Re: Modern grownups
I don't know there's anything wrong with liking the Harry Potter books (or films or whatever other parts of the vast HP commercial enterprise floats your boat). Personally I've only managed to make it through the first two and a half books, but I plan to battle through the rest of the series eventually, as YA fantasy fiction is an interest of mine. (And Granddaughter #1 already wants to discuss them with me.)
I do wish, though, that more HP fans took notice of the large body of much better1 YA fantasy available. The great thing about HP is how many people were led to reading for pleasure - reading pretty long novels, in the case of the later books. I don't begrudge Rowling a thing, if only for that.2 Now they ought to try some of the good stuff.
Pratchett (the Tiffany Aching books) and Gaiman (Stardust and Neverwhere are good for YA readers) are among the famous contemporary choices, but there are so many to choose from: McKillip, Dean, Hopkinson, Mieville (Un Lun Dun), Valente, Okorafor, Diana Wynne Jones, Jacklyn Moriarty, Bacigalupi...
Of course most YA readers are perfectly capable of dealing with adult novels too. I was reading Morecock and Vance and the like as a pre-teen. The point is, there's plenty more out there.
1Judging from those 2.5 volumes, and the considerable amount of HP review and critique I've read or seen.
2Really I wouldn't anyway. She produced an innocuous cultural product and for whatever reasons it became popular. More power to her. Live the dream.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
