Hello witches, wizards, house-elves and muggles! August is upon us which means only one thing – the Magical Readathon is back with another N.E.W.Ts edition! I took part in my O.W.Ls back in April and I passed all of my subjects (yay go me) so I had the choice of career path, and therefore reading options going into this readathon. Gi (of The Book Roast) has really gone all out this year to make this the most magical reading experience, and so I had fun choosing a career for O.W.Ls and plan to stay on the right path.
So, the career path and what that means. Well, in April Gi released a careers booklet that told you which O.W.Ls subjects you needed to pass (read a book for) in order to progress to N.E.W.Ts and hopefully get the grades (read the books) for the levels needed to progress. With me so far? I decided in June to follow the path for either curse breaker or Department of Mysteries worker. I was dead set on one of them and couldn’t decide, and eventually after looking at the reading prompts this time, have decided I want to join the Department of Mysteries. This means my TBR and reading aims are now focused and funnelled into this path:
TBR
I have been lucky enough to be granted a few ARCs recently, and so I am using this readathon, and ARC August, to try to read, enjoy, and review some of these books that I have been lucky enough to receive. Like always, I am mixing and matching genres and formats to try and maintain a reading balance and keep me going throughout the month. As you can above, becoming a member of the Department of Mysteries is not such a simple job, and it means that I am aiming to read a total of 13 books minimum in the month of August.
Charms
A – Read a Book that you think has a gorgeous cover
David Mogo, Godhunter Suyi Davies Okungbowa
E – Read a comic/graphic novel/manga (or book under 150 pages)
Paper Girls #2 Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, and Matt Wilson
O – Spongify (softening charm) – read a paperback book
The Prisoner’s Gold Chris Kuzneski
Potions
A – Polyjuice potion: read your friend’s favourite book
The Song Rising Samantha Shannon
E – House ingredient: book with a cover in your Hogwarts House Colour
The Love Solution Ashley Croft
O – Book that starts with a prologue
American Royals Katherine McGee
Transfiguration
A – Read a book with LGBTQIA+ representation
Autoboyography Christina Lauren
E – Read a book that’s not a first in a series
Shades of Magic: Night of Knives #4 V E Schwab, Enrica Angiolini, and Andrea Olimpieri
O – McGonagall does not mess around! Read a book over 500 pages
The Lies of Locke Lamora Scott Lynch
Divination
A – Read a white book
The Nickel Boys Coulson Whitehead
E – Read a short story or a collection of short stories
The Facts in the Case of the Disappearance of Miss. Finch Neil Gaiman
O – Read the last book you bought/took from your library
Night Boat to Tangier Kevin Barry
Defence Against the Dark Arts
A – Book that’s black under the dust jacket
Nevernight Jay Kristoff
I am super excited for N.E.W.Ts. I absolutely loved it last year and think that the magical readathon editions have become my favourite readathons by a long shot. I am trying to read a decent spread of things and for once haven’t loaded the whole of my TBR with audiobooks. I usually swap and change things as I go, so I am sure I will have changed something by the time my update roles around, but I think this is a good set of books.
Are you taking part?
What career are you reading for?
What will you be reading?
