The End of My Harry Potter Challenge

As you can tell from the picture, I did not complete the challenge. You may have even guessed that I wouldn’t. I was only able to get through 3 movies and 3.5 books. When I planned out this challenge I figured it would take 4 days to read each book. 7 x 4 = 28 days. So a 31 day challenge should have been doable. Right? Oh, how I was.

What Went Wrong?

Life got in the way. Even though I had a couple of days to spare if I needed a break from reading or one some of the thicker books required more time, I ended up wasting some days at the beginning of the challenge.

I completed Philosopher’s Stone on time, but at the beginning of Chamber of Secrets I slumped. I took a break thinking, “I’ve got plenty of time,” and didn’t think that the month would have other stuff in store for me. When those things made an appearance, I had used up more than my extra days. Then it took forever for me to finish Chamber of Secrets. Why? I have no idea. I didn’t have the motivation to get through it. It felt like I was trudging along.

I cheated a bit with Prisoner of Azkaban. I had a road trip and would be spending precious reading time driving so I brought the audiobook along for the ride. Does it count as reading if I imagined the words? I’ll leave that one up for debate. I enjoyed the audiobook experience so much that I decided to use the audiobooks to catch up on reading during those times when I couldn’t have a physical book in my hands, i.e. driving, washing dishes, working out. I have had the audiobooks for years and have listened to the books instead of reading them a couple of times in the past, so this wasn’t my first Harry Potter audio experience.

Even with all that extra reading crammed into my day I still didn’t make the challenge, but I’m okay with it.

What Went Right?

I learned some things from this challenge.

Go into a challenge with a solid plan and room for life’s surprises.

Don’t waste extra time just because it’s there. Think of them as extra lives in a video game.

Let your friends know about the challenge to ease social expectations. I found that my social life was eating into my reading time. Not cool.

Take advantage of spare moments to work towards your goal. This is helpful for all challenges not just the reading kind.

Have fun with it. Challenges are supposed to be positive forces in your life. Don’t stress out about the outcome. So what if you don’t meet your goal? You’ve made more progress than if you hadn’t started the challenge at all. By the end of the challenge, you have the power to extend the deadline, adjust your goal, keep it going, or quit.

What’s Next?

With only a few more weeks of summer left, I’ve decided to shelve the Harry Potter. I’m doing this because there are so many other books I want to read and I don’t want to  spend the rest of the summer reading a story I’ve read many times before. Plus, I want to keep Harry Potter in July. There’s always next year.

So, I’m back to reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I stopped reading it to do the challenge. I have 2 chapters left then I can start Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I’ve heard some good things about it. Hopefully, I’ll like it just as much as everyone else.

I also need to get back to Clash of Kings, Cupid’s Arrow, and start the Doctor Who Watch-Along coming up this Tuesday. That’s a lot on my plate.

Would you ever try the Harry Potter Challenge? What other challenges do you think I should try? Leave your comments below!