Harry Potter Reading Challenge

[Lauren]

Wow, by such a lot too!

[Lu]

You just give the Huffies some time!

[Barbara]

How much time do you need???
You guys had the same amount of time as we had and we're still beating you. :)

[Lu]

We like taking our time :)

[Lauren]

Holding on to the old "slow and steady" motto are you?

:D

[Lauren]

Will Deadlands count as a book where a character wins a competition? In the novel the main character wins what is called 'the Lottery' - a practice where 5 teenagers are chosen by a group called The Guardians and taken away for reasons unknown (or at least, I can't tell you why because that would be a big spoiler).

[Barbara]

Hard to say without more information.
Do the 5 teenagers compete against each other or against something else and can they win something or are they scored? Because if that is the case it would count. Maybe there is someone who has read this book who can help or you have to give away spoilers and than people who aren't planning on reading this book can read it and say yes or no.

[Lauren]

No, they don't really compete much... They might do certain things to improve their chances, but no one knows what happens to the kids who get chosen, and no one knows what the criteria are for being chosen...
Yeah, I know, it's pretty thin.

[Lu]

Well does someone "win"?

[Sarah]

I've completed Spud by John van de Ruit for number 17.

Total: 170

[Lauren]

Lu wrote: "Well does someone "win"?"

Umm, well 5 kids get chosen to be taken away by the Guardians...
Actually I think I'm just going to leave it; I don't really consider it a competition. I'm just struggling with this thing and the name "Lottery" seemed promising.

[Lu]

Well if someone "wins" let us know :)

[Barbara]

Thanks to Kahlan who recommended it to me I have spent a delightful morning reading Soulless. I really loved it. It also meets the requirements for the werewolve task. So I now have 330 points. If I could only find a book about a competition that I would like to read and then read it I would be finished with this challenge. I will keep looking for it.

[Lu]

Yea soulless was really great :)

[Barbara]

I hate not having bought part 2 and 3 at the same time as I bought part 1. Now I have to wait before I can read them.

[Lu]

Finished nr 10

10 points to Hufflepuff

[Barbara]

It might be a stretch but I am going to ask anyway. I just finished Impossible. The main character in the book is under a curse and has to fulfill three tasks to break this curse. Also the man who put her under this curse doesn't call it a curse he call it a game. Does this count towards the Triwizard task number 18?
I will tell you why I think it should count. Lu don't read the following because I know you want to read the book and it would really spoil it for you.
(view spoiler)[She has to break this curse all the while this man who puts it on her is working against her so that makes it sort of a competition and she does break it at the end and wins freedom for her and her mother (hide spoiler)]

[Lu]

Lol well then whoever reads the spoiler can say what they think :)

[Barbara]

Lu you're back. I missed you. You were gone for a couple of days. At least you didn't say anything in the discussions. I am glad you're back and I hope everything was ok and that you were just really busy reading.

[Lu]

Back for a little bit, will be absent for another week or so, just until things settle down this side.

Have been reading tho! Finished Mockingjay last night :D

[Lu]

+10 points for Hufflepuff. Finished Demonglass

[La Toya]

Ravenclaw here!

So excited to join this challenge, will update this as I start compiling my books :)

The Characters: (each gives you 10 house points)

1. Harry - Read a book about a hero
The Riddle of the Gnome by PW Catanese (+10)

2. Ron - Read a book about a character that has red hair
3. Hermione - read a book about a heroine
4. Ginny - Read a book about someone finding their soul mate / love of their lives
Princess in Love by Meg Cabot (+10)

5. Luna - Read a book with a character that's a bit loony/mad/crazy/eccentric

6. Dumbledore - Read a book where one of your favourite characters die

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (+10)

7. Voldemort - Read a book about a villain or has one in it
8. Fred + George - Read a book about twins or has twins in it

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry (+10)

9. Lupin - Read a book about a shape shifter or a werewolf
10. Moaning Myrtle - Read a book about or has ghosts in it

The Classes: (each gives you 10 house points)

11. Astronomy - read any sci-fi, or a book with stars/moon/planets etc on the cover

12. Herbology - read any book that has some type of plant/herb/tree on thecover
The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau (+10)

13. Arithmancy - read any book that has a number in its title or on its cover
Numbers by Rachel Ward (+10)

14. Divination - read any book about psychics or someone with psychic abilities, or some form of telling the future, orb reading, prophecies etc.
But You Knew That Already by Dougall Fraser (+10)

15. Care of Magical Creatures - read any book that has a magical creature in the title or has them on the cover

Other: (each gives you 10 house points)

16. Crookshanks - Read a book that has a cat in it, on the cover or the main character owns a cat
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (+10)

17. Hogwarts - Read a book that takes place mostly at a school or has a main character in a school
Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder (+10)
18. Tri-wizard Cup - Read a book where a character wins a competition/sport of some kind. Gets a trophy/medal
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban (+10)

19. Broomstick - Read a book that has some sort of transportation device on the cover, car, broom, air balloon etc.

The Worst Witch Saves the Day by Jill Murphy (+10)

20. Read a book about magic, witches, wizards etc.
The Worst Witch at School by Jill Murphy (+10)

Total: 120 points

[Lauren]

OK, so I think I might have found something to fit the book about the competition, but once again I'm not sure if it counts.

