Rowling, Harry Potter VII

...and I have read it all. It must be at least 4000 pages, a million words, longer than the Bible, longer than Homer, longer that the Mahbharata... was it worth it?

Certainly Rowling and her publishers were able to maintain interest in the book up to its publication. Wikipedia has managed to summarise the last book in a page, so why did Rowling need 600 pages?

So will the books be read in a hundred years' time like Edith Nesbit? Some immediate reaction has suggested this. But now that we know how it ends, or can find out by reading the Wikipedia summary, why should we read the books?

Perhaps someone will write a precis, or a collection of key excerpts, as has been done for Gibbon's Decline and fall. A one-volume Harry Potter might well still be read in the future. But I cannot see anyone in a century reading all seven volumes.

Rowling, J.K.. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 2007, Bloomsbury, London. hardcover. 607 pages.