The Most-Read Books of the 2018 Reading Challenge

Love stats like this - keep it coming. Not surprised by most if zhe books on the list though

I love it when you do this Goodreads! (Also, I'm so glad A Wrinkle In Time is on there!!!!!)

Amazing, I've read all the classics except one.

It never surprises me, but always pleases me to see To Kill A Mockingbird on these types of lists. It is my all-time favorite book and I've read it at least 20 times. If there is ever a To Kill A Mockingbird trivia contest, you will want me on your team. :-)

The upside and downside to these book lists? I have new books to add to my ever-expanding To-Read list. How will I ever find the time?

Read three of these books this year, but only liked one of the three.

The Diary of Anne Frank isn't a novel... it's nonfiction!

Have read the older ones. Want to read the newer ones. All good picks I am sure!

Huge influence from the Great American Read here!

I've read 29 of these. I'm looking forward to reading The Handmaid's Tale before the sequel releases next year.

'The Alchemist' a classic ?!?!?!?! hippy twaddle for children.

I'm so happy to say I read a good chunk of these books this year, many of which were rereads :)

I love stats like this! :)

50 million books read...
If only we could generate energy by reading.

Alondra wrote: "Amazing, I've read all the classics except one."

Same. My unread one is 'The Alchemist'.

Aubrey wrote: "Alondra wrote: "Amazing, I've read all the classics except one."

Same. My unread one is 'The Alchemist'."

That seems to be a love it or hate it book. I personally enjoyed it and did not read too much into it. Sweet story; besides, it's a quick read.

Adrianna wrote: "The Diary of Anne Frank isn't a novel... it's nonfiction!"

It's not actually listed specifically as fiction or non-fiction. It's under the heading "Classics".

Please give us the full list-- I want the rest of the lists. Top 4? Top 12? Not enough!

Gerry wrote: "Adrianna wrote: "The Diary of Anne Frank isn't a novel... it's nonfiction!"

It's not actually listed specifically as fiction or non-fiction. It's under the heading "Classics"."


They changed it! When the list was published this morning it was "Classic Novels." Glad to see they edited it!

Adrianna wrote: "Gerry wrote: "Adrianna wrote: "The Diary of Anne Frank isn't a novel... it's nonfiction!"

It's not actually listed specifically as fiction or non-fiction. It's under the heading "Classics"."


The..."
Hello! Yes, I edited it when I saw your comment! Thank you for catching it, I really appreciate your help!

Cybil wrote: "Adrianna wrote: "Gerry wrote: "Adrianna wrote: "The Diary of Anne Frank isn't a novel... it's nonfiction!"

It's not actually listed specifically as fiction or non-fiction. It's under the heading "..."

Of course! Thanks for this list! :)

Douglas wrote: "Please give us the full list-- I want the rest of the lists. Top 4? Top 12? Not enough!"
Agreed! I'd like to see a full list of the top 100 and in the order of their popularity (most read).

'The Wife Between Us' ;
dying to read it

Kate wrote: "It never surprises me, but always pleases me to see To Kill A Mockingbird on these types of lists. It is my all-time favorite book and I've read it at least 20 times. If there is ever a To Kill A M..."

I am with you. I taught it to high school students 6 times a day, year after year, and it never got old. Have you read The Help? It is similar in theme and a damn good read!

It's too bad many people refuse to read sci-fiction/fantasy, because some very good books are being overlooked!

Kimberly wrote: "Kate wrote: "It never surprises me, but always pleases me to see To Kill A Mockingbird on these types of lists. It is my all-time favorite book and I've read it at least 20 times. If there is ever ..."

I loved both books. My career ended a couple of years ago after teaching high school special ed for students whose reading skills precluded books this long. One of my favorite lessons combined the movie The Help with the book. We watched the movie together, talking about it, then used the book to answer questions (page numbers provided). It was a real eye opener for my very white students from a small rural (very!) area in Montana. They were really interested and used the internet to find more information. Success!!!

I still don;t know how to get into my reading challenge. This totally sucks. Last year I read 139 books and never got credit because I can't find it. I can say when I red a specific book, and it will remember but it won't automatically log it into my Reading Challenge. This year I read over 100 so far. I hate comeing here sometimes because I feel I can't participate. If someone could demonstrate to me how to access my "Reading Challenge" page I'd sure appreciate it.

Liz wrote: "If someone could demonstrate to me how to access my "Reading Challenge" page I'd sure appreciate it."

Hello,
If you are logged into Goodreads, you should see your profile image or icon in the upper-right corner. You can click on that to see a menu of options, such as "Profile", "Friends" etc. Mid-way down that list is "Reading Challenge". That link will take you to a page that summarizes your challenge and progress.

Goodreads considers a book "Read" within a certain year if you've clicked "Read" and then "Finished", tracking your progress in Goodreads. It will also add a book to your challenge if you add a book and then update the "Dates Read" fields to indicate when you read the book. I get there by clicking "Add a Review" or edit my existing review.

Good luck!

Liz wrote: "I still don;t know how to get into my reading challenge. This totally sucks. Last year I read 139 books and never got credit because I can't find it. I can say when I red a specific book, and it wi..."

Further to what Douglas just added, I went to your page and it does not seem that you have recorded your *books read* under My Books. Unless you keep track of your books read on that page, they will not be recorded on the Reading Challenge.

Hope this helps.

Adrianna wrote: "The Diary of Anne Frank isn't a novel... it's nonfiction!" Yes, and it IS a CLASSIC.

