Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
It's Always Great, Coming back Home...There is a reason us, the Fans, feel like we're connected, no matter where we from, different culture, ethics...ages..we're all like graduated from there....Hogwarts..we're even been like in the same class..We're classmates, no matter which edition we read....Cause Harry Potter is not just a story..it's a Life..One of the most important novels in the modern history, Sorry, it's The Most Important ONE.This Review also for those who hate the series !نفس المقالة بالعربيةWithout it,most of the Book stores and publishers may have the same fate of the Video stores 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 some educating books, classic and small novels., even these kinds of books goes just electronic…. and the books be just like an old Video Tape.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 haveA Brief !!! History of Literature in the 90s-----------------------------------------------------Well, let’s back to the early 90s , where TV is in every house,even in every room ,Video sets are there too, rental video stores everywhere and satellite receivers and cable channels growing fast, with many channels for kids and teenagers making them attached more and more into screens, not to mention Video Games, Game boy and Nintendo… Those from 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 just comics and graphic novels, which most of them created early this century.The classic novels they read just for schools and education, otherwise they merely know the movies that based on.The new novels that make a best seller are the ones which 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 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.Also in Egypt no more like Naguib Mahfouz and 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 and mysterious things in the world or in religion,Dreams explications , cocking books or just celebrities rumors.While in US and UK it selling books mostly the self help books, or those which teach how to make Computers programs or even web sites -this brand new huge technology leap back then.No new novels to attract the new generation of kids and teenagers, just some few successful highlights like R.L.Stine’s Goosepumbs in 1992 which make a very good success, and translated in many countries including Egypt.And in Egypt there’s also a very successful project made by The Modern Arabic Institution for Publishing & Distribution which made “Pocket Novels” for youth , by brilliant Egyptian writers,who presented excellent 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” which printed 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 ,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 1994and became a real phenomenon by 1995...it’s the Playstation , the giant Japanese gaming leap..Football, Crash , Pepsi man, and the comics heroes also have their games , so why reading Superman , Batman’s comics when you can play them....**************************************************************************************************So by 1996,with this growing leap in Gaming, as also the Computer 3D games getting even much improves, 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 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 for 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 who still read? it’s 1996, the era of Playstation and Video Games.But then, the Modest “Bloomsbury“ 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 and her grandmother’s "Kathleen" come the 2 initial of her pen name…J . k . Rowling And in 26th 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 StoneAnd Baam , everything happened so fast..Before the end of this year the novel awarded many important litural 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, The title changes from Philosopher's Stone to the Sorcerer's Stone , as the American publisher saw that Philosopher's may not be that attractive to young readers..And Thanks to Harry Potter ,now Every young readers know much more about Philosopher's Stone from their other reads.In 1998 Book 2 released in UK ,1999 in US, winning more literary prizes. Becoming a Top Selling books in UK, US and many other countries which start to publish the translation for the first book. And on 8 July 1999, The First Breaking Record made when Book 3 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 both in UK and US.... The 3 books takeover the top spot in the charts of best selling books for weeks and months, and it was still the hardcover editions.This conquer made some literary magazines and newspapers separate the Harry Potter books selling records from the rest of the top selling books, splitting its 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 electronic stores or Apple stores -as theses days- , it was Bookstores, for may be the first time in the Book Stores History , to buy a copy of ... Harry Potter and the Goblet of FireAnd 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...a totally unexpected one.huge story, bigger plot , mysterious and very well written. more literate prizes for Rowling... more translated editions to more than 40 language. And 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 records , but that's not our subject now. ************************************************************************************By the announcement of pushing the publishing date of book 5 to mid 2003 , and even by 2 movies out so far, the hunger for reading Harry Potter kept on.. Also , as more readers start to increase into this generation, 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 which finally getting more reprinted editions...and so Book stores to 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 start to open in Cairo and Alexandria by 2002-2003..and finally in summer 2002, Nahdet Masr for publishing and distribution got the rights and published the Arabic edition, although it cut some of the lines for the length issues, fearing it may won't attract more readers , but the edition still hold the magic of it..making a very good sales.****************The good news is,the literary movement didn't stop there, more new books come out for the increasing demand from the readers..Life of Pi , the 2002 man Booker winner make very good sales numbers by.