[HPforGrownups] Re: Readers in the WW (was: JKR and "Think of the Children!")

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 162132

Magpie:
>There's probably a lot of reasons for all the characters to be everything 
>they are. I don't think this one aspect of Harry necessarily comes down to 
>this one thing.  There's lots of ways Harry could have been a reader without 
>it threatening the realness of the WW, imo.

Bart:
One aspect that we have been ignoring. Reading requires leisure time. Between his schoolwork, Quidditch, and saving the school/world, when does Harry have time to read? For example,there are a number of gaps in OOTP, where one might assume that he's reading SOMETHING, and they are not necessarily his school books. 

Which reminds me of a story (and I'm too lazy to look up the details now) about a 19th century serial novel, where one chapter ends with a couple saying goodnight, and the next with them eating breakfast together. When complaints came in, his response was on the close order, "The author is not responsible for what the characters do in between chapters." There are plenty of gaps in the books, where weeks or even months are not mentioned in detail, and we sometimes have no idea of what he's actually doing. 

Bart