Want to Read More This Year? Join the 2017 Reading Challenge

Amanda wrote: "I'm a re-reader of books as well and while it's an imperfect solution, you can include re-reads in the challenge if you select a different edition of the book and mark it as read. It get problemati..."

I just adjust my goal when I reread and put a comment on my challenge thread. Like right now, my goal is 100. If the first book I read is a re-read, I'll lower it to 99 and put a comment with the book I reread and the dates started and finished. I have a shelf for "read in 2017" where I can track all the books I actually did read.

It's still not perfect, but for me, it's better than clogging my shelves with multiple editions.

Beate wrote: "My 2016 count would have been triple if I could add books I've re-read. I know you can add same book multiple times by various formats, but I'm a little OCD when it comes to books, and when I've re..."

Dido. I re-read books when I get into a reading funk and can't find another book to capture my interest or attention. I think as I read, that bar of greatness grows higher and so a lot of books fail to entertain me. That's when I start to re-read the books I already have until something else comes along.

Also... I include audible books as well. They are also repeatedly listened too. I can'r tell how many times I've listened to Poison Princess. AND I can do it at 1.5 x times the speed.

IAmBroke wrote: "I know I will get a lot of hate for this but it's all up to y'all people.

I don't think the reading challenge is worth it. It puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on people to finish books or skim t..."

that is why I set my goal at 24 books last year. I know school is really stressful and that I have to read lots of other things, so I plan on reading 2 books per month. I always read more than 24 books, but it feels nice to acomplish the challenge and to not feel stressed over it

Right now I'm re-reading a series, anticipating the release of the next book in a couple weeks. Starting the year off with re-reads and not having them count towards the challenge is a little off putting with regards to GR and the whole challenge. It's a "why bother anyway" kind of mindset.

Like a few others have said it so well; 1. I do not want to clog my shelves with multiple versions of the same book, that's just all kinds of messy. 2. Moving a book out of a previous challenge to keep up with this years' challenge voids the previous challenge. Seeing previous challenges completed means something when you have spent all that time actually taking the challenge. So changing dates is not an option.

This is why I would like to see multiple started/read dates for each book. That's an easy code to add for GR, and it would make a lot of users very happy.

IAmBroke wrote: "I know I will get a lot of hate for this but it's all up to y'all people.

I don't think the reading challenge is worth it. It puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on people to finish books or skim t..."

I totally agree. My goal is low, only about 12, so I can enjoy them!

كل عام وأنتم بخير يا أصدقاء
سأقبل هذا التحدي للعام الجديد وقد أعددت مسبقا قائمة أسميتها بالقائمة الماراثونية، وضعت فيها الروايات الكلاسيكية التي كنت أؤجل قرائتها دون أي أسباب معقولة، لعل السبب هو عدم الثقة الكافية في قراءة هكذا أعمال صعبة دون أن أستوعبها ولكن لا تراجع بعد أن قررت، سأقدم بقوة وثقة على هذه القائمة الصعبة، لا شيء يأتي رائعا كما يأتي من الصعوبة والمعاناة.
انطلق !

can't wait to kill it this year! one book a week this time! audiobooks & kindle ftw!

IAmBroke wrote: "I know I will get a lot of hate for this but it's all up to y'all people.

I don't think the reading challenge is worth it. It puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on people to finish books or skim t..."

if you know you would get a lot of hate for writing this you shouldn't wrote it in the first place,i don't feel any preasure,if i read the number of books i set to read would be great but if i don't i still have next year to read them
the reading chelange is more about keep track of the books you read trought a year than a timeline to read a certain amount of books

It is almost as if you're reading for goodreads and not for the pleasure or importance of it (no offence)

Wardah wrote: "It is almost as if you're reading for goodreads and not for the pleasure or importance of it (no offence)"

I do agree with you!

But that's something you can control. Just don't put some outrageous number down as your goal. Be realistic and if you want. Challenge raise your realistic number by 2 or 3.

John wrote: "I totally agree. My goal is low, only about 12, so I can enjoy them!"

