I’ve been eyeing the Magical Readathon (hosted by G @Book Roast) for a couple of years now, but it always intimidated me. I love the concept, but it requires a bit more reading than I can usually squeeze in. I decided that this year I’ll tackle that fear and will give it a go, starting with the Spring Equinox 2024 event! I’m already taking part in the Choose Your Own Adventure reading challenge that accompanies the readathon, but it’s not part of it. I’m confident I’ll be able to finish that at least.
Right, so, Magical Readathon has two events every year – Spring Equinox in April and Autumn Equinox in August (both are not the best of times for me as they are both busy SPFBO/work months). Earlier this year I made the first few steps required to join the fun (no worries, they are super simple and don’t require any reading if you don’t want to, check out the intro video HERE). Which means I have a character, a guild, and a calling! I also picked the books I’m required to read so I can complete the Spring Equinox 2024.
I’m planning to come back to this post once April ends to take a look at how I did. I don’t think I’ll join the event “officially” – there is a Discord server that is way too big for me, so I’m just doing this to entertain myself. I’ll log my progress in the official channels, tho.
UPDATE: So, here we go. A week into May, I’m finally ready to come back and look at how I did. Predictably, not as well as I hoped (hence the delay), but I tried to do my best. I certainly bit more than I could chew so I’m definitely taking a step back for now.
To make my life easier, I decided to use the same character I’m using for my new D&D adventure a friend of mine kindly set up for me. And so, my character is Lunara Shadix, an urban elf. Since this is my first year in the Magical Readathon, she is considered to be a novice. I need to finish both the Spring Equinox 2024 and Autumn Equinox 2024 to level up. I decided to leave myself to fate and took the test to give me a guild, which happens to be the Mind Walkers. Honestly, this was fitting, so I couldn’t be happier. For a calling, I decided to go with what was suggested, which is Dream Walker. I could have gone with something else, but honestly, this appealed to me. And it saved me a lot of headaches while I would have tried to figure out what the fuck I want, lol.
Having a character is not necessary to take part in the Magical Readathon, but it’s more fun this way. The guild and calling matters, because your reading prompts are based on your choices. But it’ll be a bit more clearer in the next section.
Since I’m a Dream Walker, in the Spring Equinox I’m required to fulfill the prompts for the following subjects: Alchemy, Art of Illusion, Astronomy, Conjuration, Spells & Incantations, Lore, Psionics & Divination. Each year we get different course focus and reading prompts for these subjects. These books have to be read between April 1st and April 30th. They can be a comic, a novella, or a book, the length doesn’t matter. Only one book/prompt (sadly), though as you level up you can get perks. Being a novice sucks.
Here is the Spring Equinox 2024 Syllabus for the Magical Readathon and what books I picked:
| Alchemy | Circle on the cover | Daughter of the Beast by E C Greaves |
| Art of Illusion | Word ‘game’ or ‘play’ in title | The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez |
| Astronomy | Zodiac Recommendation | Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor |
| Conjuration | Colour Wheel | A Rival Most Vial by R.K. Ashwick |
| Spells & Incantations | Random number generator title length | The fourteen carat car by Jenő Rejtő |
| Lore | Reread the Legend of Dia | Legend of Dia |
| Psionics & Divination | Prediction Bingo | The Hungry Dark |
When I made my picks, I tried to focus on books that I already needed to read, like the SPFBO 9 finalists, or books that were on my TBR and I could use them up for my other challenges as well. Work smart, not hard, I say. Let’s have a closer look, shall we?
UPDATE: So this is where the real updating will happen. I’ll make a note for each book, add review links where needed, etc.
Alchemy
The prompt says ‘circle on the cover’. This beast has some impressive eyes and I say they count as circles, so there we go. Also, there is an ‘o’ in the title 😛 What sealed the deal is that I need to read this book for SPFBO anyway.
UPDATE: So this was one of our SPFBO 9 finalists, and even though I tried, I ended up DNFing it. The good news is, some of my teammates liked it better, so you probably should check out their opinions as well.
“It wasn’t up my alley, but if you are looking for a darker coming-to-age story that’s infused with folklore, then you will enjoy Daughter of the Beast.”
Art of Illusion
I only had 2 books on my virtual or otherwise shelves that worked. One was the second book in a series, where I hadn’t read the first yet (only the third, but that’s a whole other story), and the other one was The Happy Ever After Playlist, which I already listened to a couple of times, but I figured this would be a quick one, and it fits the prompt as it has ‘play’ in the title. No one said rereads didn’t count 🤷♀️
UPDATE: This one I did finish, as I knew I would. This is a cheesy love story, but I still have a crush on Zachary Webb‘s voice, so I can’t help myself.
