Thanks to the courage and bravery of Lily Nott (Litha @ Victorian Soul Critiques), who earned 40 points and won the Diagon Alley Scavenger Hunt, the House Cup goes to…
Gryffindor!
Thank you for participating! It was lots of awesome Harry Potter fun!
Month: February 2016
Harry Potter Book Night: A Night of Spells!
It’s #HarryPotterBookNight! From now until 9 pm CST (10 pm EST), I’ll be here and on Twitter chatting about all things Harry Potter and responding to commenters. Below are a bunch of activities that you can participate in, as well as some other fun HP related links, but first up, we all need to find out our Harry Potter names. Head on over to the Harry Potter Name Generator to get your name. My new name is:
Rowena Abbott
For tonight, I’ll be going by my new name. Let me know in the comments or on Twitter what your new name is as well as the House you belong in (mine is Gryffindor), and don’t forget to use the official hashtag, #HarryPotterBookNight. If you need to be sorted, hop on over to Pottermore.
Now, on to the games and other fun stuff:
GAMES
Here are a bunch of ways to earn points for your House. You have until 8 pm CST to complete the various games, and I will announce the winning House, along with the individual winners of the scavenger hunt and Potion Masters contest at 9 pm CST tonight.
- Diagon Alley Scavenger Hunt: Fortified By Books has temporarily opened up shop in Diagon Alley, and to celebrate I’ve put 7 magical items on random pages and posts throughout the Fortified By Books blog! Each is worth 10 House points, and you’ll win an additional 30 points for your House for finding them all. Look very carefully for wizard coins, a copy of the Daily Prophet, the book cover of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, an owl, a wand (5 bonus House points to the first person who can tell me who the wand belongs to), a Chocolate Frog, and a broomstick. Can you find them all? Leave a comment on the page or post where you found each item and then leave a comment on this post to let me know you’ve found them all.
- Potion Masters: You have been asked to invent a new potion. In a comment, list up to five ingredients that it contains, what it does once taken, and a unique name for your newly invented potion. 1st place will get 100 House points, 2nd place will get 50, and 3rd place will get 25. All other participants will get 10 House points. Anyone who also provides what their potion looks and smells like will get 5 bonus points.
- Harry Potter Trivia Challenge: See if you can answer all 60 questions correctly to earn an O (Outstanding).
- G.N.O.M.E.S.: Take any, or all, of these quizzes, and for every one you answer all the questions correctly, you’ll earn 10 House points. Just share the results and then come back here and leave the link in a comment.
- Who Is Your Hogwarts Best Friend? Take this quiz to find out, and then share the results. All participants who come back here to leave their shared results link in a comment will earn 10 House points.
- Do You Remember the First Chapter of “Harry Potter”?: You’ll earn 10 House points for answering all the questions correctly, sharing the results, and then leaving the link in a comment.
FUN STUFF
- Harry Potter Polls: There are 5 polls you can vote in and then see the results.
- Free Downloads: Do you want some new Harry Potter wallpaper or maybe a new Twitter header or Facebook cover photo? Check these out.
- Harry Potter Recipes: Are you hungry after all those games and quizzes? Whip something up from this super long list of HP foods and snacks.
- Harry Potter Spells You Ought to Know:
This is going to be a great Harry Potter Book Night! Enjoy the games and fun links, and let me know what your favorite is, or if you’ve got any of your own Harry Potter Book Night links to share.
Super Rad Announcement
I GOT A JOB!!!
Due to this, I’ve been celebrating with the Boyfriend and texting back and forth with friends and loved ones instead of writing today’s book review. I got the call first thing in the morning yesterday after I got home from my part-time job. My head has been somewhere in the clouds since I got that phone call, and my shoulders are back where they’re supposed to be, so I can only assume that they were anchoring my head while connected to my ears for the past month and a half of job hunting.
