway, I think John Granger found my analysis of her book interesting.

I can't wait for John Granger's new book, Harry Potter's Bookshelf, to become available this summer, and apparently he speaks in Princeton, NJ next month. I wish I could be there! It was, as a whole, a delightful early afternoon in Philadelphia.

As a side note, I had a long discussion with Skott of Potterdelphia after John had left. We spoke on a whole bunch of Potter topics including Nurmengard (of which I hope to post an essay shortly) and the splitting of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (questioning where the split would occur).