MuggleCast 263 Transcript



Show Intro


["Hedwig's Theme" plays]

Andrew: Because Eric may have one of the best ideas yet for a new Harry Potter book from JK Rowling, this is MuggleCast Episode 263 for March 27th, 2013.

[Show music begins]

Andrew: This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.com. Audible is the leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction, and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to AudiblePodcast.com/Tribute.

[Show music continues]

Andrew: Welcome to MuggleCast Episode 263. Micah, Eric, and I, and look who's back.

Ben: Ben is back.

Andrew: Ben Schoen.

Ben: Yay!

Andrew: MuggleCast co-founder, MuggleNet's long time MuggleNet staffer up until... what? What year did you...

Ben: I mean, I guess technically...

Andrew: ...depart?

Ben: ...my departure occurred in 2009. However, I still managed to stay on the "About Us" page until 2011 at some point.

Andrew: That's impressive.

Ben: Yeah.

Andrew: See, I was wiped off like the day after. [laughs] So... day after I left.

Micah: I kept you up there, Ben.

Ben: Oh, you did, Micah? That was you?

Micah: I did.

Ben: It was an executive decision?

Micah: Keith wanted to get rid of you... he wanted to get rid of you, but I said, "You can't take Ben down. It just... the site would crash."

Ben: Yeah. No, for sure. Keith... I need to take it up with Keith. Actually, I don't want to take it up with Keith. He's a big dude. He could beat me up.

Eric: No, I think it was... what it was, Ben, was we weren't sure that you... we weren't sure if we got the keys from you after you left. So we had to keep you up on the "About Us" page as sort of like a placating... [laughs] you know, so that you didn't get angry or something. Maybe do something...

Ben: Oh, you guys were scared that...

Eric: ...to the ads, maybe.

Ben: Scared that maybe I built a back door, is what you're saying.

Andrew: [laughs] Well, it's good to have you back on the show, Ben.

Ben: I am so glad to be back. It feels good to be on.

Andrew: I know you've wanted to come on the show, so that's great that you did. Before we get to the news, which I am thrilled to be anchoring this time...

Eric: Ooh!

Andrew: ...because Micah, when he left MuggleNet, apparently he also left the MuggleCast newsroom.

[Eric laughs]

Ben: It's been empty.

Micah: It's been empty for quite some time. There's some cobwebs and...

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: Are you there now?

Andrew: We don't want to know what else. [laughs]

Eric: Oh, okay. Yeah, dead bodies - perfect plan - house-elves...



Pottermore Discussion: PlayStation Home


Andrew: But before we get to that, I just wanted to bring up the point that shouldn't we be looking forward to new chapters in Pottermore soon? Because...

Ben: Wait, Pottermore is still online?

Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] It's still on, believe it or not.

Ben: Oh, I thought that was like last year's thing. Or a couple of years ago.

Andrew: Well, they've been releasing them a bit differently. They released Sorcerer's Stone all at once, and now what they do is they release batches of chapters a few times a year to kind of spread out all of the excitement.

Ben: Now, am I alone in my lack of enthusiasm? Are there a lot of fans who email in who genuinely are looking forward to the Pottermore release? Because I don't want to patronize or condescend to anybody.

Andrew: Yeah, no, people are looking forward... I mean, Pottermore didn't thrill everybody. They had some launch problems and what not. What people look forward to now is the new content. From JK Rowling, the new writing.

Ben: Well, sometime we need to talk about... a different show, but we need to have a whole hour discussion about the phases of Harry Potter.

Andrew: Mhm.

Ben: Because I think that at a different phase of my Potter-ness, that I would have been much more excited for these additional releases.

Andrew: Right. Do you think they took too long to release Pottermore?

Ben: Yeah, I think that Pottermore... I think the way that they built it up and everything, they kind of made it out to be something a lot more interactive and better than it was going to be. And yeah, I'm excited to hear the new information, but I can hear that from you guys or there will be enough people talking about it in different places that I can hear that information. I don't necessarily have to go through Pottermore myself. Does that make me a bad Harry Potter fan?

