On this day 20 years ago, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone introduced the world to a magical journey through witchcraft and wizardry. It has been a quick 20 years since Harry met two great friends, Ron and Hermione, faced Voldemort for the first time and took on a troll in the girls’ toilet. Can you remember that?
J K Rowling’s first book from the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was first published on June 26, 1997.
Many events popped up in the UK and around the world on Monday, June 26, 2017 to commemorate 20 years of the franchise. Enthusiastic fans celebrated the boy wizard’s fictional debut as well as the successive books and films that have captivated the global audience over the years. In the US, fans dusted off the book and reviewed its performance. It’s quite intriguing that even though the book only managed to make it to No.135 in the Best-Selling books list by then, it has been dominating the No.1 position on international bestsellers for a while now!
Harry is without a doubt ubiquitous. There are more than 450 million books in print across the globe, in addition to the billions it makes at the box office. It’s unbelievable how the story of a skinny boy has been printed in more than 79 languages and is ever gaining more popularity with each dawn.
Many people have argued about the reasons for the success of Harry Potter’s series. Some say that it is the perfect blend of fantasy and the classical school story technique. Others say that Harry perfectly timed the cultural zeitgeist. But one thing that many fans agree to is Rowling’s unique world building. The creativity behind Diagon Alley, the imaginably boundless halls of Hogwarts castle and the locations’ colorful clientele is overly impressive.
J.K. Rowling did not stop to create for the world another world after her first book. She followed Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone with six other books, expanding on the universe of muggles and magicians and the malady that they create.
She has been answering her eager fans’ questions year after year. In 2001, Rowling first released Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through The Ages. The last book was released in 2007, and it set a record of attaining the highest number of sales any book had ever realized in the first week.
June 26, 2017 was a great day to appreciate Rowling’s incredible talent of bringing the world of magic to our eyes. Through some literature piece that even herself thought was insignificant at first, the magic world has been brought to the eyes of millions of readers and Harry Potter has a become a common talk among readers around the world, from the young to the old.
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