Astronomy
I honestly thought this would be one of the two prompts that would fuck my plans up. It seemed easy, just go on a Google search for lists where people recommend books based on your zodiac. There are quite a few such lists out there. The trick was to find a list that a) recommended a book I was interested in and b) a book that possibly was on my radar already. The number of lists where I thought almost any other picks would have been up my alley than the one for my zodiac… JFC. I came across a couple of books that sounded interesting, and I almost settled for one when I *finally* found a list with Strange the Dreamer recommended for Aquarius. I don’t even know how many lists I pored over until this one. I have it on my shortened TBR and I also have the audiobook and I think the ebook too, so I literally have no excuses.
UPDATE: The reason this update came a little late. I was still reading when May came around as I got to start this late. On top of a busy work month, I also managed to get a cold which did not help with reading. And even though I had both the audiobook and the ebook (and all my attention), I struggled to read this book. And eventually gave up at 53%. This book is predictable AF and failed to make me invested in any of the characters. Took me 8 days to get to that point and whenever I put it down I didn’t feel like I wanted to pick up right away. It’s not a bad book, but again, not my cup of tea.
Conjuration
This was one of the easiest prompts to pick a book for. I found a random color picker, and it gave me this magenta(ish) color that immediately reminded me of A Rival Most Vial, which again, needed to read for SPFBO 9 anyway. Yay! This was a no-brainer for sure.
UPDATE: Okay, so my picks weren’t all bad, this one ended up being my favorite SPFBO 9 finalist, and I can highly recommend it to anyone who is looking forward to some cosy M/M romantasy. It was so much fun! I can’t believe it didn’t do better in SPFBO. Oh well. Go have a look at it anyway!
“I probably could find something to pick on if I tried hard enough, but I’m putting the evil bitch Queen to rest for now and will join Bjørn in begging for books 2, 3 and however many there will be in this series. (…) A Rival Most Vial grabbed my heart, squeezed it and left me wishing for more.”
Spells and Incantations
OMG, guys. You have no idea how much I struggled with this one. JFC. When the prompts were announced, I got excited and started to work on a plan. I picked a random number, which was 19, and hoped it would be easy. Boy was I wrong. Nothing seemed to fit. I considered cheating and picking a different number, because I either had titles with only 18 letters or titles with slightly more letters. It drove me crazy. Then I decided that I’d pick a book that would fit for one of my other challenges – The Three Musketeers. I wanted to do a reread anyway since I recently saw the new French movie and also because this was a childhood favorite of mine. But it didn’t fit (again, I was ready to cheat). And then, one day my eyes fell on some books on my shelves. Ages-old paperbacks of a famous Hungarian author’s books. I always meant to read more of his stuff, and they fit with my other challenge as well. Plus they are short so easy to fit it. But there was a problem. The title I picked was only 18 letters long and I was ready to say that’s the number I got. When I started working on this post, I Iooked up the English translation, and turned out the English title is 19 letters long, so technically I’m not cheating! Never been more pleased in my life (okay, I was, but this sounds better). I’m also excited to read in Hungarian after a very, very long time.
UPDATE: *sigh* this month’s reading was such a mixed bag. I read one Jenő Rejtő novel before which I enjoyed. This was similar in tone, and theme, but I think I just wasn’t in the right mood. I struggled with this one too and I’m annoyed, because this should have been fun! It’s satire after all! I got to 2/3rd maybe before deciding to give it a rest.
Psionics & Divination
Out of the prompts for my study, I think this is the most fun. I considered picking two books, but one I started before I even got to this post, and it didn’t seem fair to create a bingo car when I’m already a few hours into the audiobook. So I picked The Hungry Dark which I need to read anyway, because I have an ARC – even if I’m late with it 😬 I decided on a 4×4 bingo card and here it is:
UPDATE: Another book I absolutely loved. My first Jen Williams novel, but most certainly not the last. I also did pretty well with my prediction bingo. I marked those squares that I got with green and the ones that were “well, kinda, depending on how you look at things” with turquoise.
“The Hungry Dark is a delightfully dark and twisted thriller, about toxicity, really. And how every act has its consequences. That sacrifice is not always the solution we seek. All in all, The Hungry Dark is a novel I can recommend to anyone who loves a bit of heavy reading.”
Right, so that’s me settled for the Magical Readathon Spring Equinox 2024. If you are also taking part, let me know! It’s more fun with other people 🙂
UPDATE: And we came to the end of the updates as well. Not as good as I hoped, but as bad as I feared. I got to read at least some of every book I set out to read, and so I’ll consider the Magical Readathon Spring Equinox 2024 a success, and I’ll give myself all the credits. I think in the future I might make it a two months event for myself since I’m doing it for fun and because I like the idea and not to compete with others (which is not to say they do, but since I have other obligations as well, I can’t always pick the books I would need to advance).
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