Sue wrote: "Kimberly wrote: "Kate wrote: "It never surprises me, but always pleases me to see To Kill A Mockingbird on these types of lists. It is my all-time favorite book and I've read it at least 20 times. ..."S


Same here. I got very sick (still am) and had to quit. I also taught at a small rural school in South Louisiana. I tried to teach tolerance and acceptance; I had parents of some fight back, then I taught MLK, lol. I was determined to open their minds to beyond the trash they were taught at home. It is so interesting that you are from Montana because I told my husband yesterday that I wanted to go there. It looks so peaceful and quaint. I hope I make it there one day.

A comment on one of the new books: Loved The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware.

Are most of the classics up there b/c people reread them this year, or b/c they're still 'new' books to so many?

Ditto for books like Harry potter, which has been out for 20 years now, and i'm assuming (bad me) that most of those who do the reading challenge are adults and so have already heard of the book for years.

Karin wrote: "Are most of the classics up there b/c people reread them this year, or b/c they're still 'new' books to so many?

Ditto for books like Harry potter, which has been out for 20 years now, and i'm as..."

I would say that is a mixture of both... I guess that Harry Potter is mostly re-read, but classics can be both re-read and first read.
First read doesn't mean that the person only heard about the book now, but that only now they decided to read.
Also, as many people in the world log their reads here, many of these classics are not part of school classes as it depends on their country and language. I'm Brazilian, so I read Brazilian and Portuguese books on lit classes (but I never read The Alchemist, even though it is under classics here, because lit teachers despise Paulo Coelho here. I don't care, but it is not my priority either).
About the classics here, I read Catcher in the Rye and Pride and Prejudice maybe 10 years ago, already in my 20s (so maybe there are many people on late teens or 20s logging their books here), but I only read Handmaid's Tale last year. There are lots of books that can be considered classics, so even when you know about them, it takes a couple of years between knowing about and actually reading.

I'm happy to walk my own path when choosing what to read. In fact I'm annoyingly proud that I read 28 books released this year and none of them are on the Goodreads 2018 list. I bet I'm not alone. Anyone else feel this way?

Seeing what others are reading - whether they match with my reading or not - only fuels my desire to widen my reading choices. I love seeing this list! Widening my choices now!

It would be great if you could also give us a list of the books among the 'most read' with the most stars?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was the first book I read this year. I've read 10 of the titles and have a further 5 on my TBR

Mmmm, drie van de winnaars en vijf van de oldies heb ik gelezen. Een mooie start. heb een aantal van de andere winnaars (zoals Educated) op mijn nog-te-lezen-lijst gezet. Bedankt maar weer. Ik geniet al een aantal jaren van deze 'Best books of the year' session.

i was just curious about people's reading habits. I reread children's books over and over, but adult books, not so much. Also if 'everyone' is rereading a certain book, maybe i should give it a shot. I love reading about people's reading lives!.

A great podcast to listen to is: what should i read next:
https://modernmrsdarcy.com/162-episode/.

Does anyone else have a favourite reading podcast??

I love to see things like this,
It really satisfies my inner geek lol. You should do this on both a weekly or monthly basis and an annual report too!
Thanks for doing this 😊😊

Douglas wrote: "Liz wrote: "If someone could demonstrate to me how to access my "Reading Challenge" page I'd sure appreciate it."

Hello,
If you are logged into Goodreads, you should see your profile image or icon..."

THANK YOU!

Douglas Wrote:
Hello,
If you are logged into Goodreads, you should see your profile image or icon..."

OK here's the problem I have. I go to my reading challenge, see that none of the books I have marked as read in 2018 have shown up on the list. I AM logged in, just by the way.... OK so I look for a link that says "add to your reading challenge here:" All I see is the link to "see my books shelved in 2018". Well some are not read and some are. I have shelves for 2016, 17 and 18. I also have shelf called "read". So I check the boxes "read" and "2018", and close the dropdown menu. It appears that the app remembers what I have just done, even though there is no "save changes" option; a kind of certifying step available in most apps. This is confusing in itself but not the worst of my problem.

The big bad thing is that even though the changes do save, nothing ever shows up on my reading challenge page. THAT never changes. How do I get my "2018" "read" books to show up in my reading challenge list? Do I have to make a new shelf, called "Reading Challenge 2018"? or "2018 Reading Challenge"?. I feel like an idiot and there's no support on this website. At least no support that I can find. Really thanks for offering me some help. Sorry I am not getting it, but can you help me any more? Heh heh...

I've covered Silicon Valley for 30 years as a journalist and an author. I've read the Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs (above) and, unfortunately, it misses the core story of why Jobs was able to return to Apple to and push it forward into new heights.

This is the much better (and shorter) Jobs biography....

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

One of my favorite books, did not get a goodreads. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston was/is a fantastic read. Full of emotion, abuse, love and hate.

From the list I have read 13 books only. Not too bad but still not very good. Hopefully will get around to the rest in 2019

How is ‘the sun does shine’ not here? ☀️

Steve wrote: "'The Alchemist' a classic ?!?!?!?! hippy twaddle for children."

So it wasn't me. I hated it also.

Other than Atwood, there are no Canadian authors on this list. The list is heavily indebted to the Great American Read!

"The Alchemist" is a lovely book in every way, million times better than the "Looking for Alaska" kind bestsellers. No matter if it's not a classic although it is a much loved story on the Goodreads. I plan to reread it for 2019.

Keith wrote: "I'm happy to walk my own path when choosing what to read. In fact I'm annoyingly proud that I read 28 books released this year and none of them are on the Goodreads 2018 list. I bet I'm not alone. ..."

Yes indeed. I choose what I want to read because I'm interested in the book, not because others say it's a 'great' one.