Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

[Machupicchu14]

I mean I haven't read Harry Potter but I wouldn't classify it as a classic. Maybe in a few years it will be considered a children's classic. Yes I'm sure that's the case and from what I have heard, they are really good books! ( a few months ago I watched part of the movie "Harry Potter and the Philospher Stone and I did enjoy it!). But to be honest, I think people define a classic basically as a "good book" (classics are always good books anyway but regardless of that) just as they can consider an ancient Greek book a classic and then say the book which was released yesterday is a classic too because they consider it good also. But I think there's a difference. (And unfortunately I find it hard to describe that difference).
Abi, I hope during the holidays I will at least read some of the books

[Darrell71]

Harry Potter enjoys unprecedented popularity, so it's iconic, sure. But classic? Not so much.

[tiger76]

Maybe not classic, but they're certainly valuable, especially the rarer editions https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-s ... e-54523938

[Katharine]

I've been wanting to do a Harry Potter re-read for some months now, but can't find my copy of the 1st book. It was only a cheap one - £1 from a charity shop I think, but I've looked in all the places I might have left it, and can't find it anywhere!

[Anne Gracie]

I gave my print copies away, as I assumed the titles would never go out of print! I then bought the first one as an eBook. It’s an interactive one so it has moving pictures and ‘magic’ in colour! A surprise on a page turn every now and then. Harry Potter is also on my re-read list.

[Courtenay]

I've been wanting to do a Harry Potter re-read for some months now, but can't find my copy of the 1st book. It was only a cheap one - £1 from a charity shop I think, but I've looked in all the places I might have left it, and can't find it anywhere!

I gave my print copies away, as I assumed the titles would never go out of print! I then bought the first one as an eBook. It’s an interactive one so it has moving pictures and ‘magic’ in colour! A surprise on a page turn every now and then. Harry Potter is also on my re-read list.

And if only the lost or given-away copies were the same as this one, either of you could have been sitting on a fortune...

[Boatbuilder]

That's the same book that tiger76 posted about yesterday, Courtenay.

[Courtenay]

Ah right, I hadn't seen that post, thanks.

[Boatbuilder]

Here's another copy of the same book which sold in the USA which has a 'reclaim' against it.

Harry Potter: Portsmouth library may reclaim £42,500 book sold in USA

[Courtenay]

Er, good luck to them, but how do they know that's the missing copy and not one of the two they legitimately sold in 2004?? Something tells me they're unlikely to get it back...

[Boatbuilder]

In the library books I have seen sold by the library, they normally stamp something in the book that indicates that it was a legitimate ex-library book and had been removed from their stock. Maybe the long number on the stamp is a 'stock' number which would also identify it.

Perhaps Fiona has some first-hand knowledge on that score.

[Courtenay]

Good point — we've picked up a lot of ex-library books over the years in second hand book sales and I remember they nearly always have "Withdrawn From Stock" or simply "Withdrawn" stamped in them, along with the name of the library service. I should think there would also be an identifying number on the book's stamp, or of course the library barcode. (Gosh, now I remember helping to put barcodes on all the books in one of our local school libraries and then enter them all into the system when they started going digital back in the mid-1990s... I'm dating myself here. I did that as part of my community service for the Duke of Edinburgh Award!)

I'm not sure I'd be too pleased, if I'd bought that book for $55,000, to be told the original library claims it was never legitimately withdrawn by them and they want it back, but I'd be interested to find out what happens!! (Mind you, if I had a spare $55,000 / £42,500 floating around, I don't think a first edition Harry Potter would be my first choice of what to spend it on... )

[Fiona1986]

Well, each library book has a unique barcode with a number (known as an accession number but some of our staff call it a 'plessy' number too, no idea how it's spelled as I've only heard it said.).

Withdrawn books in my library are removed from the online catalogue so that accession number would no longer match up to anything, the bar code is scored through with marker pen, the lending sheet is removed and the book is stamped with 'cancelled' but 'withdrawn' is used in some libraries too.

If books 1 and 2 were sold and book 3 was missing they'd all have been deleted from the catalogue. Our catalogue doesn't have any function for recording reason for deletion so I wouldn't be able to tell you if this situation arose where I worked. Different libraries use different software however and may keep different kind of records.

When books (and customers) are deleted they can be retrieved for a time after if you have the barcode from the book (or library card). I doubt they'd still have that information after 16 years, however!

[Boatbuilder]

I remember helping to put barcodes on all the books in one of our local school libraries

No such luxuries as barcodes when I was the school librarian in the early '60s, Courtenay.

I did that as part of my community service ...

What was your misdemeanour, Courtenay?

[Courtenay]

No such luxuries as barcodes when I was the school librarian in the early '60s, Courtenay.

Nor when I started school in the late 1980s! It was quite exciting a few years later to have the new technology — and to be able to search the library's catalogue by computer as well.

I did that as part of my community service ...

What was your misdemeanour, Courtenay?

Choosing to do my Bronze "Duke of Ed" in Year 9, as I already mentioned... (Actually, the community service part was fine. It was the 3-day hike at Wilson's Promontory — a national park with some very steep trails — that nearly did me in.)