No Potter for my Kindle

It sounds crazy, but I’ve never read any of the Harry Potter books. I just haven’t been interested. Late last night I finished reading Bad Monkeys – the first complete book read via the Kindle – and enjoyed it so much that I thought I’d find something new. For some reason Harry Potter came to mind. Surprisingly, it wasn’t available for the Kindle. At first I assumed that this was a crazy oversight by Amazon, but it turns out that Rowlings has never allowed any of the Harry Potter books to be published in electronic form. Whaaaat?!

According to this article…

Her objection is more philosophical than mechanical. Her books are written in longhand and she has long favored having them read unplugged as well.

Rowlings seems to want to dictate how I enjoy her work by limiting its access. I don’t think so. There are something like, oh, a gazillion other books available to me (92,000 via the Kindle currently, and climbing) so I think I’ll just move along.

With so few people reading as it is, it seems shameful for an author to deliberately limit her audience for “philosophical reasons.” Yes, I know I could just buy the book, but you know what I mean. I don’t like it.