it is, however, interesting to note that the next harry potter book is going to be somewhere around 220, 000 words. you could beat a couple of kids up with a piece of rope and a pair of hardcovers like that.
without reading the books, what interests me, is that it seems that harry potter has taken on the size and attraction that comes with offering a big escape that has often been the attraction for readers to fantasy such as tolkien (in a general way). in return, fantasy appears to have finally given up any pretension of being a literature for anyone outside school and above a PG rating.
i reckon in about ten years the fantasy and science fiction genre as it is know will turn into a young adult section.