JK Rowling’s next book is coming. Prepare to be inspired.
Important announcement, muggles: JK Rowling has a new book coming out. Now, before you start digging through your closets for your house robe, this next book won’t be about the wizarding world whatsoever. Instead, this next book will focus on our world — aka, the non-magical world — and Rowling is going to impart only the best life advice. That’s because the book will be the speech she gave at Harvard University’s graduation commencement in 2008 titled, Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination.
Rowling herself has a rags to riches fairytale, and in the commencement speech she addresses the “benefits of failure” and the “crucial importance of imagination” — hence, the title. She doesn’t shy away from her own stories about failure in her life, saying, “you might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable,” and hearing that from a now successful woman is incredibly refreshing. As for imagination, she says it’s “arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.”
You’re probably wondering why you need to buy a speech turned book, and it’s because all of the proceeds go to charity. Some of the finds will go to Lumos, a charity that Rowling herself founded for disadvantaged children; the rest of the funds will go towards Harvard financial aid. So, in buying the book you’ll not only have a handy encyclopedia of Rowling knowledge at your fingertips anytime you need it, but you’ll be helping great causes, too. The book will be illustrated by Joel Holland, and available April 2015 — mark your calendars!
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