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Reading Goals/Challenge for 2013?
This year was the final year of my nursing degree, so I only set my goal at 12. My 2011 goal was 20. I somehow deleted the logo from my feed, but somewhere on goodreads it still tells me I met my target. I figured even though I managed last year with my study load, this was a bigger year, and so I set a lower targer. As it turns out less reading happened, and I'm still 4 books off my target with 2 weeks to go.I'm giving it a good shot though, so here's hoping. Next year, now that I won't have to bury my head in a text book, I am going to up my goal. I don't know how shift work is going to affect me long term, so I think I will probably set my goal at 20. Not very big, but hopefully achievable while I settle into my career change.
This year I read 45, which was in my range of 3-4 books a month. I'll stick to that as well as:1. Read or return any books that don't belong to me.
2. Read more female authors.
3. Finish the Malazan series (on book 3)
4. Read all the books for my local sci fi - fantasy book club.
5. Read more non-genre books (last year my reading was over 90% genre)
Im new to goodreads and the reading challenge so my stats this year were mostly guesswork. I hope to read 30 or more books next year. I've not challenged myself before, it seems like a good starting point.
I read this year 100 books, so I'm thinking that I will keep it same next year. I also try to read all the books I have bought but not gotten around reading them and I will try to read the Wheel of Time-series.
This year I planned to read 12 books by authors I'd never checked out before. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but now the year's almost up and I've only read 11 of them (Just started Tad William's Otherland, yet my total for the year just hit 35. I think the main reason it ended up being so tricky was that I ended up being introduced to too many new authors who I really liked, then ended up trying to follow up other books in the series. It ended up feeling more like a chore to move on to the next book when all I wanted to do was keep on reading more of the Dresden Files...This year I've gone for a much smaller list of 6 books which I've chosen for different reasons than to introduce myself to a new author. Sure the number seems low, but there doesn't seem much point in setting yourself a reading target if you're not going up enjoying the stories you read along the way.
I just recently discovered Sword and Laser, so my 2013 reading challenge will be to read the previous S&L book picks while keeping up with the current ones. Plus my regular authors new releases, new author recommendations, books given to me by my friends, my 2 other book club picks, books my family gives me..... my challenge will be to not lose my job :-)
I'm going to stay at 60 in 2013. That was my goal for 2012 and I surpassed it. If it wasn't for a semester of grad school I would have read way more. Since I'm continuing my program next year I know I won't have as much time to read. I'm also going to challenge myself to read the books I own and to finish up some of my series.
Been wrote: "This year I planned to read 12 books by authors I'd never checked out before. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but now the year's almost up and I've only read 11 of them (Just started Tad Will..."That's a nice goal, very nice idea,
Ny goal this year was 75, I hit 50 I September, but started my studies in October so I knew I wouldn't get it, I decided to try for 55 instead and I think I'll manage. Next year I think I'll try 50 books, but studying kind of steals time and stuff. On the other hand, I'm usually able to read a lot during the summer. Decisions decisions...
My usual goal is 52 books in a year. In past years I've reached it fairly easily. This year I'm right down to the wire to get the last few books I need to meet my goal.
My reading goal for 2013 is to re-read all of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen Series, re-read the entirety of Robert Jordan's (and now Brandon Sanderson's) Wheel of Time, and then to get my to-read pile of 40 fantasy tomes under control. I usual manage in excess of 80 books a year because of my job, so I like setting series goals rather than total number of book goals.
I haven't thought about how much I want to read next year, I've read more then my set goal this year, which I made higher at a few times through out the year. I do know that I would like to start to read the Forgotten Realms books, I've only read the one, Darkwalker on Moonshae
Mod
You may wish to join us: GR Group: Malazan Fallen
I'm going to have to think this over. I have a tendancy to set unrealistic goals.
Well now that I think about it, I guess my goal should be to reduce my to read list by as much as possible. I've got there several years of reading material and it's not getting smaller.On the other hand I could go read all the past sword and laser picks. In any case I will probably increase my goal from 1 book every 7 days, to 1 book every 6 or 5.
One idea I have is to take my to-read list and start reading from shortest books, that way I can get those out of the way and reduce the list faster than otherwise possible.