Wardah wrote: "It is almost as if you're reading for goodreads and not for the pleasure or importance of it (no offence)"

No offence on my part, either, but why is it so hard to understand that a big reading goal doesn't mean you don't enjoy what you're reading. Everybody's different, and everybody's going to do this in their own way. Don't be too ambitious with the number and you should be ok.

Almost all of my life people kept asking me 'why I read so many books'. Well... I'm very happy to have found Goodreads, where it is not considered a waste of time to read one or more books a week ;-)
Last year I set my challenge to 50 and I'm going to to that again this year. It's a nice round number. I'm also planning to do some re-reading because I found I have some good books from my 'before NetGalley and Goodreads' (mostly paper) time that I like to re-read.
Between a full time job, my business travels and my husband, family and friends, I think 50 is a nice goal again.

I love the reading challenge! I keeps me motivated to keep trucking! Even when I fall in a reading slump & don't want to read cause everything I pick up seems awful. The challenge helps me keep looking till I find something I do like. :) it might be dumb, but I really do like the feeling of accomplishment I get when I see that little icon bar change.

plus it keeps everything I've read in a year in a neat little list which is so much cooler then the notebooks I used to keep. I get to see all the pretty covers. ;)

& I love rereading! Moving it from one year to the next here on goodreads doesn't bother me. I just make a comment on my challenges that I actually read 222 in 2015 so I remember it was that and not 205.

But I don't like adding different editions for books I haven't read. The only one I have multiple editions of is Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone , and that's only because I have a paperback, the illustrated edition & listened to an audiobook.

Where can we see our previous years since they no longer appear on our home page? BTW .... home page update ... not an improvement.

Bunnycore wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "For all those talking about the re-reading. Mine always goes toward my count, but I do change the dates to make it work. It does over-ride the last date, but you can still see all of..."

I keep track of re-reads in the private notes section and sometimes in the reviews section if I change my review.

Jessie wrote: "Where can we see our previous years since they no longer appear on our home page? BTW .... home page update ... not an improvement."

You can see all your challenges on your profile page. :)

Jessie wrote: "Where can we see our previous years since they no longer appear on our home page? BTW .... home page update ... not an improvement."

If you click on the current challenge, your previous challenge widgets should be on the right-hand side.

You should also be able to see any completed challenges on your profile page.

Leslie wrote: "I would love an option for books that I re-read to contribute towards my challenge numbers."

It depends... have you read the book ten years ago= Then just set a new "finished" date in 2017 and the challenge WILL count it.

If you read the same book two or three times in one year though I don't know a method except "cheating" and adding multiple versions you might not all own to get you to insert multiple read by dates...

Nyssa wrote: "1.The point is that the book is removed from your previous challenge. Therefore, if you read 3 series books in 2012 and then reread those 3 books in 2016, your previous challenge will be depleted b..."

I do not see any problem with that... why would I care in 2017 if the 2012 challenge got retroactively lost when it's just a method to keep me motivated to read in the first place? And if it's THAT important for you just add another edition and you're fine with two or three dates for the novel.

Bjoern wrote: "Nyssa wrote: "1.The point is that the book is removed from your previous challenge. Therefore, if you read 3 series books in 2012 and then reread those 3 books in 2016, your previous challenge will..."

Because I like for my stats to be correct. I rarely buy a book in more than one edition. I want to track the edition that I have read. There is nothing wrong or unusual about that.

Also if I succeeded in my challenge then I want that reflected as such. Plain and simple. Our challenges stay on our profile page. Why should I be okay with a gap where one doesn't belong?

You questioning my motives is like me asking you why it isn't important to you that your records actually reflect what you did. But I will not ask you that becuase it is none of my business.

Sara wrote: "Kangoor wrote: "Would it be possible to set reading goals for either the number of books we want to read, or the number of pages? Or maybe both for some readers. I would really love such an option...."

Glad someone says that. I have been discussing this with friends for a while. Try Nicholas and Alexandra....almost 3 books in one ;)

Jannelies wrote: "Almost all of my life people kept asking me 'why I read so many books'.

That's a stupid question! Who'd ask WHY you read so many books?!

