ŷ������

It's Always Great, Coming back Home..

There's a reason us, the Fans, feel that we're connected, no matter where we from, different culture, ethics, ages..we're all graduated from there..

..Hogwarts.. even like we were in same class,classmates, no matter which edition we read..

..Cause Harry Potter is not just a story..it's a Life..

The Boy Who Saved Flourished the Book Industry

It's One of the most important novels in modern history, Sorry, it's The Most Important ONE.
This Review also for those who hate the series !
Please bear with me..

Without it, most Book stores & publishers may have the same fate of Video Stores like Blockbuster LLC, which, despite being super popular in the 90s, closed all the stores by 2013, shutting down forever.

Yes, without this Novel, and with the rapid change in technology, the ease of making e-books and reading it in PCs, Smartphones, Tablets..etc, the publishing and trade of new paper books may decrease rapidly.
It'd be limited for religious or educating books, classics, small novels. Even those could be just electronic too, and the Books be just like Good Ol' Video Tapes.


A Dystopia, right? very gloomy idea to the world without This novel, The One.

Well, in the case you think I'm exaggerate..Let's have,

A Brief !! History of Literature in the 90s
-------------------------------

Well, let’s back to early 90s , where TV is in every house, even in every room, Video sets are there too, rental video stores everywhere, satellite receivers and cable channels growing fast packed with channels for kids & teenagers, making them attached more & more into screens, not to mention Video Games, Game boy and Nintendo��

Those of this new generation who read are “weirdos" or "nerds�� to the rest of their peers.
And for those “few who read��, book stores mostly got for them comics and graphic novels, which most of them created early this century.


Classic Novels, they read just for Schools and Classes mostly.
And New Novels that make Best Seller are the ones made, or will be made, into movies for Julia Roberts, Tom Cruse or any of the 90s Hollywood celebrity, or the ones by Stephen King because ,of course, will be made into movies too.

Even these new novels didn't live up the selling numbers of Tolkien, Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie -what’s with the British authors and selling numbers :)?- , also in Russia no more Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, no more Hugo in France, in Egypt no more like Naguib Mahfouz & the great authors of the 50s to 70s..

No new Big Hit for novels, most of the selling books are those of Speculation about strange & mysterious things in the world or in religion, Dream interpretation , cocking books or celebrities rumors.


While in US & UK, Top Selling books mostly the Self Help ones, or those teaching Computers Programming and Web Sites -this brand new huge technology leap back then-


No new novels to attract the new generation of kids and teenagers, There's few Successful Highlights though, like R.L.Stine’s Goosepumbs in 1992 which made a very good success, and translated in many countries including Egypt.


And in Egypt there’s also a very successful project by respectful Publishing house that made “Pocket Novels�� for youth, by brilliant Egyptian writers presenting huge variety of novels of many genres, Sci-Fi, Action Thriller, comics, Romance .etc.


There’s also “Reading for All��, project by the first lady “Susan Mubarak��, reprinting a huge verity of important books and novels from all over the world in very cheap prices.


But all these effort didn't attract “more and more�� of new youth readers as intended, it just made more and more books for those few who already reads.
The vast numbers of those who don’t just read will increase if there isn't a BIG new attractive Reading Experience to get them into reading, specially with the more channels, more movies.
But the BIGGEST Obstacle for them to read came out in 1994, and became a real phenomenon by 1995..

