I am quite amazed by the tremendous international popularity of the Harry Potter novels. The Harry Potter novels were written by the English author J.K. Rowling. She was born on 31 July 1965. Her complete name is Joanne Rowling. But she writes under the pen name J.K. Rowling because primarily her publishing house thought it was a good move not to reveal the fact that she is female. The publishing house thought it could have a negative effect on the sales figures if everybody immediately sees that the author is a woman. So, instead of revealing her first name she used two letters. As she has no middle name she took Kathleen as basis for the K. in her pen name. Kathleen is the name of her fathers mother.

The first Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone - was released mid 1997 in in Great Britain. Very funny is the aspect that only thousand pieces of the first story were publicized at that time. The original title of the story was not Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, but Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. But when the story was publicized to the US market in the year 1998, it was named Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

After that J.K. invented several more Harry Potter stories. Now the Harry Potter series is made of a total of 7 books. These are:

• Book 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
• Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The Harry Potter books have been translated into more than 60 languages and have been published in many countries. Besides the tremendous success in the United States and Britain, Harry Potter is also noticeably favored in Europe. The Harry Potter stories have been released to German readers under those titles:

• Vol. 1: Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen
• Vol. 2: Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens
• Vol. 3: Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban
• Vol. 4: Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch
• Vol. 5: Harry Potter und der Orden des Phoenix
• Vol. 6: Harry Potter und der Halbblutprinz
• Vol. 7: Harry Potter und die Heiligtuemer des Todes

I must admit that I did not have the time to read all the stories. But there are people who know them all, which is quite remarkable and is part of the tremendous success.

Filed under: John's Message

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