Eric: No, I think you're right. They really needed to develop something that would bring people to that site that could only be had on that site - an interactive experience - which is what they were trying to do the whole time. Now, interestingly, last week they released a trailer - did you see this, Andrew? - for Pottermore at PlayStation Home, and it's because in order to start Pottermore... this whole time has been a joint venture between JK Rowling's people and Sony, and now they've taken that to the next level where they've actually come up with - I think it's in beta testing - a Pottermore app but for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Home Network. So you can actually play it as if it's a video game, but it's Pottermore and it's online. I'm really looking forward to this because I think hopefully, maybe...

Ben: It'll be a different Pottermore experience.

Eric: Dare I say, it'll be the Pottermore we were always hoping for.

Andrew: Yeah, it didn't blow me away. It seems to be a basic Pottermore, but you have an actual character and you kind of walk around Diagon Alley. I have to say, I've actually seen Pottermore commercials on TV, after either [laughs] Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy!, and it airs almost every night.

[Eric laughs]

Ben: Wow, they know you. The advertisers know you well, don't they?

[Eric and Micah laugh]

Andrew: Yeah, exactly.

Micah: I was going to say that the demographic for those shows are usually skewed a little bit older, so I don't know why they'd be going after...

Andrew: Right!

Ben: They're special ads just for Andrew.

Andrew: I think it more promotes...

Micah: ...that type of audience.

Andrew: Yeah, maybe that's what it is. It promotes, actually, the ebooks. But still, it seems like Jeopardy! or Wheel of Fortune are older audiences.

Micah: I think...

Ben: Oh, so do you think that Pottermore has... because wasn't that the exclusive outlet to get the ebooks for a long time?

Andrew: It still is.

Ben: Oh, it still is?

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: So, Pottermore has made a ton of money for JK Rowling just by the sale of the ebooks through there, right?

Andrew: Right.

Ben: Because the website itself... I've been monitoring the web traffic, and it doesn't seem to get a ton of people who are regular visitors for it, based upon Quantcast.com and other sites. So, it doesn't seem like it really is something that fans go to more than once. Once they have the information, it's not something that they go back to just to mess around on, you know?

Micah: I think that's the problem. I think there's nothing that provides people... there's no retention value. There's nothing that's keeping you coming back for more other than the information, which you're only getting every couple of months, and I feel like Pottermore is becoming too commercial with all these different products that it's trying to tie into. It's cool, it's interactive, but I feel like, in a lot of ways, it missed the wave. For this type of content to be put out there, it could have been done even years before because obviously the books ended in 2007 and here we are in 2013 talking about it. And so I just think that... the content is what people want and that's it, and I think they're trying to make too much out of it. They're trying to make it into something that it's not. The real fans, they just want to know that information that JK Rowling's been holding back for all these years.

Eric: Hmm. Well, with the PlayStation Home, in response to that, what I'm most looking forward to is a magical experience. And that may sound dull and cheesy, but in addition to that information... which is true, a lot of people really only care about the information, and that's why I have only... you know, I logged into Pottermore yesterday and I'm on Chapter 8 of Book 1, and they've released [laughs] most of Book 3 at this point, and the reason I don't... because I don't want to keep going and clicking to get that information. I just want the information. But once I saw you could walk through Diagon Alley, I thought, well, maybe it'll be magical again.

Andrew: Well, let's hope so, Eric. [laughs] For your sake.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: You know what it is? It's basically... with Pottermore you kind of walk through but not in a 3D way, like you will be able to on PlayStation Home. So... you know, they're actually... just today they announced a Doctor Who game on PlayStation Home.

Eric: Oh, cool.

Andrew: So there seems to be this big push all of a sudden for PlayStation Home games.

Eric: Yeah. I've been on...

