O.W.L.s Readathon 2019 Plans 🦉✨

Due to my professional life being extra hectic and my personal life being in shambles these last few months, participating in readathons hasn't really been a priority of mine. However, one of my very favorite readathons - the Magical Readathon - is making it's return in April for the O.W.L.s and of course I needed to make a TBR and join in. The O.W.L.s run from April 1 - April 30 and this time around, the host has created this AMAZING guidebook for you to choose a magical wizarding career path! This guidebook will tell you which of your O.W.L.s you need to pass and what grades you need to earn in your N.E.W.T.s (which will come around again in August). G has put so much freaking work into this readathon and I can not wait to take part.

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The idea is that each year you choose one career path to study for. After looking through the guidebook at the potential career paths, the key traits of each career, and which subjects to study, I think I'm going to go with Wandmaker for this year's Magical Readathon! Seer, Aurologist, and Magizoologist were also careers I was considering, but for whatever reason, ever since I originally read the Harry Potter series as a kid, I've always been fascinated by the idea of having a wand and how they are constructed. When I read the description of the careers, I kept finding myself coming back to Wandmaker. So that's what I'm going to go for! ✨

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For my O.W.L.s, it's looking like I'm going to have to pass my Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, and Herbology exams in order to be on the Wandmaker path. I actually picked out a TBR for all 12 O.W.L.s exams before I decided which career I wanted to pursue, knowing that I would plan to prioritize whichever O.W.L.s would be required for my career. I'm actually really excited about the books that I will be prioritizing, so it all worked out! I feel like I have a good mixture of book lengths, books that I've been meaning to get to over the last few months, and newer vs. older books to my TBR.

Ancient Runes

A retelling

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Arithmancy

A book written by more than one author

Geektastic by Holly Black & Cecil Castelucci

Care of Magical Creatures

A book with a land animal on the cover

Esio Trot by Roald Dahl

Charms

An adult book

Providence by Caroline Kepnes

Herbology

A book with a plant on the cover

The Secret Horses of Briar Hill by Megan Shepherd

And, because I'm extra, I have selected books for the 7 remaining O.W.L.s. I'm not sure if I will get to all of these (probably not, if I'm being honest) but I do hope to get to a couple of these once I'm done with my Wandmaker reading! (Then maybe I can pursue more than one career after I take my N.E.W.T.s over the summer. 😜) I will say that G did mention that you can only use one O.W.L. book for one career. So, for example, if I want to pursue a second career that also requires a Herbology O.W.L., I will have to read an additional book that fits the Herbology challenge. Not sure if I'll even remotely have time to do that, but you never know!

Astronomy

A book that has the word "star" in the title

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Defense Against the Dark Arts

A book with a title that starts with R

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Divination

A book that is set in the future

The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

History of Magic

A book published at least 10 years ago

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Muggle Studies

A contemporary

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

Potions

The next book in the series

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

Transfiguration

A book with sprayed edges

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

If you're interested in participating in this year's Magical Readathon, I HIGHLY recommend you do! So much freaking work goes into this readathon and it is honestly so well done. It is so much fun to pretend you're at Hogwarts working toward your magical academic and professional goals, and G does such a great job of making it a great experience for everyone who participates. You are technically required to participate in the O.W.L.s exams *before* you participate in the N.E.W.T.s (I mean no one is going to police you if you don't 😂, but that is the general idea), so if you're considering joining in I definitely recommend doing so in April!

Make sure you check out the Magical Readathon Twitter page for the most up to date information as well as G's announcement video for all the information on this round of O.W.L.s! Let me know if you're planning to join in - I'd love to know what magical career you're pursuing! ✨