I absolutely love this challenge! I don't try to compete with anyone else and if I don't get to my goal, it's not a big deal. The point for me is to be consistently reading and to be able to better keep track of what I read and when. I do try to mix it up a bit to help reach my goal, though. If I read a serious biography or memoir (which is actually my favorite genre!), I'll read a kindle short or a couple of teen fiction books before my next serious book to help me decompress after something so heavy. It's fun to reach the goal, but it's more of the reminder to keep reading for me! I am impressed with people who set their numbers in the hundreds, although I'm proud of each and every person who completes their own personal goal. I typically set my goal to one book a week, although in the past couple years, I've been tacking on a couple more to that because of my short book and teen fiction habit I've picked up. Good luck to everyone who is participating in 2017!

Beate wrote: "My 2016 count would have been triple if I could add books I've re-read. I know you can add same book multiple times by various formats, but I'm a little OCD when it comes to books, and when I've re..."

It won't help you in the challenge, but I keep track of kindle books. I've added a shelf (under want to read, currently reading, read) for kindle books that I purchased and lib-kindle for books I've borrowed. You could add a re-read shelf.

Nancy wrote: "Beate wrote: "My 2016 count would have been triple if I could add books I've re-read. I know you can add same book multiple times by various formats, but I'm a little OCD when it comes to books, an..."

I have a program on my computer where I keep track of everything I read, from when I read it to ratings and reviews. I just want my challenges here on GR to be displayed correctly, regardless of it it's this years' or previous challenges. There is something about being able to go to your profile page and see all the completed challenges. I don't challenge myself to compete, not my game, I just love reading and to see visually how much I manage to read each year. I'll end up reading about 200 books per year challenge or not. But since Goodreads HAS implemented the challenge as part of their website structure, it should be more reader friendly for those of us who do love to re-read some books. Like I've stated before, some books I just love so much I've read them 3-4 times, and expect to read them a few more times. I know about all the "cheats" here on GR, and I've chosen not to cheat.

IAmBroke wrote: "I know I will get a lot of hate for this but it's all up to y'all people.

I don't think the reading challenge is worth it. It puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on people to finish books or skim t..."

I can understand your view. It's easy to get caught up in reading the most books and racking up a high number. I think that's the wrong way of looking at it, though. I've set numbers in the past which were obtainable, but pushed me to knock out some of my ever-growing TBR list. This past year, I missed my goal by a significant amount. Life, y'know? :)

It's okay, though. Several years ago, I set up a thing where I "pay" myself for every book I read. $10 for each completed book goes into a piggy bank, and at the end of the year I trade that money in for Amazon cards. Even though I didn't make my goal, I still ended up with over $600, which is fun.

This year, I know I have more commitments that will keep me from reading as much, so I've set my goal lower. It's more a fun way to keep track of what I've read in the past year than anything else.

Amy wrote: "Beate wrote: "My 2016 count would have been triple if I could add books I've re-read. I know you can add same book multiple times by various formats, but I'm a little OCD when it comes to books, an..."

Yes you can change the read date but then you lose the history of all the dates you read this book. I think that is what most of us would like to track.

Beate wrote: "I don't challenge myself to compete, not my game, I just love reading and to see visually how much I manage to read each year."

That's my attitude as well. Regardless of the challenge, I read, but it's nice to complete a "goal" completed and see how many books I have red. (I set lower, achievable goals and increase if necessary.)

Erin wrote: "I set up a thing where I "pay" myself for every book I read. $10 for each completed book goes into a piggy bank, and at the end of the year I trade that money in for Amazon cards."

That is a wonderful idea, I love this! I do regularly save money, but because the cost of living is outrageous in my city (and wages are relatively low), it is very difficult to save a significant amount. I think I might do this--put away $5 to $10 per book I have read into my savings. A small amount, but everything helps, and because I don't have a lot of money (yay for libraries!), putting away smaller amounts on a regular basis is easier than putting away larger, significant amounts.

Erin wrote: "IAmBroke wrote: "I know I will get a lot of hate for this but it's all up to y'all people.

