Magical Readathon: Spring Equinox 2024 – Prompts, Side Quests, and my TBR

Dina

March 31

Yay, it's time for another semester at Orilium Academy and I am more than ready. As this is my third year pursuing my career of (magical) Scribe, there's not much change in the classes I will be taking, but the prompts are new and I am motivated enough to attempt more classes than I absolutely need to. Plus, there's a neat side quest with a longer time limit (beginning of August) and there will be a Guild Book Club that I am hyped for.

Orilium Spring Equinox 2024

Like every year, my April will be spent attending Orilium classes and - since this appears to be a normal Hugo Awards year - trying to squeeze in as many Hugo finalists as possible. There shall be fun!

Career Choice

Nothing new to see here, still going for Scribe. If I manage to pass all classes this year and then next year, I'll officially be a Master Scribe. At that point, I'll get to choose another occupation but until then, I'm happy with this one.

Scribe

For this career I need to pass the following classes:

Elemental Studies
Inscription
Spells & Incantations
Restoration
Lore

During the Spring Equinox, I will have to read a total of five books to qualify for this career.

Classes and Reading Prompts

I am a fan of this Spring's classes! Only one of them could be difficult, the others are all very open. And what better choice than a book I believe cures reaing slumps?

Class	Reading Prompt	Book
Elemental Studies	source of light on the cover	Kazuo Ishiguro - Klara and the Sun
Inscription	write 3 titles, fold, pick 1	Nghi Vo - Mammoths at the Gates
Spells & Incantations	random number generator = letters in book title (21)	Walter M. Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz
Restoration	book I think cures slumps	T. Kingfisher - Paladin's Faith
Lore	INTERRUPTED - go to Side Quest
Shapeshifting	author blurbed last 5-star-read	C. L. Clark - The Unbroken
Conjuration	random color wheel (teal)	S. L. Huang - The Water Outlaws
Animal Studies	yellow title	Premee Mohamed - The Butcher of the Forest
Astronomy	zodiac recommendation	Leigh Bardugo - Hell Bent
Demonology	book you didn't pay for (library)	Jay Kristoff - Empire of the Damned
Artificery	lock or key on cover/in title	Joe Hill - Locke &Key Vol 1: Welcome to Lovecraft
Alchemy	circle on the cover	Malka Older - The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles
Psionics & Divination	prediction bingo	Lois McMaster Bujold - Cordelia's Honor
Art of Illusion	"game" or "play" in title

As always, you can find the full syllabus linked here on Google Drive. The classes I need to pass are bold, the rest I just listed in case I have too much time on my hands and want to throw in a few more books.

My Readathon TBR

My TBR looks pretty solid and I look forward to all of these books. However, we will get the Hugo Award finalists after I've written this post and I don't know if I have time to update my TBR in case I want to throw in on of the nominated books.

These five (technically four) are pretty much set and I believe I have a good chance of finishing them with a lot of time to spare.

I have already read the bookclub book for my guild, which is The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. I really loved it and will participate in the discussion, but I won't do a re-read.

My Character

(I'm copying this from last year)
As the daughter of an Iltirian and an Elf, Sistani is a rather unusual girl, especially considering that she grew up in a bustling city on Kerador, surrounded by all sorts of cultures and people. Her childhood has instilled upon her a love for meeting new people, learning their languages and cultural habits, and generally being open to new experiences. She is rather quirky for a Half-Iltirian and rather uninterested in the moon for a Half-Elf but then, who doesn't rebel against their parents when they are young?

Sistani is passionate about the written word but she also loves solving riddles and being clever. Whether it's training and managing to run a particularly difficult obstacle course or solving a puzzle, her ambition usually grants her the strength to pursue her goals single-mindedly. She has been called a know-it-all on more than one occasion...

Unsurprising, she was chosen to join the Guild of Archivists who get full access to the amazing underground library of Orilium Academy. Here are the traits I have achieved through participating in readathons so far:

Half-Iltirian, Half-Elf
Urban from Kerador
Archivist
- bonded to the goddess Ausra
- Conduit is a staff
owns the Wand of Menas
got a baby poof-otter companion

I am so happy to start another year in Aeldia and especially to check out the Guild Book Club read. I cannot wait to see you all at Orilium Academy! Happy reading, everyone. 🙂