A Reading of Deathly Hallows at Edinburgh Castle

Find the sorting here!

The staff of The Leaky Cauldron invites you to apparate with us to Edinburgh Castle for our reading of Deathly Hallows.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is finally here, and we can think of no better place to read it then in Edinburgh Castle. We here at Leaky would like to help you guys by offering our wonderful staff in various styles of both private book clubs/reading groups and our public book club. We've offered many different variations of room styles and sizes to help accommodate people's tastes and time frames. In this post you'll see a brief description of the various styles of groups offered. In you look further down the thread you'll see one detailed post about each style of group, and when you could expect that group to start.

We will also one resorting, two weeks after the last groups start, (on August 18th) to give you a chance to change your style of group if you find that your needs have changed.


The following groups are closed once the sorting is completed, and are for readers who might like a slower paced reading with facilitators helping lead the discussion. There will be another sorting offered August 28th if you decide you'd like another styled group.

Smaller Groups - Capped at 300 members, all of our wonderful Lily and Stag groups are facilitator led. This means you'll be able to suggest topics, and get the awesome topics and discussion our Lily and Stag Inn is famous for.

Lily and Stag: Nestled away in a hidden part of the castle, our Lily and Stag reading groups will continue with their quaint atmosphere of reading in a wonderfully relaxing and close knit group! The Lily and Stag will offer three rooms, and start on August the 4th. Go here to find a more detailed description of The Lily and Stag!

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Larger Groups - Capped at between 500 - 1000 members depending on the group, all of our larger groups are facilitator assisted. This means that there will be topics started by our staff, but you are free to start your own topics.

Harry Potter Lite: - (1000 members per room) Reading group lite, a friendly tavern for busy potterfans to dip in & out of the reading group experience. Share with us your experiences as a Harry Potter fan, & let us know what you thought of the Deathly Hallows. One group will start on the Wednesday after the release. Got to this post below to see a more detailed description.

Academic Groups: - Academic groups find themselves in the library of Edinburgh Castle with featured debates and discussion of high academic topics as well as a taste of the lite topics and polls found in other groups. These groups will contain the heavy hitting academic topics found in Obscurus and Notable Magical Names forums. There will be three groups staggering their start on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday after the book release. Go here to find more info on academic rooms.

General Discussion Groups - Finding themselves in a comfy chair in the castle's parlors,the general groups combine a little of all of the groups, with general topics, polls, chapter discussions and fun activities. These groups will venture into the high academic topics, while focusing on plot and characters. There will be three groups staggering their start on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday after the book release. To find out more about general discussion groups check out the more detailed description here.

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Reading in the Public Forum

For those members who prefer an open reading, or who can't make it into a closed reading group:

Our forum staff would like to invite you to try our the public book club. Our wonderful book club looks at one book at a time, with heavy hitting discussion, led topics, and you can start your own topic! You can check out the current book club here as we discuss Half-Blood Prince.

Deathly Hallows Unfogged - For those members who may not have the time to devote to a reading area, or who prefer the large forum style book club, we'll open our Deathly Hallows Unfogged book club/forum. This will be open to all members of Leaky Lounge for discussion, and all of our guests will still be able to read topics. Our wonderful forum mods will lead hard hitting discussions and debates, and we'll have member started topics as well. this forum will be open the weekend of the Deathly Hallows release for discussion for all members.

We will apparate to the castle on July 18th, where we'll share the Knight's Room with fun food, crafts and conversation until our parlor rooms open!

Academic Styled Groups -

The academic styled groups will be similar to the Obscurus Books and Notable Magical Names forums that are found on the Leaky Lounge. Threads in this styled group will discuss the characters as well as the plot for Deathly Hallows, but they will focus on academic analysis threads such as how the Hero's Journey, alchemy, mythology, symbolism, other novels, etc. relate to the final book.

Sample threads here

Thresholds
Literary comparison of Harry Potter
Alchemy in Harry Potter
The symbolic Nature of the Number 7
A mother's love, or abandonment of a child?
Peter Pettigrew: Is he a true Gryffindor?

Add in links to the profiles of those leading academic groups here:

Aislinn
CarpeDiem
fawkes28
futureweasley
Mr. McGonagall
Punky
Pyxis
SoonerGryffindor
WaggaWaggaWerewolf

Generalized Discussion:

If you think a generalized discussion group might be your style of group, then you'd love a mixture of all of the forums. If you love polls, lite conversation, fun off-topic chat, but want the majority of your focus to be on Deathly Hallows and Harry Potter, these groups will be for you!


Check out the kinds of threads you might find in this group:
Links to sample threads here:

Harry's Visionary Dreams
That aweful boy!
Wormtail's Role in Deathly Hallows
Narcissa Malfoy

Profiles of those who will lead that style discussions in generalized discussion:
Please fell free to post questions in this thread, or contact one of the leaders if you'd prefer.

mlwl
NickTLC
DorisTLC
SillyPutty
HPSpec
Love4Fawkes
Praxagora
rowena r

This post has been edited by NickTLC: Jul 17 2007, 09:52 PM

The Lily and Stag Inn

Nestled away in a hidden part of the castle, the Lily and Stag Inn is a quaint little bed-and-breakfast where close knit groups go in-depth to explore Harry Potter. Our three suites will open for guests beginning August 4th, but we'll really start to delve into all things Deathly Hallows with a chapter-by-chapter discussion beginning on August 13th.

But never fear -- there's still a place for you to enjoy your first read-through even before we begin. Adjacent to our suites is a room where you can relax with your fellow guests and enjoy some playful banter and games while you wait for your rooms to be made ready.

So check in and grab your key and join in this relaxing, fun group!

Questions About Reading Groups Answered Here
Sample Lily and Stag Inn Topics Here

Your Innkeepers:

HPMommy
becky920

And our wonderful staff:

atschpe
cloudpic
Expelliarmas
fw00per
Granjo Granger
HealerOne
huebbe
leakylurker
L.J
mlwl
mrs.mcd
Mullen
Nimbus Flyer
Pleshette
Psyche
Questauthor
superblue

This post has been edited by becky920: Jul 17 2007, 11:18 AM

Harry Potter Lite

Reading group lite, a friendly tavern for busy potterfans to dip in & out of the reading group experience. Share with us your experiences as a Harry Potter fan, & let us know what you thought of the Deathly Hallows. One group will start on the Wednesday after the release. Got to this post below to see a more detailed description.

Our Harry Potter Lite group will enjoy polls, and lite conversation. This is a great room filled with polls, fun and lite conversation!

Sample Topics:
Least Favorite Character
Harry Potter Obsession Quiz Score
Reactions to the death of a character

Leaders:

Mikey
Dreamteam
JaneMarple
NYBookworm
Seven of Nine
Piewacket

This post has been edited by NickTLC: Jul 17 2007, 09:49 PM

How Do We Sign Up!

hotshot9913 -- the sorting will begin later this morning (9 a.m. eastern time in the States, which is five hours behind London). Look for a link along the right-hand side of your page that will appear once the sorting begins! Hope you can join us.

Is it too late to get Sorted for the Reading Groups - where are we meant to sign up??

I'm worried that I've missed the boat already - help please!!

Oops never mind. You can delete this post.

This post has been edited by starry-eyedd: Jul 18 2007, 10:54 AM

So, do I need to sign up now?