So, the OWL readathon is coming up in April and I really love the concept of readathons and making TBRs for them, but I rarely actually stick to those TBRs because I’m entirely a mood reader and I can rarely stick to a pre-determined TBR. But I’m going to make a TBR anyway and see how I get on.
If you don’t know what the OWL readathon is, it’s a readathon based on the wizarding examinations in Harry Potter. It’s very cool and complex. You have to choose a career and each career has a number of subjects you need to complete in order to achieve it. Each subject has a prompt. That’s the gist of it. You can check out the announcement video for it for more details.
I have several careers that I’m interested in and I’m going to pick out books for all of them and see how it goes. There are also some extra courses you can do in addition to your career and I want to do the Animagus course in addition to all/any of my careers. Though I’m pretty sure the requirements for that overlap with the ones for my careers anyway.
The first career I’m interested in is also the hardest with 12 required subjects! Which I’m pretty sure is all of them. So if I get this one, I’m pretty sure I can do any career. And that is Alchemist. I think it would suit me the most because it sounds to me like the magical equivalent of a scientist and… well that’s my actual career. So here are the required subjects and their prompts:
Ancient Runes: heart rune – A book with a heart on the cover or in the title
This is a really hard prompt. I apparently do not own any books that have the word heart in the title or have hearts on the covers. So, if I do get around to this prompt, I will be reading Every Heart a Doorway by Seannen McGuire. I will have to buy it, which is fine since I have been meaning to anyway. But I would prefer to pick books I already own.
Arithmancy: magical qualities of the number 2 balance/opposites – a book outside of your normal genre
For this, I’m going with A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton. This is a non-fiction, which is not something I read frequently.
Astronomy: night classes – read the majority of this book when it’s dark outside
This is such a cool prompt. I’m going to leave this as a freebie. I’ll just mood pick for this prompt.
Care of magical creatures: hippogriff – a book with a creature with a beak on the cover
For this I’ve chosen Wicked As You Wish by Rin Chupeco. It’s got a big ol’ bird on that C.
Charms: lumos maxima – a white cover
Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus. I read One of Us is Lying earlier this year and thought it was… pretty bad, but entertaining and a good palate cleanser. And I bought the first two books on offer at Tesco for like £3, so I may as well read the second one too since they’re so short and quick to go through.
Defence Against the Dark Arts: Grindylow – a book set at sea/coast
This was kind of hard to find, and I’m not 100% sure this even fits. But I think it does. I think there is some extended sea travel in here. I’m talking about Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik.
Divination – assign a number to your TBR and use a random number generator to pick your read
I’m assuming it’s referring to my whole TBR not the readathon one.
So, this landed on A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar. I already know I am not going to read this. I’m not super interested in this book to be honest. I got it for free at a book exchange thing. So… yeah. I’m probably going to fail but we already knew that.
Herbology: mimbulus mimbeltonia – a book that starts with M
The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
History of Magic – a book featuring witched/wizards
I’m going to be meta af and go with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix since I’m currently re-reading the HP books anyway. SO I’ll be reading about Harry taking his OWLs while completing my OWLs.
Muggle studies – a book from the perspective of a muggle (contemporary)
I hate contemporary. Well, hate is a strong word. But it’s definitely one of my least favourite genres. SO I’m going to bend the rules a bit for this one and go with a non-fiction. Which technically is from the perspective of a muggle.
Why Does E = mc2 and Why Should We Care? by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw.
Potions: shrinking solution – a book under 150 pages
Wild Embers by Nikita Gill. This comes at exactly 150 pages including the acknowledgements and all that.
Transfiguration: animagus lecture – a book that contains shapeshifting
I don’t have anything on my TBR as far as I’m aware that has any shapeshifters, so I’m gonna be cheeky and just go with another Harry Potter Book.
Now, as I mentioned, this is the hardest career that has all subjects, so there are no extra prompts for my other careers, but here they are and what their subjects are. Hopefully I’ll at least get one of these.
Hogwarts Professor
- Defence Against the Dark Arts
- A subject you wish to teach (Transfiguration)
- 5 other subjects of your choice:
- Potions
- Arithmancy
- Muggle studies
- Astronomy
- History of Magic
Since an academic career is essentially my career (though less emphasis on the teaching and more on the research), this seems like the next best thing if I can’t get the Alchemist one – which realistically I won’t be able to. So I’ve chosen the subjects that I think I’m most likely to pass.
Librarian
- Defence Against the Dark Arts
- Arithmancy
- Ancient Runes
- Transfiguration
- History of Magic
If I can’t be a scientist, I wanna be a librarian. This one is easier, with only 5 required subjects.
Magizoologist
- Care of magical creatures
- Charms
- Herbology
- Potions
I’ve always said that if all else fails, I just want to have an animal farm. So this seems like the perfect fallback career for me.
And finally, for the animagus course:
- Transfiguration
- Arithmancy
- Potions
A Book Nerd 