April is just around the corner so that means it’ll soon be time for the Magical Readathon – my favourite readathon. The prompts for this readathon are each assigned to a subject and you need to read so many subjects/books in order to work towards your chosen career. The Spring Equinox edition of the readathon takes place throughout the month of April and G over at BookRoast has all the info you need about the extra stuff like side quests and things.

Last year I completed all the classes/books I needed to become a Moon Warden and I’m now a Novice in that career path. The way the Magical Readathon works now means I can carry on with that career in order to advance and become an Apprentice, or I could choose a completely different magical career. I honestly am not sure what I want to do yet. If I want to carry on with my Moon Warden training then I’ll need to take five classes – Elemental Studies, Astronomy, Art of Illusion, Restoration, and Spells & Incantations. I think I might end up being a bit chaotic and just try and read as many books as I can and see what leaves me with in terms of potential career paths. So with that in mind, I’ve noted down all 14 prompts and what books I’m planning to read for them – if I manage to get to all of them. While the amount I read on average each month has increased this year, I think 14 books is probably pushing it a bit.

Alchemy – Type of metal in the book title
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
I believe the sequel to Iron Widow is coming out later this year so it’s about time I picked it up. I don’t often read sci-fi (even though I love sci-fi shows/films) so Iron Widow should be something different.

Animal Studies – Flip a coin, heads read a non-fiction book, tails read a fiction book
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
I did indeed flip a coin and got heads so I picked The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I’m going to Amsterdam in May and am planning on visiting the Anne Frank House, and while I learnt about her and the Holocaust in school, I’ve never read her diary so thought it was about time to rectify that and I have the audiobook from my library.

Art of Illusion – Wear clothes colours that match the book cover
It’s Behind You by Kathryn Foxfield
This one could well change depending on what clothes I’m wearing when I pick up a book for this prompt but I am someone who wears a lot of black and this book cover is mostly black.

Artificery – Start a book with a snack
Nevermore by Rob Thurman
Again, this could be any book but for now I’ve chosen Nevermore as it’s the last book in the Cal Leandros series which I love and it’s always a nice sense of familiarity when I go back to this series.

Astronomy – Read a book with two E’s in the title
I Love the Bones of You by Christopher Eccleston
I recently got the audiobook of this memoir and as I was on a big Doctor Who kick last year (and there’s going to be a lot of Doctor Who stuff on here next month with the A-Z Challenge) I thought I Love the Bones of You fitted this prompt perfectly.

Conjuration – Read a friend’s recommendation
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
My friend Brin over on BrinReadsBooks on Instagram was raving about Legendborn last year and it’s a book I’ve heard nothing but good things about so Legendborn is my friend rec.

Demonology – Read a book compared to your favourite book
The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant
The Court of Miracles is apparently described as a mix of Six of Crows and Les Misérables and I love Six of Crows. Plus, it’s set in an alternate Revolutionary France and I’ve recently read and enjoyed the Battalion of the Dead trilogy which was set in the same time/place so I think there’s a good chance this book will work for me.

Elemental Studies – Read a book with flowers on the cover
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
The Grace Year is one of those books where I obviously was interested enough in it to put it on my wishlist but it’s been so long I’m not too sure what it’s about. I’m not sure what genre it fits in but I think it’s got a similar vibe to the likes of Who Runs the World? and The Power – so feminist sci-fi/fantasy/thriller.

Inscription – Read a book that was on the top shelf
Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
I don’t have bookshelves, instead my books are piled up on shelves inside my wardrobe and Alone with You in the Ether was at the top of one of those piles. I don’t really know what it’s about as it was a surprise gift in my TBTBSanta last year but it’s on the shorter side so works for a readathon.

Lore – Read a book with a map
The Sisters Grimm by Meena van Praag
I have had The Sisters Grimm for so long and now might be the time I finally read it thanks to this prompt. It has a map of Cambridge in it, which is where I live and it’s really fun seeing places I know pretty well on this map.

Psionics and Divination – Read a book with clouds on the cover or in the title
Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie
For this prompt I had to check out the library as I didn’t have any cloud-books on my TBR. I found the audiobook of a Hercule Poirot story. I’ve seen some Poirot films and TV shows but I’ve never read any of the books so thought this’d be fun.

Restoration – Close your eyes and point at book
Don’t have anything for this one at the moment. If I do get to this prompt I think I’ll pick out the shorter books on my TBR like Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales and The Love Hypothesis by Laura Steven to then choose from to make things a bit easier on myself.

Shapeshifting – Read a book that has wolf on the cover, in the title or in authors’ name
Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary Wolf
This is the only book/author I have that has “wolf” on it. It’s the book that inspired the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? which I love though I haven’t seen it in years, so it’ll be interesting to read the original novel.

Spells & Incantations – Read a book that has 389-415 pages
Love Boat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen
This was a surprisingly difficult prompt to fill. I felt like Goldilocks trying to find the right book that fitted in that page bracket. Love Boat, Taipei is a contemporary YA romance which I don’t often read but when I do I tend to read them quickly so it should be a good book for a readathon.

Are you taking part in the Magical Readathon? If you haven’t taken part before G has put together a super helpful explainer for the readathon as it’s something that has really grown over time and she puts a lot of effort into it.