I don't think the reading challenge is worth it. It puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on people to finis..."

I love that idea of paying yourself for all the books you read. Basically a reading savings plan for the next year :) I might have to try that, thanks for the idea!

I need some help, every year i forgot how can i share the reading challenge in my blog and keep it there?
Thank you!

By the way, i love this challenge, makes me more motivated in reading!

Justsmile91 wrote: "I need some help, every year i forgot how can i share the reading challenge in my blog and keep it there?
Thank you!

By the way, i love this challenge, makes me more motivated in reading!"

Go into account settings, then widgets: https://www.goodreads.com/user/edit?f...

Beate wrote: "Justsmile91 wrote: "I need some help, every year i forgot how can i share the reading challenge in my blog and keep it there?
Thank you!

By the way, i love this challenge, makes me more motivated..."

Thank you so much :D

Wardah wrote: "It is almost as if you're reading for goodreads and not for the pleasure or importance of it (no offence)"

Great reply

Is the widget for this year missing an image? I pasted in this years code and it doesn't have a small image that previous years have had

It is fun for me to see the way other people think about their reading, and attitudes about keeping a list (or not), as well as numbers of books read. I have kept a list of books since I was in probably middle school (45+ years ago), not consistently, but on and off. I keep a little monthly journal record, and record books read on those pages. For me, that is my permanent record, so I feel free to list re-reads, and even sometimes DNF's on books I don't care to finish. The Goodreads listing is just a fun thing to do, and a place to sometimes write reviews and see what others think about books I've read. I don't take it that seriously, but love the idea of all of us strangers scattered around, reading and thinking and chatting about books.

Kathleen, I started keeping track of the books I read in 2005--not to see how many books I had read, but because I couldn't remember what I had read, so when someone asked for a recommendation, it was easy to give one. I then discovered Goodreads in 2012 or 2013, and that was the perfect way for me to keep track of what I read. I have the same attitude as you do about Goodreads--it's fun.

Jasmine wrote: "Kathleen, I started keeping track of the books I read in 2005--not to see how many books I had read, but because I couldn't remember what I had read, so when someone asked for a recommendation, it ..."
Exactly! I felt terrible when I lost my little journal with 3 years' worth of book lists a couple of years ago. There were several books I had wanted to recommend to friends, or reread, and I couldn't remember the titles. Luckily, our library keeps a record of each patron's checked out books, so I was able to retrieve most of them on the library website, but whew! It's nice to have Goodreads as sort of a backup. (I read as many books as I can through the library, to save money).

Kathleen wrote: "Exactly! I felt terrible when I lost my little journal with 3 years' worth of book lists a couple of years ago. There were several books I had wanted to recommend to friends, or reread, and I couldn't remember the titles. Luckily, our library keeps a record of each patron's checked out books, so I was able to retrieve most of them on the library website, but whew! It's nice to have Goodreads as sort of a backup. (I read as many books as I can through the library, to save money)."

My memory is terrible, so it's nice to have a record of what I have read.

I also get as many books from the library as possible, because I live in a city where the cost of living is absurd. Thank goodness for the library--no matter how poor you are, you can always read!

I spent too much time on Facebook. Only read 19 books last year. I'm going to try to do much better this year. Already have one finished in 2017! So I'm off to a good start. I think I left the other book I was working on at a friend's house; which is too far to go visit again anytime soon....so I'll just have to pick one of my other 500 books I'm planning on reading.

Beate wrote: "Nyssa wrote: "Brandy wrote: "Beate wrote: "My 2016 count would have been triple if I could add books I've re-read. I know you can add the same book multiple times by various formats, but I'm a litt..."

Just a suggestion: You can make private notes under the edit selection in "Mybooks". There is a place for you to say how many times you have read the book, and right below that is a box for you to type your private notes in. You could use that space to put the dates you read the book if you want to keep up with each time. As stated above just a suggestion and one you may have noticed for yourself.

Also check out message 48 by:Cheryl. She also has a good way of navigating around the re-read books.