My goal is simple, read as much as I can. No set number.It's been several years since I've been able to really read and I'm hoping to purchase an e-reader here shortly. Had a kindle keyboard in my possession for a few days and to my surprise, fell in love with it. Was pissed when we had to return it.
A specific goal though might be this. Read the entire Wheel Of Time series. I got through about 1/3 of the first book a couple years ago and hope to complete the series this upcoming year. Wish me luck.
On a side not, dear god people. 50, 60, 85 books!?! How in the hell do you find the time?
I'll stick to the same book total goal as this year which was 100. I'll most likely be reading the S&L picks that I've not read before. I don't do rereads. I'll also be reading along with my other book clubs.For one of my clubs we're doing reading challenges as well by genre. We have 3 levels of challenge - 36, 24 and 12 books. Each book must be from a different genre. The club founder created the genre lists for each level, you decide the books. You can read the books at any time next year and in any order. I think it's a really interesting way of doing a challenge as it's forcing me to look outside my usual genres and try something different.
I also want to make dent in my to read shelf for 2013. I just can't pass up purchasing more!
I just got back into seriously reading books this summer (July-ish) and joined GoodReads at the same time, so I set myself a simple target of 12 books this year, 10 of which I completed between July and August, so I think next year I'll crank it up a notch and set myself a goal of 24.I'd love to be able to do the goal of reading all the S&L books but first I need money to purchase all of those books.
Ricky wrote: "On a side not, dear god people. 50, 60, 85 books!?! How in the hell do you find the time?"It all depends how/what you consume. I went for 40 books in 2012. I'm at 44. A majority of them were graphic novels as well as some techie books. I've read some big stuff as well as easy/short page turners. Also I've gotten back into audiobooks so I do that when I commute. So at any one time I'm reading 2 books at a time. December I cranked thru a lot especially as things slowed down for me dramatically and I could read more.
Ever since I started keeping track of what I read, I've had the arbitrary goal of 50 books a year (except that first one when I set a goal of 100, which I met and surpassed by 7). Now, I haven't always met that 50 book goal. This year included, only getting to the 28 mark. As for 2013 goals, I always say I want to lessen the amount of books in my TBR (and already purchased) pile, but for the past 18 months most (almost all) of the books I've read have come from the library. Thereby defeating that goal completely.
By the way, that TBR (and already purchased) pile is 70 books high. It used to be ever-growing, but I pretty much stopped going to the used book store earlier this year with the sole purpose of cutting that number down to a more manageable size before going back.
I have started at least 10 books over the past three weeks, so it looks my 2013 goal will be front-loaded as I finish them during the first couple weeks of January. That's not something which usually happens, so it may skew my statistics slightly. (It'll certainly make it seem as if I'm reading at a blazing clip!)
I am going to try to read 52 books next year. Hopefully balanced between the book picks (2-4 each month) and other books I wish to read.
My goal is just to find and discover more new authors to read.
Ricky wrote: "On a side not, dear god people. 50, 60, 85 books!?! How in the hell do you find the time? "Heh, mainly by A) Always having something on me to read, be that a physical book, my phone or a tablet/ereader, and B) by using the bus to get to & from work (easily an hour minimum of reading time)...
I had given up on The Wheel of Time after Path of Daggers, but with the buzz (mostly from this group) about the finale I might just try to tackle the entire series again in 2013. On top of my normal goal for the year...
"On a side not, dear god people. 50, 60, 85 books!?! How in the hell do you find the time?"If it wasn't for my Xbox, I would have read more than the 47 books I've read so far this year.
Rejo wrote: "I had given up on The Wheel of Time after Path of Daggers, but with the buzz (mostly from this group) about the finale I might just try to tackle the entire series again in 2013. On top of my norma..."
Just skip 8-10 and you'll be alright.
Just skip 8-10 and you'll be alright.
Ricky wrote: "On a side not, dear god people. 50, 60, 85 books!?! How in the hell do you find the time?"Just did a count. Of the 54 I'm ending the year with, 6 were graphic novels or collections of comic books/strips. 4 were individual issues of a comic mini series.
On the other hand, it counted the first 5 books of the John Carter series as one book since I marked that I read a collection. The Goodreads counting system can be gamed a little bit in my opinion.
I'm going to give having a reading goal a try this upcoming new year! Sword and Laser has really helped me to get back into loving books, but i think i will go for a conservative number. I'll start with 30 books then see where i end up. But there are so many books i want to read i'll probably surpass this early on.
