J.K. Rowling may have the books flying off the shelves, but even Harry hasn't been able to get the Catholic Church to institute a website for Potter fans. The Book Standard reports that the Catholic Church, in a bit of a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" spirit, has launched a new website dedicated to Mary Magdalene and for the Da Vinci fans. The website has the following disclaimer:
The Catholic Enquiry Office is an official agency of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. Whilst we endeavour to ensure that all the Catholic sites and materials listed on this page are truthful, accurate and reflective of Catholic belief and teaching, we distance ourselves from any that are not.
Launched on the feast day of Mary Magdalene, July 22, the press release issued by the Catholic Church explains the idea behind the website created to answer questions raised by the popular novel.
". . . in light of the continuing interest in Dan Brown's novel, the Office has taken the unprecendented step of creating a web resource for 'Da Vinci' enthusiasts. Mgr Keith Barltrop is Director of the Office and said: "What we wanted to dow as to use this wonderful feast day to give fans of the novel the chance to discover who St. Mary Magdalene really was and her role in the Catholic Church. Annually she is honored as an exemplary follower of Jesus Christ and as the first witness to the resurrection; Jesus' rising from the dead. We invite you to use this opportunity to find out more."
While Da Vinci fans may have suddenly found their topsy turvy world righted, the world of Potterdom has experienced a bit of a reversal. The Book Standard also reports the discovery of a few of the new Half Blood Prince novels containing upside-down print, blank pages and skewed lines. One can only imagine the magic that will be wrought on E-Bay with these new discoveries. Meanwhile Nielson's early scoring of 4.1 million sales of Half Blood Prince in the first 24 hours vied with Scholastic's tally of 6.9 million, but today Nielson provides a final accounting of 4 million copies through traditional outlets.
I wonder what a rush it would be to know that in some places your book, something you created, was being scanned at the registers at the phenomenal rate of 105 copies per second?
Okay, enough day dreaming, time to get on with the day, and if you're wondering how the notebook mess is doing. . . well, at one point yesterday while I had the dark safe mode screen staring at me I was suddenly offered the opportunity to take the settings back to the day before the terrible download happened--which I did--and the sun came out from behind the clouds and smiled on me and my laptop. We are managing just fine now.
Meanwhile, Georgia over at the Writer's-Edge asked me about my take on the success of the Potter books. I do have some ideas but I'm still working them out. I'll share them when my thoughts have a bit more shape. And Mark at Clear Lake Reflections let me know he's been experiencing pop-ups when visiting the website. I don't know why they're appearing, so I don't know how to get rid of them. Hints or tips are helpful and welcome.
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