Happy Reading!

problem z dodawaniem przeczytanych książek do rankingu. zaznaczam (oceniam) książkę jako przeczytaną a mimo to nie pojawia się ona na liście przeczytanych w 2017. założyłam podobnie jak w zeszłym roku 130 w 2016 udało się przekroczyć ten próg do 172
:)

Perfect Job.

To all the well-meaning suggestions, I've tried all that.

The whole point is, I like to have the correct version of the book marked as read (i.e. Kindle, pocket, etc), I like to have all my widgets marked as complete for all the correct years. So when I re-read, I simply do not add that book to my challenge as it would mess up a previous year. To me, that is a big deal.

As for record keeping, I've been on here for 10 years, and I have complete records of all my reads, re-reads, re-re-reads and so on on my computer, with backups. Privately I have complete control of what I've read, how many times I've read a book, when I started the book, when I finished the book, the works. I have a system that works for me.

I would just like the widgets here on GR to reflect that I've set goals for myself, and I've managed to reach those goals. That's what they are, MY goals. And I like to display the widgets. The biggest plus would be if I could display all my re-reads correctly as well. As for record keeping, I've got that covered, it's here on Goodreads things are a mess, or rather, lacking in correct information. When you've been on here for 10 years, actively using the website for 10 years - these things do matter to some of us.

Beate wrote: "To all the well-meaning suggestions, I've tried all that.

The whole point is, I like to have the correct version of the book marked as read (i.e. Kindle, pocket, etc), I like to have all my widget..."

I respect that. As long as you know what works for you then keep doing what you do. And hopefully one day GR will work on perfecting their widgets.

Happy Reading!

I began a challenge of 50 books for 2017, but only see one listed that I already read. I have 2 more listed I want to read, and another that is not available on Kindle for another month. The one book I read is mixed at the top of my 2016 challenge. Is goodreads going to begin pages for 2017? I decided my challenge days ago, and today is January 6, 2017, and my 2017 books are in the same list as my 2016 books. I did put the 2017 date.

IAmBroke wrote: "I know I will get a lot of hate for this but it's all up to y'all people.

I don't think the reading challenge is worth it. It puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on people to finish books or skim t..."

IAmBroke wrote: "I know I will get a lot of hate for this but it's all up to y'all people.

I don't think the reading challenge is worth it. It puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on people to finish books or skim t..."

I agree wholeheartedly. Reading shouldn't be about competition, and measuring how much of it can be done. To me that adds stress to what should simply be a great escape. I've never understood people being judged by how many books they've read.

These reading challenges aren't about stress. Everyone who reads, reads to escape. Regardless. Or we wouldn't be reading. Just because we like something little extra to go with our love for reading does not make you a better person.

And no one here is judging except those of you who think you're better than those of us who simply like to make our reading a little bit something more. Get off your high horse and accept that we all are different.

The one thing that brings us together, is books. I love that we're all different with different approaches to books, that's what makes a community like Goodreads so unique. Trouble starts when someone thinks they're better than everyone else. There is no right or wrong in how we read books.

If you feel that Goodreads stresses you out, there is one easy solution to your plight; stop using Goodreads. And certainly don't butt in if that too stresses you out.

What reading should or shouldn't be is entirely individual, do not come on here and judge us just because we don't think like you.

Beate wrote: "These reading challenges aren't about stress. Everyone who reads, reads to escape. Regardless. Or we wouldn't be reading. Just because we like something little extra to go with our love for reading..."

Amen! I wholeheartedly agree, Beate!

Some people just don't understand, that if they don't like the reading challenge, they don't have to use it. I'm pretty sure the few people who have commented here aren't the only ones who don't consider the challenge a some sort of competition.

It's been repeated over and over again in this thread, but once more: setting a reading goal does not mean you're just skimming the books. I've never enjoyed books more than during the time I've been in Goodreads. I have only an average reading speed, but I have plenty of time to read, and the reading challenge is a great way to get me out of my ass, away from doing something less than productive, and read books.

If that's a problem... Well, tough. I don't really care. If you don't like something, don't participate, and don't make assumptions about those who like to do things differently (aka who aren't you).