..����’s Playstation, The giant Japanese Gaming leap..
Football, Crash, Pepsi man, even the comics heroes also have their games, so why reading Superman, Batman’s comics when you can play them..

~~~~~~ A beat. ~~~~~~

So by 1996, with this growing leap in Gaming, also the Computer 3D games getting much improved, Books get replaced bit by bit by a gaming controls.

So do you think it’s wise for publishers to publish a book for new writer?

Of course not, it may not even cover it’s publishing cost.

So it was very normal when in this year, 1996, when Joanne, a 31 years old lady from England , handed the manuscript of her first novel to 12 publishing houses, all of them rejected it...

A manuscript of over 200 pages of a novel, that she had hard times in her personal and professional life while writing it, and for children??? Seriously is there still any Child left who still read? it’s 1996, the Era of Playstation and Video Games.

But then, the Modest “B���Ǵdz������ܰ����� agreed to publish it , with 2 advises for her, first that she’d get a day job, since it’s a little chance of making money in children's books. - later she received a grant from the Scottish Arts Council to help her continuing writing.-
But the significant advice was to change her pen name cause young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman..
So with her name & her grandmother’s "Kathleen" come the 2 initial of her pen name..

J . k . Rowling

And in 26 June 1997 , with 1,000 copies, 500 of which were distributed to libraries, come out in UK, to our World The Greatest..

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

And Bam!! , everything happened so fast..
Before the end of this year the novel was awarded many important literary awards in the UK.

An American important publisher, Scholastic, won the rights to publish the novel in US, with a huge check Rowling would never dreams of.
Just with small change, 'Philosopher's Stone' to be 'Sorcerer's Stone', as the American publisher feared 'Philosopher's' may not be that attractive to young readers..
And Thanks to Harry Potter, now Every young readers worldwide know much more about Philosopher's Stone's legend.

In 1998 Book Two released in UK , 1999 in US, winning more literary prizes. And becoming NO.1 Top Selling Book in UK , US and many other countries which start to publish the translated first book.

And on 8 July 1999, The First Breaking Record made when Book Three sold 68.000 copies in just three days after its release in the United Kingdom.. and more copies when it released late 1999 in US..

With the fast growing popularity of Harry Potter among readers, more records had been broken..

The 3 books takeover the Top Spot in all charts of Best Selling Books for weeks & months, and it's even still in hardcover editions.
This conquer of the Top Spots made some literary magazines & newspapers separate the 'Harry Potter books' selling records from the rest of the top selling books, splitting the lists into 'Children Books' and 'Adult Books' sections, under pressure from other publishers who were eager to see their books given higher ranking.

And then it was year 2000 , where everything is about to change ... forever..

The Playstation 2 is out there, and even higher leap in Computer Games..

But even with this much of temptations, thousands of children, teens and parents gathered in the Midnight of 8 July 2000 in UK and US at the same day in front of stores, not in front of Cinemas as usual, not electronic stores as Apple stores as happening theses days, But it was in front of Bookstores, for The First time in the Book Stores History, to buy a copy of...

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
And They didn't mind to find out that the book is over 700 page, it was even for their pleasure, more than double the size of any of the first 3 novels.. double the thriller, double the fun..

Over 3 million copies sold at that day only in the US , a New World Record, totally unexpected one.
Huge story, bigger plot , mysterious and very well written.

And more literate prizes for Rowling... more translated editions to more than 40 language.

And a huge budget for the upcoming first movie of the series, which beautifully visualize the magic of the novel by the faithful producers and the director...and it also made some Cinematic Records back then, but that's not our subject now.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

With the announcement of pushing the publishing date of Book Five to mid. 2003 , and with 2 movies out so far, The Hunger for reading Harry Potter kept on..

So, As more readers from this generation start to increase , Publishers and Book Stores start to promote for more books for those readers who are hungry for more..
Older Fantasy books , like Lord of the Rings -which was a super successful movie by then too- Narnia , Golden Compass and many other novels start getting more reprinted editions. And so Book Stores prosperity increased as it get more and more readers.


More countries welcomed the Harry Potter phenomenon.. The English edition AND the local translated ones , both been sold everywhere worldwide.


Even in Egypt English edition sold at many books stores. And, hopefully, some New Book Stores specialized in English novels and books start to open in Cairo & Alexandria by 2002-2003..

And in summer 2002, after the Movie wild success, Nahdet Masr publishing house got the rights and published the Arabic edition.
Although it cut some of the lines for length issues, the edition still hold the magic of it ..making a very good sales.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

The good news is, the literary movement didn't stop there, Harry Potter and Reprinted Classics. No , there's more new books come out for the increasing demand from the readers..

By 2002 ,Life of Pi, Man Booker winner make very good sales numbers.