Andrew: I hadn't even heard of this thing until...

Eric: Well, you had a PS3 and then you got rid of it. Right, Andrew?

Andrew: Yeah, but I still didn't use PlayStation Home.

Eric: Right.

Andrew: I don't know what that is.

Eric: Yeah. It's...

Ben: Well, aren't they coming out with the PS4 now and about to make your entire...

Eric: Yeah, they will.

Ben: ...conversation irrelevant?

Eric: Well, PlayStation Home is like an avatar... it's like you have an avatar. You have your character and he's walking around and there's these common areas - like a mall, one is an amusement park - and then you have little mini-games or whatever, but you can do it with... everybody in PlayStation Home is another PlayStation user sitting at their PlayStation Home unit.

Ben: How much does it cost? Is it going to be $5.99 or something?

Eric: It's free but each of those apps have little packages you can buy of coins that allow you to get different clothing and stuff like that. That's how they make their money. But everything on Playstation Home is through your web connection. So it's like multiplayer on a video game but the video game is just the Internet, if that makes sense.

Andrew: Yeah. All right, well let's get into the news here. Hopefully we can get the new Pottermore chapters soon. We're definitely due for them and I know the Pottermore Twitter has been doing some game which I thought meant it was coming really soon. Maybe it'll be this week, who knows?

Eric: I hope so.

Micah: It's been a while.

Andrew: It has.

Ben: [singing] "It's been a while..."

Andrew: Yeah, that's why I'm getting very on edge. I'm on the edge of my seat looking forward to the new Prisoner of Azkaban chapters.

Before we continue with today's episode of MuggleCast, it is time to remind you that today's episode is brought to you by Audible.com. Audible is the Internet's leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including audio versions of many New York Times Bestsellers. For listeners of MuggleCast, Audible is offering you a free audiobook to give you a chance to try out their very great service. I am going to give you a recommendation this week that I think you are really going to like if you haven't read this book already: Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. This is technically the special 20th anniversary edition. Now, why do I recommend this book? Well, first of all it's a classic - if you've read this book you already know that. But second of all, it's being turned into a film by Lionsgate, the people who brought you The Hunger Games, and if all goes according to plan, this could potentially be a trilogy, just like The Hunger Games was. It is one of the most highly rated books of all time. Ender's Game isn't just a sci-fi novel for kids. From an early age Ender must tackle the adult concepts of leadership, independence, and self-reliance, abstract thinking, and accountability. It helps that he's a genetically engineered super genius, but still, that's a lot to ask a kid to handle. The multicast narration adds layers of texture to the diverse characters throughout the story. The poster was just released for the film very recently - this past week, actually - and that means that a trailer should be on the horizon. We'll of course keep an eye out for that because Ender's Game is, like I said, a beloved book. So again, visit AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast to get an audiobook - perhaps Ender's Game, the special 20th anniversary edition audiobook - for absolutely free. We thank Audible for their support of the show.



News: JK Rowling Has No Plans For Prequel About The Marauders


Andrew: Let's talk about some interesting news here actually. JK Rowling had another Casual Vacancy event. This one was at the Bath Literature Festival. I haven't looked into it, I'm pretty sure people just sit and take baths and read. So JK Rowling evidently wanted to participate in this, and she spoke about The Casual Vacancy...

Ben: Oh, she took a bath there? What?

Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, something like that.

Eric: Baths are very soothing.

Ben: Oh, I was going to say. I wish I was there to see Jo take a bath.

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: I'm sure the feeling is mutual, Ben.

Andrew: [laughs] And she was asked about... there was a Q&A, and she was asked if she would ever write a Harry Potter prequel, specifically about the Marauders. And she responded by saying that although she has no current plans to return to the series, if she did it would not be about the Marauders. And her reason was because she doesn't find prequels to be any good. So she basically denied a Marauders book happening and a prequels book happening in the same sentence. [laughs]

Micah: So she feels that prequels are kind of like epilogues?

