From: Christine Hudak <hudakc>
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 11:38:33 -0400 (EDT)

To Belinda:

This is not exactly what you asked, but...We asked a friend to send us the Chamber of Secrets (2nd book about Harry Potter) from London. When it arrived I was so dissappointed. Not only did I think the cover art was poor
(the two depictions of Harry are totally different), but the actualy book itself was rather cheaply made. The Sorcorrer's Stone is sewn, the paper of quality, the style (margins and type) are very high; The British book uses very cheap paper, the binidng is glued together, which means it will fall apart evetually (hardback too!)..there is little of nor white space in the margins which makes for unpleasant reading...I am curious to see the the America edition of this book is as poor.

I was a book artist in my former life and am very sensitive to book quality. I thought no one else will notice this or care about it but me.





Yes, I do think the quality of the book makes a difference. I've included a response I sent to Belinda earlier because whene my son and I read the first American editio, we both were thrilled at how beautifully the book was made...the detail of each little drawing at the beginning of each chapter and other bookmaking attributes that lend of feel of "specialness." Yet, whenwe opened the second one and British edition, I couldn't believe it. It looks like some cheap printing of a not-so-good story and it took us months to getting around to even starting it. While we are enjoying the story, the poor quality of the book detracts from that read aloud time as sacred...call me wierd, but it bothers me. I wonder how the writer feels about her work being presented like this?


Tina Hudak Takoma Park Maryland Library
Received on Wed 02 Jun 1999 10:38:33 AM CDT