apropos of nothing

‘NYT’ Wins the Race to Review the New ‘Harry Potter’

Courtesy of Scholastic (book), iStockphoto (watch)

Setting a new land-speed record for book reviewing, the New York Times’ Michiko Kakutani somehow managed to read all 759 pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and crank out 1,135 words on the tome [Caution: minor spoilers] in less than one day. The Times claims to have purchased Hallows from a New York City store sometime yesterday, which would have given Kakutani only a few short hours to read it and write her critique, which went live on the Times’ Website at 8:06 p.m. last night.

By contrast, Mary Carole McCauley, the Baltimore Sun’s resident laggard, reviewed a copy from a leaky online retailer, meaning she probably started reading hours before Kakutani, and still was only able to turn in her 1,124 words by 9:17 p.m. Nice try, Mary, but there’s no silver medal in literary criticism.

Michiko Kakutani’s review [NYT, SPOILERS]
Mary Carole McCauley’s review [Baltimore Sun, SPOILERS]

‘NYT’ Wins the Race to Review the New ‘Harry Potter’