[Eric laughs]

Ben: Well, I mean, come one, we've got to give her a little bit more time. I think that for somebody like her, Harry Potter has been her... it's been in her life since 1997 or whenever the first book came out, essentially. So, I mean, she needs some time to chill out and just... she worked on The Casual Vacancy. I'm sure there are plenty of projects that she'll do in between doing something that is going to be a prequel or maybe an extension or maybe we hear what it's like to grow up, Harry's kid. But I think she'll come back to it, eventually.

Andrew: Mhm.

Ben: I mean, she may never, but I personally think that after some time there may be... she may one day think, "Oh, I wish I had done this." Or she may think of something that would be fun and interesting for her to do that involves Harry Potter.

Micah: Yup.

Andrew: Yeah. Part of me thinks she's bluffing.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: She's screwing with people.

Eric: Surprise! [laughs]

Andrew: Because the way it happened at this Q&A, it seems like she just laid the ax down about any chances of a prequel. Which is why this kind of... it left a lot of people up in arms because people were looking forward to a Marauders book.

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: That's been one of the popular hopes.

Micah: But I feel like she's always said when she's been interviewed that if she does something it'll be post-Harry, not before him. And I feel like that gives her the most opportunity, the most chance as well, to write something because it's open-ended. I mean, if you write about the Marauders you can only write about them up to a point because then we know what happens after that. Whereas if she writes about Harry's kids, there's a lot that she has to write about.

Eric: I get what you're saying, but on one hand her quote, like, "Oh yeah, I won't do a prequel because prequels are no good." Well, also sequels are no good, too, sometimes. Like if it's a sequel, if it's taking place after Harry has defeated Lord Voldemort, what's going to happen? What's going to be your conflict that drives your character, whoever they may be, into action? Oh, is there somebody who is as evil as Voldemort? A second big bad dark wizard?

Ben: What if she picks a random weird character and doesn't write a prequel or a sequel, but she writes what Filch was doing the entire time.

[Eric and Micah laugh]

Ben: She releases Filch's diary.

[Eric laughs]

Ben: Wouldn't that be cool?

Andrew: Right. Yeah, so the Harry Potter series from Filch's perspective.

Eric: Mhm.

Ben: Oh yeah, maybe. That would be cool.

Eric: Like a Midnight Sun, but from Filch. A Midnight Squib.

Ben: Or Peeves's perspective.

Andrew: Right, right.

Ben: That would be cool.

Andrew: [laughs] Midnight Squib. Peeves's perspective would be cool?

Eric: Yeah. But...

Andrew: Midnight Squib, I like that. Eric is referring to Midnight Sun, which is Twilight from Edward's perspective. [laughs]

Eric: Yes, and I wish she'd go ahead and write the rest of that because I actually read that a long time ago and I liked it.

Andrew: Me too. Somebody should write Midnight Squib.

Ben: Since when did we start doing Twilight references on this show? Did...

Andrew: I don't know. Eric...

Eric: There's a voicemail...

Ben: Did the fandom war... did it end?

Eric: Ben, there's a voicemail about this.

Ben: Did you guys declare a cease-fire?

Eric: There's a voicemail about this coming up soon.

Andrew: Ben is just trying to win over all of the Twilight haters who are listening right now.

Eric: Yeah.

Ben: Yeah, I'm trying to win over the purists. You can follow me at @benschoen.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: My follower count has stalled for years. Come back.

Andrew: So...

Micah: Well, I hear you can just buy more if you need to.



Listener Tweets: JK Rowling's Next Harry Potter Book


Andrew: [laughs] So on Twitter, Twitter.com/MuggleCast, we asked those who follow us: What should JK Rowling's next Harry Potter book be about, if not a prequel? Besides the encyclopedia, of course; that's already a popular thing that everybody wants. Everybody asks us nearly every day. Sam said:

"A story about foreign schools of magic!"

