This Week in Reading July 29 - August 4

Fascinating authors and events this week, but one author in particular is responsible for more young people reading than any other. Not that she needs more publicity but with the final volume of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows receiving more than three hundred requests at Glendale and Pasadena public libraries together, it is very nice that we get to celebrate J. K. Rowling's birth this week. Whereas in America she'd probably have had to work two jobs just to survive and wouldn't have any time left for writing, at least the welfare system in Britain allowed the young mother time to write out her inspired ideas and still care for her child. Worked out well for everyone, including the hundreds of people she probably created work for.

Rowling's book became an instant classic and zoomed to be the best selling series of all time making her the richest woman in the world but at the other end of the spectrum, born in the same week, is Herman Melville. Hardly anyone bought a copy when it came out and Melville died penniless after several other well respected novels, yet Moby Dick is considered by many to be THE greatest American novel. The story of literature falls somewhere in between.

This Week's Question: How does J. K. really pronounce her last name,as opposed to the way most newscasters in America have been pronouncing it?

Answer to Last Week's Question: One commentator left a very interesting answer. The Brave New World substance is "Soma. How close are we today? Ask Big Pharma!"