I now live at Hogwarts

Because Harry Potter land is open!

Hundreds queued up for butterbeer, while others crowded into the Owl Post. By mid-afternoon, a line of 200 hopefuls stood outside Ollivanders wand shop. And another location to buy souvenir wands was added outside the Owl Post, which has been a bottleneck for shoppers.

At lunchtime, the line for Three Broomsticks restaurant extended out to the entrance of the Wizarding World, and more than 150 customers stood in the heat to buy butterbeer.

The lines are the real attraction, it seems.

J.K. Rowling saves economy, world

The Economist contends that J.K. Rowling has done more for the economy than just about, well, anyone. And, if you think about it, she wrote seven bestsellers, which became (slash will become) eight blockbuster films, and inspired a freaking theme park. Says producer David Heyman, "When we stop filming next May, at least 800 people will be looking for work."

I think we should all take a page from Ms. Rowling's book, and aspire to create jobs by selling a bajillion copies of a series.

Graphing literacy

I am an avid follower of GraphJam (you should be too!). And so, as we end our week together, I thought I'd share a reading venn diagram with you all.

Getting ghetto lit

Juan Williams wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal about ghetto lit in America.

Williams is very down on the genre, writing, "Not only the best but the worst that can be said about these books is they are an authentic literary product of 21st-century black America. They are poorly written, poorly edited and celebrate the worst of black life."

So here's the question: is it better to have ghetto lit, or to get rid of it and potentially have all of those readers not read anything? Is this the same situation with condemning kids who read Harry Potter?