Cherise said:

"Would love to see..."

Ben: Boo. I don't like Sam's idea.

Andrew: [continues]

"...the first few years after the war."

You wouldn't like a book about a different school?

Ben: Yeah, I don't want to hear what Viktor Krum was doing. I'm sorry.

Andrew: Yeah. Cherise said:

"Would love to see the first few years after the war, the rebuilding and the growing relationships."

Ben: Oh, that would be interesting.

Andrew: That's what you were referring to.

Ben: That would be like post-Civil War reconstruction.

Eric: Ugh, I don't know. Don't give... if we've learned anything from The Casual Vacancy, please allow it to be... don't give JK Rowling the opportunity to be dramatic and melodramatic and exhausting and really just sad, sucking the happiness and bleh out of life.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: Well, she did the opposite, so...

Eric: Was that too intense?

Ben: ...it was her... she had to balance things out a bit.

Eric: Yeah.

Ben: She's like, "I'm tired of this uplifting stuff."

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: Right.

Ben: "Love, ah, love, that whole crap, BS I wrote about the power the Dark Lord knows not. Ugh!"

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Andrew: Shelby said:

"Probably something about after Hogwarts was fixed. Maybe Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione's children or even others."

Eric: Mhm.

Ben: Well, was there some magic spell to fix Hogwarts? It's just like, "Reparo Hogwarts!" and Hogwarts is fixed?

Andrew: Hogwarto Reparo. Hogwartus Reparo.

Eric: I just think that because the Harry Potter series was so innovative... or not innovative, unique, and it was so inspiring and for JK Rowling to have written it is just really unique. I think hopefully she'll come up with an idea that nobody is talking about and execute...

Andrew: Hmm.

Eric: Like maybe set in the world of Harry Potter... because I guess that's the point, right? The fact that it's set in the same world. But to just come up with an idea that's truly original and surprise us, get us... I'm waiting for JK Rowling's fifth tweet ever when she announces...

[Micah laughs]

Eric: ...what she's doing.

Ben: Micah is going to miss it.

[Eric and Micah laugh]

Micah: That's right. Because I don't follow her on Twitter.

Eric: You missed her tweet then the other day, right?

Micah: I doubt she tweeted the other day.

Eric: She really tweeted the other day.

Andrew: She did. She said something about something going on in Britain. It was boring.

Eric: Some politic...

Micah: Oh yeah, I heard about that though. See! I still heard about it.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: I bet you have a secret account where you secretly follow Jo.

Micah: And that's the only person that I follow.

Andrew: Do you think... I mean, what are the chances you'll ever follow JK Rowling again? Is there a chance? What does she have to do to win you over as a follower?

Micah: Take a bath.

[Everyone laughs]

Andrew: Oh, my God.

Ben: Micah!

Eric: What if this?

Micah: No, no, I'm joking.

Andrew: No, you're not.

Micah: I'm not.

Eric: What if the next Harry Potter book is being released over Twitter in 140 character tweets?

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: And that... and it's a serial version of her book?

Andrew: I think in that case, Micah would find the strength to press to Follow button.

Eric: I think so, too.

Ben: If I were Jo...

Micah: Some site is just going to copy it and paste it somewhere.

[Andrew laughs]

Eric: And compile it into actual pages that you can flip through.

Ben: If I were Jo...

Andrew: A lot of people on Twitter...

Ben: ...I would actually write some Harry Potter fan fiction on one of those sites and then see what people think.

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: And then I would laugh at their responses that were like, "This sucks. JK Rowling would never write this." And I would sit there...

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: ...and laugh.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, we all remember the classic story. She went into a MuggleNet chatroom and shared some of her theories before the final book came out.

[Eric laughs]

Andrew: And everybody laughed them off.

Eric: Yup.

Andrew: She has said that. She has been on the record.

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: [laughs] A lot of these Twitter responses, by the way, people say... maybe Jo responded in these Twitter responses.