Ala wrote: "Just skip 8-10 and you'll be alright."Oh. Not a rousing endorsement! Good thing that'll probably cut around 2500 pages from the series, at least.
I've never really thought of setting reading goals, at least in terms of numbers. I have a full time job, 2 young boys and other interests (T.V., games, music) so I read when I can. I have been working on a reading list that was printed in Inquest Magazine 15 years ago (alternating with other books) and I think I'll finally be finished that this year. After that I was thinking of starting on the Sword and Laser book picks that I haven't already read.
Rejo wrote: "Ala wrote: "Just skip 8-10 and you'll be alright."
Oh. Not a rousing endorsement! Good thing that'll probably cut around 2500 pages from the series, at least."
Some say you should read them all to get the full weight of the series.
I say, save yourself some soul crushing pain and just read wiki summaries of those three books.
Oh. Not a rousing endorsement! Good thing that'll probably cut around 2500 pages from the series, at least."
Some say you should read them all to get the full weight of the series.
I say, save yourself some soul crushing pain and just read wiki summaries of those three books.
Mod
I kind of like soul crushing pain. 8/9 aren't too bad. 10 is though. I do vaguely remember it getting good at the very end building momentum for 11, but it's been awhile.
I'm for some soul-crushing pain, too. But is the pain something the characters go through? Or will I go through it reading a tedious book?
Mod
Both.
I've set goals of 20 and 25 for the last 2 years and read 39 and 40. I should shoot for 40 next year.Statistics from this year's chalenge:
304,715 Participants
17,910,210 Total Books Pledged
58 Average Books Per Challenge
10,418 Challenges Completed
Just 3.42% of participants completed the challenge. An average of 58 books per challenge might be part of the reason, seems high for an average but maybe that's just me.
I completed my goal of 20 books this year so next year I'm going for 40 but at the game time I really want to cut down on my to-read list as it's crazy long. I have books sticking out of every nook and cranny.
Don wrote: "I've set goals of 20 and 25 for the last 2 years and read 39 and 40. I should shoot for 40 next year.Statistics from this year's chalenge:
304,715 Participants
17,910,210 Total Books Pledged
58 A..."
Thanks for the status. The status for last year was higher, but the average books per challenge, which was about 65 books.
Matty wrote: "I completed my goal of 20 books this year so next year I'm going for 40 but at the game time I really want to cut down on my to-read list as it's crazy long. I have books sticking out of every nook..."I would have thought more than 4% would have complete about a book a week. If users are on this site, they should be committed on finishing/reaching their reading goals.
Rejo, try this...Any time Perrin starts whining/pining for Faile, skip ahead 20 pages.
If a female character clutches her skirt, tugs her braid, or makes tea, take a shot of something for the pain.
If there is a scene with a combination of those three, increase your shot intake accordingly.
If Mat shows up, settle in for the best smart mouthed scoundrel in literature.
I love Sanderson more than just about any author going, but the first time I read Nynaeve tugging her braid I yelled out "no" loud enough to make a toddler in a tantrum proud of me!
Laurel wrote: "If a female character clutches her skirt, tugs her braid, or makes tea, take a shot of something for the pain.
If there is a scene with a combination of those three, increase your shot intake accordingly."
That's a recipe for alcohol poisoning right there
If there is a scene with a combination of those three, increase your shot intake accordingly."
That's a recipe for alcohol poisoning right there
Skip 20 pages!?! I'll speed through the books that way! And I can't take up drinking again, so can I just replace shots with heroin?
There aren't enough needles in the world...Skip ahead 5 pages instead?! Between the Aes Sedai and Perrin you'll fly through those books!
Or get books 8-10 in audio, you'll fly through them that way.That was how I got through them the first time. I actually haven't tried re-reading those except in audiobook; maybe when I do my WoT re-read, I'll try print again.
Also back on topic, I'm surprised I did 52 this year (actually a couple more). I'm a relatively slow reader and read some THICK books.I did sacrifice former TV and video game time to do it. I think in 2013, I'd like to play maybe a little more of the games, but still read about as much. Reading before bed should help that.
The Sword and Laser
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I'll try to read at least 5 classics and at least 10 books that I already own but haven't read yet. Gotta get through that backlog...