April is just around the corner, which means the Magical Readathon is about to start. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the Magical Readathon is run by G from the YouTube channel BookRoast during the entire month of April. The marathon is themed around the O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Level) and N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) held at Hogwarts. There is a Wizarding Career Guide with all the different careers available, and each one has different classes that you need to take to graduate. And this year, it was added a list of courses and seminars for extra credit.

Despite everything about this readathon being related to Harry Potter, it’s possible to read any genre. For a muggle like me, this is the cherry on top of the cake. I’m not a Harry Potter fan, but everything was so well created that it’s a shame not to participate. I tried last year, and it was a complete failure. Although I feel this year is going to be different, so I’m going to give it a try once again.

From all the new careers one of them stood out to me, Culinary Sorcerer since I love to cook this is perfect. And even though I’ll have to read 4 books for that career, I also wanted to try the new courses and seminars. Only two really caught my attention, and I decided for the seminar on Legal Defence of Fantastic Beasts bringing my total of books to read up to 6. In the past 3 months, I’ve been reading 5 five a month, so I think this is doable.

For the Culinary Sorcerer career, I need to take 4 exams:

Arithmancy: Read something outside your favourite genre

• Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin – 378 pages

Fantasy is the genre I read the least, but Game of Thrones is so subtle in the fantastical elements, I can easily get into it. I tried reading it last summer, although I kept putting it down for no reason.

Charms: Read a book with white cover

• A Muralha de Gelo by George R. R. Martin – 416 pages

The Portuguese edition of Game of Thrones is separated into 2 volumes – I don’t understand why! – and the second one has a white cover which is perfect for the readathon. I have other books with white covers on my shelves, but I’m not in the mood to read them, and Muralha de Gelo is the continuation of Game of Thrones, so I’m still reading one book, it’s just separated into two parts.

Herbology: Read a book with a title starting with an I

• If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino – 260 pages

This is the ONLY book I own that starts with an I. I didn’t realise this prompt was going to be so hard to accomplish. And I’m not even mad about it. I bought this classic over a year because the sneak peek I read was really interesting, but it has been collecting dust on my shelf forgotten.

Potions: Read a book under 150 pages

• The Beauty vol 1 by Jeremy Haun – 150 pages

I felt a comic book or a graphic novel is perfect for this prompt. I need the book to be short and quick – I have other 5 books to read that will take me some time. I have read at least the first issue of this comic before, but now that I have the first volume I can read it from cover to cover.

For the Legal Defence of Fantastic Beasts seminar, I have 2 more exams:

Care of Magical Creatures: Read a book with a creature with a beak on the cover

• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee – 537 pages

All the books I own that fit this prompt are tomes. So if this has to be the biggest book I read in April, then I’m going to choose the one I’m most interested in reading. This book takes me to South Korea and to Japan while following different generations of one family. I read the first chapters and enjoyed it a lot.

History of Magic: Read a book featuring witches and/or wizards

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis – 206 pages

This is the hardest prompt for me. I rarely read fantasy so witches and wizards don’t live in my shelves. For this, I’m using a secret weapon: Scribd. The only thing left to do was decide from their library what book I wanted to read. The first book in the Chronicles of Narnia (publication order) might be my best bet. I’ve seen the first movie, but I’ve heard the books are more interesting.

Total pages count: 1947 pages

I am all ready for the 1st of April and to start reading. I even have a reading tracker spreadsheet up and ready to go, courtesy of Little Book Owl. Last year, she made a tracker for helping count all the pages and time spent. I don’t use a bullet journal, but I still enjoy keeping a record of my reading, and the spreadsheet is a great alternative. I’ll leave here a link to the video she did explaining how it works and where you can download it.

Also, I’m using Scribd during April since they are offering a 30 days free trial without any credit card needed. For new readers, this is a great opportunity even if you aren’t participating in any readathon. Scribd has its entire library available to help to pass these strange times and keeping you entertained for free. From fiction to memoirs, to ebooks, to audiobooks, and new releases, they have a lot to offer.

Keep reading and stay safe!