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 -do you think publishers would agree if there's no Harry Potter before? ,He'd may be rejected by 12 publishers like you know who :)- , The Kate Runner which also made a very good records too.And that's 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 5 '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 to get the one they 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, in 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 although it's nearly the beginning of the School year, and the movie of this 3rd book still filming. ِAnd the price of the book 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 writers along with more of the famous ones , Alaa El Aswany's first novel 'Yaqubean's Building' makes very good selling numbers.. 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 in the same year's summer, on 21 July, A higher record that breaks all the previously ones 6.9 million copy of book 6 sold in US in its first day... A huge book, may didn't 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..****************The pre-final book followed by a massive variety of new novels, new authors....Twilight series, Percy Jackson series, and more new novels, more books sales not only in US, UK but worldwide...But still 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, 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 country,even in Israel which made a big religious fuss about the book stores being open in 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, thousands of topics went online asking 'what to read next'....Indeed, although there's the ebooks, ereaders , 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, not as expected though by the 90s and early 2000s "remember Nokia N-Gage"- but so do 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 ..ever where 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 worng by the upcoming next 6 reviews at the other 6 Books of the series..Links will be here as soon as it'd done .. وللمقالات العربية ايضا 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 HogwartsMohammed ArabeyRe-reading the new edition -Guess I'm addicted to new editions BUT this one really rocks.."Bloomsbury-2014"from 12 Sep. 2014till 23 Sep. 2014
How can more than half of my Goodreads friends be wrong with this?I have to get this right. As of this writing, I have 98 Goodreads friends. 61 (62%) of them have read J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Out of those who read this, 39 (64%) rated this with 5 stars. 11 of them with 4 stars. All the others gave 3 or 2. Only 2 rated this with 1 star. One of them admitted not being able to finish it. She should not have rated it really since she did not read its entirety. (But she is my friend and it is her right, so why question?)When the book came out in 1998, I was not yet a bookworm so I brushed this aside. I read only those books that my brother told me to read. He was the bookworm but he would not be caught reading any book being pushed by media hype. However, when Warner Bros. released the film adaptation in 2001, my daughter was 6 years old and I thought that, since there was too much hype, the movie must be good and we would have a memorable time with our first ever father-daughter movie date. I was wrong. She not only got scared because of the darkness inside the movie house but she trembled with fear during the life-size human chess game, in that scene when Ron was sacrificed. We left the movie in that scene with my daughter crying and me cursing it: I will never read Harry Potter.My daughter is now 15 going 16. She is not fond of movies and she still does not show interest on reading Harry Potter. However, I am now a bookworm and the other week, I was with my 4 Goodreads friends and 3 of them raved (two of them, again) about Harry Potter books. Oh well, first-time fathers can make mistakes about first movie date with their daughters, Book 1 is included in 500 Must Read Books and the book must be a quick read. So the following day, I bought my copy.After 13 years of the book's existence and me ignoring it, did I finally make a good decision of reading it? Are all of those 39 friends of mine in Goodreads wrong in giving this 5 stars? Most of them did not bother writing a review. Maybe those would be too long or maybe they read this when they were not in Goodreads yet. But I am in Goodreads already so I can make this review long.These are what some of them say: it was a great book i enjoyed reading it For an eloquent reviewer, she must have been too happy to express herself. Such a great story and creative way of writing. I love Harry Potter. Yes, I agree about the story being great and J. K. Rowling being creative. I was secretly wishing I was studying in Hogwarts too! It was silly, but I was simply enraptured by Harry Potter. Honestly, I still am :) It was a great book. I enjoyed reading it Coming from one of my favorite reviewers in Goodreads. I do not share her wanting to be a sorcerer though. Honestly, I don't know anybody who'd refuse to even entertain the thought of attending a school for wizards. Another one of my favorite reviewers. That seems to have nailed this. Young people wanting to be in Hogwarts and study sorcery. That should be it! The world seems to be a dreadful place that we would all like to have powers to turn our enemies into frogs, pigs, ride on a broomstick and get the Snitch and earn points (money) for our family!Oh well, the Bible says that sorcery is Satan's work. The book even used the word Transfiguration as a subject in the sorcery school. Blasphemy.Just kidding. This is a work of fiction and I am not too old to appreciate it. I was just kidding. To be frank, I tried hard not to like this. I thought that giving this a 1 or 2 will freak out my friends and somehow get votes from those who are, up to now, ignoring this book. I told you so! Why waste your time? . However, unless you are a grumpy old man/woman, there is nothing not to like about this book. I maybe too old for it but hey, talent is talent and J. K. Rowling has it!My 39 friends are indeed right!