And in April 2003 Dan Brown (previously published 3 novels, making good sales) released a novel that made Huge Fuss around and making a new sales records, The Da Vinci Code..
The funny thing that there's a reference in this novel that Harry Potter is 'the Second Most Selling Book in History after the Bible', a speculation that happens to be true in less than 5 years after that.

A month later, May 2003, Khaled Hosseini released his first novel, The Kate Runner which also made a very good records too. -Don't you agree if there's no Harry Potter before, this Afghan-born author would have a chance? He'd be rejected by 12 publishers like you know who :)-

And all that didn't affect the main reason for this new 'Literal Renaissance'.
All that didn't affect the Records Breaker to break records one month later..

On 20 June 2003 book Five 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' comes out..

Ten thousands of all ages conquer the Book Stores in UK, US and other countries too at the same day to get The One Book they've been waiting for at least 2 years. Shipping agents like FedEx made the delivery to many countries to get the book at the same time.

A New world Record ,5 millions copy at the first day only..
For the first time in France a non french language book placed in no.1 of the bestselling book....

Some kids got a headache called 'Harry Potter Headache' as they read the whole 850 pages of the book five, the biggest so far, at the same day without resting.

And in Egypt, September the same year, the Arabic edition of book three comes out with unexpected sales records, first edition run out of the stores by the first week only, though it's nearly the beginning of the School year, and the movie of this 3rd book still filming.
ِAnd the price of it get higher 20% in 2 days and still with increasing demand..

More English books and novels sold in Egypt too, along with the Arabic ones, publishing more books for new Egyptian authors and writers along with more of the famous ones, Alaa El Aswany's debut Novel 'Yaqubean's Building' making a very good selling numbers..

And in July 2004 the Arabic edition of Book Four makes a price war between book stores and magazines stands.
January 2005 , an abridged translated edition of Book Five make many readers angry in Egypt , specially that many already read the English edition before, so the publisher release an unabridged one by May.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

And on 21 July 2005, A Higher Record that breaks all the previously ones

6.9 million copy of Book Six sold in US in its first day only...
A huge book, it may not be as the fans' expectations of being full of action , but it get a twist that blow minds about one of the most interesting characters, Professor Snape. That made many fans and even big authors like Stephen King and Salman Rushdie talk about for months..

With Pre-Final Book of Harry Potter is out, it followed by a massive variety of New Novels, New Series, New Authors..
Twilight series, Percy Jackson series, and much more, more Books Sales not only in US, UK but worldwide..
More Novels hit the top sales..
A Real Prosperity.

But still Harry Potter is the Records Big Breaker...

At the midnight before 21 June 2007, Everywhere around the Globe, the scene of thousands of people lining in front of Book Stores was repeated...even Bigger than any time before..

A Huge Record for Pre-Orders online reach to One Million copies by Amazon only, and total sales of 11 millions copies in UK and US in the first day only.

The book sold at the Same Day almost in Every Single Country..


even in Israel which made a big religious fuss because the Book Stores opened to receive and sell the book at the releasing day which was their holy Saturday, But it's Harry Potter after all, the world's most unusual, unexpected phenomenon and sales records breaker.

And that's not bad, it was the Miracle of bringing back readers to Book Stores...

And it's not just Harry Potter...
Now, that 'All was well.' , thousands of topics went online asking 'what to read next'....
Indeed, although there's the e-books, e-readers..etc, still there's thousands of new books and novels published and sold every year , in every where in the world.

The gaming devices is increasing? yes, But not as expected though by the 90s and early 2000s 'remember Nokia N-Gage?'.. but so does the reading devices which first come out by Sony in 2004,make big step by Amazon's Kindle in 2007...the ebook applications on every device.


New books and series come after that, and still on, making super sales, attracting more readers... more writers come with more books and novels, some are just a rip off others and some are really original and brilliant. in UK, US , Egypt ..everywhere all over the globe..

No matter a Playstation 4 is out, or new Xbox, the Books still there...with its most beloved magic..

The magic of books is back and , I believe, to stay..

Don't you see with me that the magic of Harry Potter is one of the main factors of this magic?

“This boy will be famous. There won’t be a child in our world who doesn’t know his name��

That's what Rowling wrote at the very early pages of her first book.. The one that rejected by 12 Publishing Houses in 1996..

Well, what about now?

God, Talked too much in the "Brief" introduction , didn't I?

Well, that's it for this review... I guess some still think it's just the Propaganda that made that all....
Well I'll try to prove them wrong by the upcoming next 6 reviews at the other 6 Books of the series..
Links will be here as soon as it'd done ..

But for The First one... sorry to add one more , but 20000 characters aren't enough.

The Ultimate Review of Book One

Now I'll be back to go around Hogwarts...


For the Zillionth time I guess..

Hope to see you there too, come on and try first year :)


From Hogwarts

Mohammed Arabey
The Craziest Potterhead of Egypt


Re-reading the new edition -Guess I'm addicted to new editions BUT this one really rocks.."Bloomsbury-2014"
from 12 Sep. 2014
to 23 Sep. 2014