The House Cup Reading Challenge!

Welcome to the House Cup Reading Challenge! It’s my first time co-hosting a reading anything and I’m super excited! My co-hosts are Alex of Book Daisy Reviews, Lauren of Live, Love, Read, and Erica of Escape Under the Cover. This is a month long and it’s going to be super fun! We hope you join us for some awesome reading, great challenges and of course some prizes!

What Is the House Cup Reading Challenge?

The House Cup Reading Challenge runs from Sunday, October 15, to Sunday, November 12. During this challenge, you will progress from a first-year to seventh-year Hogwarts student by completing seven books on your TBR list. In addition to the main challenge, you will have opportunities to earn even more points by participating in the themed bonus challenges and tweeting with the challenge hashtag on Twitter. But more on that later!

How It Works

First, you’ll need to choose your Hogwarts house. During the challenge, you’ll not only be earning points for yourself but for your Hogwarts house as well. At the end of the challenge, each reader should report their points to their house’s Head Girl:

Gryffindor: Lauren @BetweenDPages

Hufflepuff: Kelsey @Kelsenator

Ravenclaw: Alex @booksydaisy

Slytherin: Erica @slychica08

Here’s how we’re determining the winners:

4 Individual House Winners

One winner will be chosen from each of the four Hogwarts houses. The person who earns the most points for their house will receive:

$5 Starbucks gift card and some HP-themed goodies (stickers, bookmarks, etc.)

1 House Cup Grand Prize Winner

Here’s where the House Cup challenge really comes into play! At the end of the challenge, we will randomly select one grand prize winner from the Hogwarts house with the most points overall. This lucky winner will receive:

A Harry Potter Funko Pop figure and a $25 giftcard to Barnes and Noble

**In the case of an international winner, that person will receive an e-gift card to The Book Depository.**

**PLEASE NOTE: Because we will need winners to provide us with their addresses in order to send out the prizes, you must be 18 years or older to be eligible to win.**

Challenge Events

To kick off the challenge, we’ll be hosting a Twitter chat starting at 8:00 p.m. EST on October 15th to give everybody a chance to introduce themselves, talk about the competition, and answer some Harry Potter trivia questions. Be sure to follow along with the #housecupreadingchallenge hashtag.

At the end of the challenge, we’ll also be hosting a watch-along of one of the Harry Potter movies (to be decided via Twitter poll). We’ll have more details about this as we get closer to the end of the challenge.

Challenge Categories and Points Breakdown

Main Challenge (20 points each)

Not everyone likes to be confined to a specific category, so we’ve decided that all books for the main challenge are reader’s choice. This means you can pick any book off your TBR list to count toward the main challenge!

First Year: reader’s choice

Second Year: reader’s choice

Third Year: reader’s choice

Fourth Year: reader’s choice

Fifth Year: reader’s choice

Sixth Year: reader’s choice

Seventh Year: reader’s choice

Bonus Challenges (10 points each)

For those who like categories to help narrow down their reading choices, here are thirteen bonus challenges to choose from. However, books you read for the bonus challenges cannot count toward the main challenge! For example, if you pick The Hunger Games for the Slytherin bonus challenge (read a dystopian book), you cannot also count it toward your second-year challenge.

Gryffindor: Read a book with an epic hero/heroine

Hufflepuff: Read a book that contains a strong friendship

Ravenclaw: Read a book that revolves around a mystery

Slytherin: Read a book set in a dystopian world

Astronomy Class: Read a book set in outer space

Care of Magical Creatures: Read a book that features an animal or magical/mythical creature

Tri-Wizard Tournament: Read a book that includes a competition

Occlumency: Read a book about a character with magical abilities or superpowers

Death Eater: Read a book told from the POV of a villain

Platform 9 3/4: Read a book that features travel

Time Turner: Read a book set in the future or past

Fantastic Beasts: Read a spin-off to a beloved series

Dumbledore’s Army: Buddy-read a book with a friend or group

Social Media Bonus Points

Use the hashtag #housecupreadingchallenge on Twitter to earn 1 point per tweet (limited to 20 points total).

How to Sign Up

Think you’re ready to take on the House Cup Reading Challenge? Awesome! To sign up, grab your house badge below, create a sign-up post on your blog, Twitter or Instagram or even your Goodreads shelf with your challenge with a TBR list and, if you want, your answers to the questionnaire below. Once you’ve made your post, be sure to link it back to us using the Inlinkz widget below (or on any of my fellow co-hosts’ blogs). Make sure it’s a direct link. We await your owl no later than October 14! 😉 Happy reading!