Micah: Doubtful.

Andrew: Who knows? [laughs] Doubtful. I think she's... a lot of people seem to want post-Book 7, seeing the kids grow up. So...

Micah: Yeah. But to answer your question, no, I don't really think that I would follow her. She doesn't interact enough.

Eric: Yeah.

Micah: Is that terrible? I mean, it's true. I'm not telling people not to follow her. It's just she doesn't tweet enough.

Andrew: I understand.

Ben: Can we do a campaign for JK Rowling to follow Micah, so Micah will follow her back?

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: We should start one.

Andrew: We should try that. That'll do it.

Micah: Those are the only circumstances under which I would follow her.

Andrew: All right.

Eric: Is if she follows you?

Micah: That's right. And I doubt she's following anybody.

Andrew: By the way, she only follows Pottermore right now. So...

Eric: [laughs] So that's...

Andrew: Let's move on to some other news.

Eric: Yeah.



News: Bonus Material No Longer Included With 15th Anniversary Harry Potter Paperbacks


Andrew: We talked in the recent episode, either January or February, that new Harry Potter paperbacks are being released with all new covers by Kazu Kibuishi. He is well known actually, in the illustration industry. I mean, he's got quite a few other titles.

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: I personally have never read them, but I know he's...

Micah: He's a comic book artist, right?

Andrew: Yeah. And so far, only the Sorcerer's Stone cover has been released. But when they announced this, and when the books went up for pre-order, Scholastic had said at the end of each of these books, these new paperbacks, there was going to be bonus material. That phrase exactly. And I happen to peruse the pre-order pages the other day and noticed that the bonus material blurbs had disappeared. So I emailed Scholastic and I said, "Hey, what's up with this?" And they sent me a statement back, they said that... actually, we're getting ahead of ourselves in the rundown a little bit. [laughs] But they said to me that:

"When it comes to the 'Harry Potter' series, we always want to deliver for the fans. Since we determined that our plan fell short of that expectation, we will not be offering bonus content."

So either they didn't like the outcry from fans who didn't want them to make this sort of money grab. Some people said, "Oh, Scholastic is just adding the bonus material so people who already have the books will go back and buy them again." Which is a valid point. So some people thought it was a cheap move. Other people, myself included, thought it was a good move because it would be nice to have a little extra feature, these Harry Potter books, to give us a reason to buy them again. Or you just go into Barnes and Noble, and you read the bonus material in the kids section [laughs] and then you walk out. You don't have to buy the books, you get what you want. Or read it on the Internet. Anyway, these books are also coming out on August 27th. That's when Amazon is going to start shipping them, and Barnes and Noble as well. And you can pre-order them now. So...

Micah: Interesting.

Andrew: What do you guys think? Should the bonus material... should that have been included or what?

Micah: Pottermore had no issues with this?

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Andrew: Yeah, maybe Pottermore called and they said, "Hey, you better not release bonus material."

Micah: Or Sony. Whoever is in charge there.

Eric: Well, once they determined that their plan was going to fall short... I don't even understand this statement. I didn't think it made grammatical sense at first. But now that you're talking about it, now it makes sense. They had some ideas of what the general content would be, but then they just... for whatever reason, they decided against it. Yeah, I think some...

Andrew: Yeah, and I mean...

Eric: But then putting content in a book, like in a regular... I don't think that any special content of any relevance really should belong in a book. A book that you buy at the store should be that book and almost nothing else. Maybe the publishers already throw in those little ad pages, like other works by this author...

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: Or if you like this, you'll also like this. BS pages. I really think the book should just be the book.

Andrew: I don't know if anyone should really blame Scholastic, though, for wanting to do that because the book industry is hurting right now...

Eric: Oh, that's true. And yeah, no, I get what you're saying too. That would bring and generate revenue, and it would definitely raise interest in addition to the new cover design.