What do You think about Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (2003)?
I love the personal stories that go along with this wonderful series, so here’s my hand at it. Bare with me.When I was a kid, I actually didn't really like reading. I struggled with it and it didn't seem all that pleasing. I was an explorer after all. I collected acorns for the squirrels, stalked the ducks in our pond, pulled together forts with a bunch of branches, and created mudpies and dirtstews. So many good times to be had without wasting time on books! I was no Matilda:Then, I met Mr. Sutherland. Y'know those teachers that you have in elementary school? The one that you distinctly remember more than all the others. There's always that one teacher that leaves a mark. He was mine. That third grade class was my home away from home.I talked all the time and I never listened in class; quite the troublemaker actually. But there was one period where I was absolutely quiet. Reading time. Because Mr. Sutherland picked out a book that I found utterly fascinating. A book that captured my heart and sparked a sense of magic within my soul. I had to keep quiet. I had to listen to Harry's tale. He wasn't that much older than me. I was 8 and he was 11. I've never felt so connected to a character and story in my entire life. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what I've been missing out on all this time. I started to read.A book. A place that was better than real life? Better than my own adventures? Who knew that I would rather have my nose stuck in a book? With my imagination as my world and the words were my guide to it.The thing about Harry is that he connects with so many people. There are no bounds. Race? It doesn't matter. Age? It doesn't matter. Sexes? IT DOESN'T MATTER. There is no separation when it comes to the love of literature.And what's the ultimate power in this series? Love
—Kat Stark
I wish this book had come out when I was young, I wish that someone had convinced me to read them when they first came out, and I wish I had read this series before I watched the movies...I wish..I wish..I wish...I wish I wasn't a Muggle.The day started off the same as any other day for Vernon Dursley- he picked out his clothes for work, got dressed, listened to his wife- Petunia- as she struggled with their son -Dudley- during one of his tantrums, grabbed his briefcase, kissed them both good-bye, got into his car and drove away from number four Privet drive. That is where the day took a strange turn...Vernon just chose to ignore it.He ignored the cat reading a map on the street corner outside his home. He ignored the people dressed in cloaks...He ignored the owls flying outside his window at work- and after some careful consideration, he decided to also ignore the whispers on the streets outside at lunch- mentioning the name Harry Potter, and the strange man that hugged him for no reason...If Vernon had been a different sort of man- he would have known life was about to change for his "happy' little family.The street lights on Privet drive flicker off one by one- and a group of four gather just outside the Dursley residence. Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Hargrid, set baby Harry and a letter on the doorstep. For Harry Potter isn't just any child and must be kept safe. One day he will know who he is, and one day they will come back for him.First off I would like to thank my friend Stepheny- for finally being the one to give me that extra push I needed to give in and read this wonderful book- and I do mean PUSH. She was relentless, and now I know why! Anything I say will pale in comparison to her review of HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE- so I am going to link her review and let her words take over from here...https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Thanks Stepheny! :D
—Delee
