Harry Potter 1
British examination standards have reached an all time low following confirmation that the book Harry Potter, by J K Rowling is to be included in the A-Level examination syllabus from next year.
Groan. Harry Potter is undeniably an imaginative piece of work; so imaginative it borders on gobbledygook. J K Rowling has managed to corner the children´s literature market admirably with her tales of the boy wizard and his adventures in the land of wherever. Not so admirably, I might add, as her PR machine has managed to corner the product support market, with such items as Harry Potter school bags, dolls, souvenir diaries and so on. It is this marketing machine that is responsible to the greater degree for the incredible success of the book series, not Ms Rowling´s dealthless talent as a writer.
Here is a list of all the books in the correct reading order:
Harry Potter and the...
1. Philosopher's Stone/Sorcerer's Stone :
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" also re-titled as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in United States has received a critical acclaim and huge commercial success world wide, and has also captured the heart of young and old invariably. With the story centering on the boy called Harry Potter and his adventures in a totally anomalous world of wizards and in the quest of wrecking his revenge against the Dark Lord of Wizards Voldemort, discovering his ruthless hand (wand!) behind his parents death, the pipeline of the story plunges into the interesting fact finding hunt of Harry Potter.
2. Chamber of Secrets:
Forced to spend his summer holidays with his muggle relations, Harry Potter gets a real shock when he gets a surprise visitor: Dobby the house-elf, who warns Harry Potter against returning to Hogwarts, for terrible things are going to happen. Harry decides to ignore Dobby's warning and continues with his pre-arranged schedule. But at Hogwarts, strange and terrible things are indeed happening: Harry is suddenly hearing mysterious voices from inside the walls, muggle-born students are being attacked, and a message scrawled on the wall in blood puts everyone on his/her guard - "The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies Of The Heir, Beware".
3. Prisoner of Azkaban:
Approaching his third year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter has had enough of his muggle relatives. He runs away from them (finally) and enters his third term facing trouble from more than one side: for using magic outside the school and from the news that a notorious criminal, serial killer Sirius Black, has escaped the wizard's prison at Azkaban and apparently is headed for Harry. The school calls in supernatural help against Black in the form of Dementors, but unusual things continue to put Harry in peril. He is thrown into a confusing panoply of shifting alliegences and shifting shapes where nobody is who or what they seem. Who is the real criminal? What is the real crime? Who is telling or knows the truth?
4. Goblet of Fire :
Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts is about to start and he is enjoying the summer vacation with his friends. They get the tickets to The Quidditch World Cup Final but after the match is over, people dressed like Lord Voldemort's 'Death Eaters' set a fire to all the visitors' tents, coupled with the appearance of Voldemort's symbol, the 'Dark Mark' in the sky, which causes a frenzy across the magical community. That same year, Hogwarts is hosting 'The Triwizard Tournament', a magical tournament between three well-known schools of magic : Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. The contestants have to be above the age of 17, and are chosen by a magical object called Goblet of Fire. On the night of selection, however, the Goblet spews out four names instead of the usual three, with Harry unwittingly being selected as the Fourth Champion. Since the magic cannot be reversed, Harry is forced to go with it and brave three exceedingly difficult tasks.
5. Order of the Phoenix:
After returning to Hogwarts to begin his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter discovers that much of the wizarding world, including the Ministry of Magic, is in denial about Lord Voldemort's return. The Order of the Phoenix, a group sworn against Voldemort, is using its vast array of wizards and witches magical abilities to combat Voldemort. Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, suspects that Dumbledore is using these claims of The Dark Lord's return as a means to over-throw Fudge as Minister. In retaliation, a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is appointed by the Ministry in order to keep an eye on Hogwarts. This new teacher, Professor Umbridge, implies strict new teachings and rules, forcing a group of students, under the tutelage of Harry, to form a club, by the name of Dumbledore's Army...
6. Half-Blood Prince:
In Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, Harry finds a book marked mysteriously, "This book is the property of the Half Blood Prince," which helps him excel at Potions class and teaches him a few dark and dangerous ones along the way. Meanwhile, Harry is taking private lessons with Dumbledore in order to find out about Voldemort's past so they can find out what might his only weakness.
7. Deathly Hallows:
Voldemort's power is growing stronger. He now has control over the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to finish Dumbledore's work and find the rest of the Horcruxes to defeat the Dark Lord. But little hope remains for them, so everything they do must go as planned.