Anyway, my life is no longer on a semi-hold, and starting in two weeks I’ll be earning a higher salary than I was expecting to be offered right out of college, even with my work experience. I’ll also be doing something that I’ll (hopefully) enjoy, and the benefits are excellent. I’ve been doing a happy dance and randomly jumping up and down while simultaneously freaking the cat out with my exuberant behavior. I don’t think he knows what to do around me right now.
Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten that tomorrow is Harry Potter Book Night! I’ll be spending the day making sure that’s all in order, and everything is ready to go by 5 pm CST tomorrow 🙂 Until then…
The Classics Club: Moll Flanders
- Author: Daniel Defoe
- Pages: 319
This is one of the many Classic novels I got for free from Barnes and Noble for my Nook so many years ago. It was mentioned in Bibliotherapy: The Girl’s Guide to Books for Every Phase of Our Lives by Nancy Peske and Beverly West, and so I added it to my TBR. Daniel Defoe’s introduction stated that this was the story of a woman who led the life of a criminal and then repented. Instead, the story reaffirms the abysmal state of women during the 18th century, especially poor women without a family name and reputation to fall back on.
While I understand that, for the time, the story was considered scandalous and full of intrigue, the first part of the book was rather dull, and I kept wondering how Moll getting taken advantage of by seemingly every man she came into contact with was somehow indicative of her being a criminal. I felt sorry for her and her naive trust in wealthy men who only wanted to turn her into their personal whore. The second part was a little better, and the criminal activities she participates in so she could cobble together a living for herself only made me feel that much more sympathetic towards her and women of her time. Also, I didn’t see Moll’s escape from a life of crime as a repentance for past sins and her transformation into a morally upstanding English citizen so much as taking the opportunity to get out of England and start a new life with a considerably higher chance of not dying in prison. However, she’s still too trusting and ends up with a d-bag of a husband. The more things change…
I think Charles Dickens would have written this story much better than Daniel Defoe did. Yes, there’s a hundred years difference between the two authors and their writing styles, but Defoe knew how to take his time getting to the point. Throughout most of the story, I was either bored or wondering when the real criminal behavior would begin. Towards the end, I just wanted it to be over with already. The only thing I’m happy about is finally being able to cross this Classic off my list.
Feel the Paper Love February: My TBR
Yep, that’s right! The photo above of my bookcase is my TBR mountain for Feel the Paper Love February. Why? Because, with the exception of three books I want to read this month, I don’t have a plan. It depends on the weather, my mood, and how quickly I get through the other three books.
What are those three books?
- An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon – I started it on the 1st of the year but kept getting distracted by other books.
- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith – I borrowed this from the Boyfriend’s Mom’s Husband when we went to visit for Christmas. I don’t know how it will work out, but the plan is that we will exchange books when the Boyfriend’s Mom comes down to Austin every couple of months. Since I don’t know when she’ll be in town next, I want to have the book finished, a note with my thoughts about it written, and a book of mine ready to send with it.
- Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye by Tania Del Rio – This is an ARC that I’ve had on my shelf for far too long.
One thing I did decide is that, since I’m choosing to read nothing but physical books this month, but I usually listen to audiobooks when I’m in the car, I’m going to catch up with the ridiculous number of podcasts I’ve been neglecting instead. They’re not books, so I’m not breaking my commitment to the printed page. I’ll return to my audiobooks next month.
Monday’s Minutes
“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life. All book covers are linked to Goodreads unless otherwise noted.
- An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
- Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch
Finished:
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
- Stories I Told Myself by Patrick E. McLean
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
Challenges:
- Show Your Shelves Some Love: 6 out of 51
- COYER: 7 out of 10
Total pages read: 603
Total # of books for the year: 9. I signed up for Litha’s Feel the Paper Love February, so I’ll be reading nothing but the physical books on my TBR shelf this month. I forgot this is the last month of COYER, though, so I guess I won’t be making my goal of 10 books. Oh well, at least I got seven ebooks/audiobooks off my TBR.
My Top Commenters: It’s a tie between Terri @ Second Run Reviews, and Felicia @ The Geeky Blogger’s Book Blog.
What are you reading this week?