O.W.L.s Magical Readathon TBR|2020

This readathon is one of the most imaginative and well-organized readathon I’ve ever seen. 2020 is the third edition and I’ve always wanted to participate but the O.W.L.s readathon always happened during midterm month so I was too busy to participate.

However, this year is a bit different since I’m studying abroad, April isn’t midterm month for once yay! 😀 I am currently studying in South Korea for a whole semester and even if self-isolation isn’t mandatory here, I’m trying to limit my travels as much as possible. All of my courses are online, I’m trying to stay inside as much as possible and I have no exams in April so, I think it’s the perfect chance to read a bit more! What better way to read more than to participate in this amazing readathon, right?

If you’re not familiar with Harry Potter, you might be a bit confused with the title of the readathon. O.W.L.s (or Ordinary Wizarding Levels) are the name of the exams students at Hogwarts have to take during their fifth year. Depending on their scores, students are allowed or not to continue their studies in the different subjects teached at Hogwarts.

The aim of the readathon is to pass your O.W.L.s by completing the prompts associated with each subject. There are 12 prompts in total so you can choose to do all of them or only a select few. The amazing thing about this readathon is that the host created a Wizarding Career Path, a guide collecting different careers a Hogwarts graduate can do with the associated O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S necessary to pursue this career.

If you want more information about the readathon, I highly recommend checking Book Roast’s video on the subject or visiting the website she created for the magical readathon! There you’ll find the links for the prompts and the Wizarding Career Path! 🙂

After perusing the guide, I decided to attempt a career of potioneer. The potions courses were my favorites when I was reading the books and I lowkey always wanted to be able to make potions. It’s not suprising that I’m intrigued by this since I’m a biology/chemistry major, making potions isn’t that far off from what I actually do in my studies haha.

Anyway, for this career, I need to obtain 5 O.W.L.s and the categories are as follow :

• Arithmancy
• Care of Magical Creatures
• Charms
• Herbology
• Potions

I have to read a book for each of the following prompts :

• Arithmancy : Magical qualities of number 2, balance/opposite : read something outside of your favorite genre

My pick is: The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

 

Fantasy used to be my favorite genre but now I don’t read a lot from this genre. This prompt is the perfect chance for me to dive back into fantasy. I also have an old ARC copy of this book sitting in my ereader and I feel like I should have read it waaaaaay sooner. This book is also on my list of books to read this year, The Traitor Baru Cormorant is one of my favorite book so I’m looking forward to the sequel.

 

• Care of Magical Creatures : Hippogriffs : creature with a beak on the cover

My pick : The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy is coming out this year and I really want to refresh my mind by reading the original trilogy before reading it. Those books introduced me to dystopia and reading in English and they will always have a special place in my heart. I know they are not the best thing ever but still, I want to revisit the world. I don’t think I will read the entire trilogy in April (though I could if I wanted to ) but I want to at least read the first book.

 

• Charms : Lumos Maxima : read a book with a white cover

My pick is: … I don’t really know yet.

My first pick was the The Winter of the Witch but when I looked at a picture of the cover online, I realized that the black and white image on my ereader wasn’t an accurate representation of the cover haha. The actual cover is not white at all so I had to choose other books. For now, I don’t really know what I’m going to pick up, I currently have three books on my radar: Iron Gold by Pierce Brown, The Cruel Prince by Holly Black or The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts. This selection is a bit random but whatever, I’ll see which book suits my fancy during the readathon.

• Herbology : Mimbulus mimbletonia : read a book with a title that starts with a M

My pick is: … I need your help!

At first, I couldn’t think about any book but, after a bit of digging, I found several books that fitted the prompt. Making Wolf by Tade Thompson, The Magician by Lev Grossman and A Memory Called Empire by Arkardy Martine are the ones I want to read the most. The Magician fits the readathon perfectly and Martine’s book is on my list of books to read this year but I’ve also been meaning to read Making Wolf for years now… I don’t know how I’ll choose, if you want me to read a book in particular, please tell me! 🙂

• Potions : Shrinking solution : read a book less than 150 pages

My pick is : Machina, Chapter 1 by Fran Wilde

 

This might be a bit of a cheat but I think it counts! It’s the first chapter of Serial Box’s new project : Machina. It’s my first time reading a serialized novel so I’ll see if the first chapter is enough to make me want to read the entire novel or not. Since it’s only the first chapter/episode it’s definitely less than 150 pages haha.

 

As you can see, my TBR isn’t completely set yet but I’m very intrigued by all the books! If you’re interested by the readathon, please check the magical readathon website, it’s full of interesting information!

If you also participate in the readathon, please tell me what career you want to pursue. 🙂