In Deathstalker there's an Arena where Gladiators, aliens, slaves etc. fight for sport. One of the main characters in the novel is a gladiator and he wins all the battles he fights in the Arena. However, only two or three of his battles are actually described in the story, and the whole Arena thing is almost irrelevant to the main plot.

So does it count?

[Barbara]

I am not sure. I have read historical novels where the main character went to medieval tournaments and won, but since it wasn't the main focus of the book I haven't used it. So I thought it didn't count if it was only a minor part of the book. On the other hand the task says the character has to win a competition or win a medal or something. It doesn't say that it has to be the main focus of the book.
Can someone with authority (Lu) give an opinion on this?

[Lu]

I say yes its fine to both you guys books
Someone wins something :)

[Lauren]

Yay! That means I'm all done with the Harry Potter challenge! I make my last 10-point contribution to Slytherin and bow out. Good luck guys!

[Lauren]

Oh shit, wait - I have some books that are under 150 pages, owing to my page count confusion. I can probably find replacements, but let me check before you update anything Lu.

[Lauren]

Ok, sorted it all out and I managed to finish anyway, using books that weren't able to fit into this challange before :)

[Barbara]

In that case I can use almost any of the Jean Plaidy books I read in february and march and that means I am done. I have finished both the 20 tasks and 7 HP books. And that's it. I follow Lauren in bowing out and will keep and eye on how the rest is doing in this challenge.

[Barbara]

P.s. My new total is 340 points!

[Barbara]

Lu, not that it is very important but I finished this one too. With all the points, so all 20 tasks and the 7 hp books. Could you add this one too to the finished challenges thread? Thanks!

[Claudia]

Do we need to read all the HP books too to qualify as done? If not, then I'm done.

[Barbara]

No I don't think so. You could read them to earn extra points but the challenge were the 20 tasks.
Well done!
It is the week for finishing challenges. Everyone seems to be finishing some challenge.

[Lauren]

I didn't read any Potter. As Barbara said, they're bonus books.
I'm so glad I finished this challenge. It's been a while since I managed to finish one.

[Lu]

Finished nr 19
+10 points :)

[Sarah]

+10 I completed Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind.

Total: 180

[Lu]

Updated:


Slytherin
Points: 1040

Gryffindor
Points: 510

Hufflepuff
Points: 690

Ravenclaw
Points: 610

[Naz]

I updated mine. They were quite a few but my total is now 300 :) Yay, another 110 points for Ravenclaw

[Naz]

Finished number 10 and 18. Only two left :)

Total 320 (180+140 bonus)

[Diane]

Update: Two books left and I'm on 180 points. - Hufflepuff.

I'll see how I feel about re-reading the Harry Potter books.

[Claudia]

Go Diane! (Hopes no one sees a Slytherin cheering for Hufflepuff.)
Will we have another HP challenge? I know it's quite a few months off, but I really enjoyed this one.

[Diane]

Kahlan, thanks for the encouragement. I hope you're not banished to the Forrest - you know how those Slytherin kids can be.

I also enjoyed this challenge, will certainly do it again.

[Crusader]

Nah, we'll forgive Kahlan this once. If any other teams reach 800 it's the snakepit for her (yes, we have a snakepit now).

[Naz]

Well Ravenclaw is on 740 so 800 is not so far away :P

[Lu]

I'm up for making a new challenge when the time comes.
But I want to do something different, something more interactive.

Any ideas?

[Lauren]

Barbara had an idea that I think is awesome, but I'll let her reveal it :)

[Barbara]

I was thinking on a Terry Pratchett challenge. I want the challenge to resemble the HP challenge but I am still working on the tasks and the finer details but it could work and be fun and also have this competitive streak because we can still divide up in teams.
What do you mean by more interactive? Maybe we should talk behind the screens Lu to compare ideas and work out the details and we could have a new challenge?

[Claudia]

Ooh, a Terry Pratchett challenge. Sounds fun!

[Lu]

Ooooh I like it Barbara! Mark might actually be interested too :) Yea send me a PM please :)

[Barbara]

I send you an email on goodreads, Lu. Let me know what you think.