I admit it. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I've read all the books multiple times. I've seen all the movies in the theater and pre-ordered all the DVDs. I'm sad that the book series is over. Or so I thought.
First came The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Only seven handwritten copies in existence. Amazon.com paid £1,950,000 for it ($3,859,437.31). All proceeds go to charity. I guess it's nice that Amazon shows pictures of it on its website, and even has synopses of each of the five stories within.
Now, J.K. Rowling is writing a prequel - an 800 word story that will be auctioned off - again for charity. While it's very noble of her to make these huge donations, as a fan, I can't help but feeling a bit cheated by the whole thing.
I don't have $4 million to spare to buy a book. I can't compete in an auction to buy an 800 word short story. But I did have the money to contribute to J.K. Rowling's fortune (almost $400 million, folks). She didn't become one of the world's richest women without my help. I think I deserve a chance to read these additional tales too.
Wouldn't it have been better to actually publish these two books, and then donate the proceeds to charity? With her mass of fans around the world, she would have made much more than $3.8 million to donate.
Just my little gripe of the day.
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