Come on, J.K., get to the point!

I'm a bit more than half-way through Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I'm enjoying the book immensely, as I've enjoyed each previous installment. (I'm rationing the book, almost, to stretch out the reading experience, although I'll probably give in to temptation and plow through it this afternoon.) This book seems less plot-heavy than the last two, and less outwardly flabby than Book Five, which is nice. Rowling's eye for detail and her gift for characterization are really shining through, and I have to note that she seems to have a gift for dialogue emerging as well, now that her characters are achieving maturity. Our boy Harry has some zinging one-liners in this book that had better be preserved for the movie version.

One thing that I must admit grates after a while is Rowling's deferred payback on tantalizing plot hints. There are a number of times when one character will notice something quite strange, or ask a very pertinent question, only to receive a reply along the lines of, "Well, that's a very important question that I will nevertheless answer at another time!" It kind of reminds me of all those times in old mystery novels when, halfway through the book, some minor character would figure out the identity of the murderer and announce, "I know who the killer is!" just as the killer pops out from behind a curtain and clubs them to death with a hammer or whatever.

But as ever, who am I to quibble with the writer who has made sufficient money from her fictional creation to outstrip the Queen of England in total worth?

By the way, do read Lance Mannion's take on the Potter phenomenon. (He gives no spoilers for Half-Blood Prince.) I think he's particularly astute when he says this:

The great good thing Rowling and her contemporaries have done, I think, is help create a community of young readers.

There have always been children who love to read, but they tended to do it all on their lonesomes, holed up in their rooms, and the joy they found in their books was a private joy.

But Harry Potter has opened the bedroom doors as wonderfully as he opened the Chamber of Secrets. All these young readers now talk to each other. They trade books, they get online and post in forums and on webpages, they build friendships around their mutual love of books, and they read more and they read faster. Reading isn't an escape from their lives and other kids. It's a part of their lives and a connection with other kids.

I think that what Rowling has also done is restored a bit of respect for story in literature, but my thoughts on that are a bit half-baked at the present time, so I'll just hold on to that nugget for a while. Kind of like the way, in Half-Blood Prince, XXXXXXXXXX keeps refusing to tell XXXXX how he XXXXXXX his XXX.