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah. Think of the good news, would be more people going into mom-and-pop shops, for example, to go and buy the books. You can look at it from that kind of perspective, or you can look at it as Scholastic is just trying to get Harry Potter fans to buy the books again. I'm still not sure if I'm going to go buy them again. The first book, Sorcerer's Stone, the cover looks great. We'll have to see how the rest of the covers look. I'm very interested to see how those look.

Micah: Yeah.

Andrew: I haven't decided if I'm going to buy them yet. Have you guys?

Micah: Don't do it.

Eric: What if they released...

Andrew: [laughs] Don't do it.

Eric: What if they released a statement saying that they wanted to deliver on the new covers but they decided not to so we're only getting Sorcerer's Stone.

[Andrew laughs]

Micah: Well, that's what they did...

Ben: Awww.

Micah: ...really with the anniversary edition.

Eric: The 10th anniversary? Yeah, wasn't it the plan always...

Ben: I'm looking forward to buying these.

Eric: Oh yeah, Ben?

Ben: Yeah, I'm serious because I want to have every Harry Potter book that I possibly can. Do you guys have books with the English covers?

Micah: Yup.

Eric: Mhm.

Andrew: I have one or two, I think.

Ben: I have one. I have Book 7.

Andrew: Yeah.

Ben: I got it at Heathrow Airport, in 2007.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: The rest of us have Book 7 because we were there.

[Andrew and Eric laugh]

Ben: Oh, that's right!

Eric: Yeah.

Ben: I wasn't at your guys' event.

Eric: That's a fairly... you were in Oak Park, though.

Ben: Yeah, I was at a pretty big event. So...

Eric: That's pretty cool.

Andrew: When I came back... when I got the book in the UK, and I came back and I saw the actual... the US version, I was like, "Jesus, this is big!"

Eric: [laughs] Right?

Andrew: The UK books are great.

Ben: It's kind of like their refrigerators and their lavatories.

Andrew: Right.

Ben: Those tiny fridges, tiny bathrooms. Americans, we're just like, "Man, we eat so much we just need big bathrooms."

[Andrew and Micah laugh]

Eric: We need bigger books.

Ben: Big books, big bathrooms. Big books for our big bathrooms.

Micah: Yup.

Andrew: I think another thing going for Scholastic right now is that they... people's existing copy of Harry Potter, especially people who read the book still. I mean, I have friends I see on Twitter who say, "I'm reading the Harry Potter books again." I mean, these copies are starting to fall apart. [laughs] So this is a good time for people to get fresh copies if they want.

Ben: Yeah, it's like, "Mom, my Harry Potter broke. Can you stop at the store and pick me up a new one?"

Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, the box set is going to have new art as well. So I'm looking forward to... if Scholastic is smart they'll release... they should be releasing one new cover every three to four weeks. Because when they released the Sorcerer's Stone cover it was a huge deal.

Eric: Yeah.

Andrew: So... I mean, it won't be as big of a deal for the rest of these naturally, just because everybody knows they're being re-released at this point.

Eric: Mhm.

Andrew: But it would be cool for them to do that.

Micah: Are they going to be sold individually or just in the set?

Andrew: No, no, individually as well.

Micah: Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think Ben brought up the point, sort of. I think if you're a collector it's definitely something you'd want to have because it's unique, it's different. It's just going to be interesting to see how they plan to do these types of sets moving forward. They had the Sorcerer's Stone 10th anniversary, which we talked about a little bit on the last episode with the different cover and there was some new art inside, but beyond that there was nothing different about it. And they decided after that anniversary edition, for whatever reason, not to pursue it with any other books.

Andrew: Right.

Micah: And I don't know why. Maybe it didn't sell well.

Andrew: Yeah, that's probably why. I didn't like that whole idea anyway. I think how they're doing it now is better. Just release them all at once.

Eric: Yeah, and it will be fresh, the new author... the new artist, I mean. [laughs]

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