Word: goblets
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...seconds past the wizarding hour of midnight last Saturday, the most annoying and unnecessary marketing campaign in publishing history finally delivered the goods. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic Press; 734 pages; $25.95) would have sold millions of copies had its U.S. and British publishers simply dumped them in bookstores, unannounced, and then got out of the way as word of mouth spread among stampeding Pottermaniacs. That is pretty much the way the first three books about the boy wizard so phenomenally caught fire among young readers and then their parents...
...worth remembering right about here, that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is not a Hollywood summer blockbuster, although its weekend grosses will probably be announced in a breathless press release. It is a book, a really long book, with no moving images, sound track or joysticks. Reading it or listening to someone else read it aloud requires a modicum of silence, the exact antithesis of all the bells and whistles and clarions that heralded its arrival...
What will happen once the shouting stops? First of all, those millions who were enchanted by the first three books will almost certainly feel the same way about Goblet of Fire. Like its predecessors, the new novel is heavily dependent on surprises and suspense. Rowling's readers understandably resent being tipped off about details before they can discover them on their own. But many of them then go back and read the books multiple times. Indeed, the last chapter of Goblet of Fire, which starts on page 716, is called "The Beginning," which looks like a clue telling readers...
...What will happen once the shouting stops? First of all, those millions who were enchanted by the first three books will almost certainly feel the same way about "Goblet of Fire." Like its predecessors, the new novel is heavily dependent on surprises and suspense. Rowlings readers, understandably, resent being tipped off about details before discovering them on their own. But many of them then go back and read the books multiple times. Indeed, the last chapter of "Goblet of Fire," which starts on page 716, is called The Beginning, which looks like a clue telling readers to start over again...
...Although "Goblet of Fire" sags a little now and then, Rowling's astonishing inventiveness in describing new wizardly wonders and her sly sense of humor usually keep things moving along briskly. Nearly every page offers something intriguing or funny. There are, for example, the odd books on magic that the studious Hermione consults, including "Men Who Love Dragons Too Much" and "Where There's a Wand, There's a Way." No wonder the parents who started reading these books to their children found themselves hooked. But this time, some of those parents may want to keep the book away from...