2013 Goodreads Challenge

[Marisa, Cozy Mysteries Assistant Moderator]

Congrats, Leslie!

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

As of today...


"You have read 79 books toward your goal of 100 books. Great work, you're 7 books (6%) ahead of schedule."

Book number 80 (Oliver Twist for a group read) is probably going to take me the rest of this week.

[Linda]

I have officially met my challenge and am at 53 of 50 (106%). Just going to let it ride for now...

[Melanie]

I've met my challenge. Debating on whether to update my challenge to a higher number?

"Congrats! You have completed your goal of reading 80 books for the 2013 Reading Challenge! 84 of 80 (105%)"

[Leslie]

Thanks everyone :) and congratulations to Linda and Melanie!

@Heather - I really like Oliver Twist! Hope you are enjoying it too :)

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Thanks, Leslie. I started it last night, but only got up to chapter five. Not much happening as yet. I never realized how long the novel actually is -- longer than A Tale of Two Cities, which I loved.

[Sharon]

I met my challenge of 75 books for 2013! Since there are still a couple months left, I've upped it to 100. So far I'm ahead; we'll see if I keep it up :)

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Way to go, Sharon! ☺

[Laura]

Whoo hoo!

[Suzy]

I hit my target of 50 books yesterday and have upped it 100 only started my challenge a few months ago, but I read every night to my two year old daughter plus for myself, and my 2 boys read a lot, especially the oldest who is a total book worm, hes 12 now but at the age of 9 read Eragon with no help at all!

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Congrats on meeting your initial goal, Suzy -- here's to making the amended goal as well! ☺

[Leslie]

Congrats to Sharon & Suzy!

[Lynn]

Hit my target of 48 books this morning. I am very surprised. Most years I really struggle to get 48 books read and this year I'm there with three months to spare. I'm not upping my goal but I'm going to continue reading just to see how far I can go this year.

[❂ Murder by Death]

Congrats to Sharon, Suzy and Lynn and Linda and Melanie. Seems we've all had an excellent reading year! :)

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Congrats on meeting your goal, Lynn!

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

End of October check-in...

I am currently 87/100, four books ahead. Can't believe we're down to the last two months of 2013 already. This year has flown by fast!

[Melodie]

125/130!

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Melodie! Wow, look at you go! ☺

[Mary (Biblophile)]

I finished my goal of 275 the other day. Made it lower than last year so I wouldn't feel so pressured.

Congrats to those who've made it so far.

[Moonlight]

I met my goal of 80 books last week. My goal was down from my 103 last year. At the end of last year, when I was looking over the list of books I read, I found I couldn't remember what many of them were about. So I decided it was time to slow it down a little and add those history and nature books I love so much. Nature books in particular are meant to be savored. You read a chapter or two and you want to think ...... or take a walk in the woods. :)

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Nature books in particular are meant to be savored. You read a chapter or two and you want to think ...... or take a walk in the woods.

I don't read much nonfiction, but know what you mean. I started reading A Sand County Almanac last fall, and am still working on it. I try to work a few of the essays in here and there between other books.

[Karen M]

So close, so close and less than two full months to go! LOL So glad I didn't try to match last year, I'd be in panic mode right now.

You have read 117 books toward your goal of 125 books.
117 of 125 (94%)
Great work, you're 12 books (9%) ahead of schedule.

[Leslie aka StoreyBook Reviews]

I had set my goal at 125 and then increased it to 140 and to date have read nearly 160 books.

[Leslie]

Biblophile wrote: "I finished my goal of 275 the other day. Made it lower than last year so I wouldn't feel so pressured.

Congrats to those who've made it so far."

I second those congratulations to everyone who has reached their goal, including you Bibliophile!

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Way to go, Leslie! You make me feel like a slacker. ;)

[Linda]

Currently at 69 of 50 (138%). I think the new goal is to get as close to 200% as I can.

[Leslie aka StoreyBook Reviews]

Heather L wrote: "Way to go, Leslie! You make me feel like a slacker. ;)"

If I didn't have a book review blog I'm not sure if I would have read that many so far this year! :)

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Go Linda! ☺

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

You have read 93 books toward your goal of 100 books. Great work, you're 1 book (1%) ahead of schedule.


S i g h . . .

Reading A Journey to the Center of the Earth in November destroyed my comfortable four-book lead. This morning I was two books ahead; tonight, only one book. THIS is why I am not participating in the December classic reading of Don Quixote. Pretty sure it would take the entire month, what with everything else going on right now.

Seven books -- well, six and three-quarters -- to go. I exceeded my goal the last three years, don't know if I'll be able to meet it this year or not. Time to raid Mount TBR for a few nice, short books I think. :-\

[Marisa, Cozy Mysteries Assistant Moderator]

Heather, if you're able to read Don Quixote, I take my hat off, I've never been able to read it.

And about my challenge, I've already finished it and I'm not going to increase my goal, I think I'm well as I am.

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Hey, Marisa!

Congrats on finishing your challenge. I wish I was done already!

If it were any other month, I might consider joining the group read for Don Quixote, but there's too much going on in December. Not only am I struggling to meet this year's GR goal, I'm running out of time to finish Christmas gifts. :-\

I'm waffling over whether to attempt the winter quarterly read (Dec-Feb) for the same group, which is War and Peace. It's almost as long as DQ, but at least we have a couple months to work through that one. I read Anna Karenina last year and liked it, so . . .who knows. We'll see how January shapes up.

[Melodie]

My count is 135/130! Finished about mid-November. Everything is just gravy now!

[Linda]

I'm at 78/50 or 158% - love being this far ahead!
Kind of makes me want to lowball next years estimate so I can finish early.

[Leslie]

Heather L wrote: "You have read 93 books toward your goal of 100 books. Great work, you're 1 book (1%) ahead of schedule.


S i g h . . .

Reading A Journey to the Center of the Earth in November des..."

Wow, I would never try to read a tome like Don Quixote during Dec. -- too much going on! But I am thinking about it for Jan. if you are still interested then...

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Congrats on finishing, Melodie and Linda!

Leslie ~ I'll have to think about it. If I decide to do War and Peace, I probably won't want to tackle another big book that month, but we'll see. I know a lot of people say DQ reads fast, but one person's idea of "fast" and mine might not be the same.

[Leslie]

Heather L wrote: "Congrats on finishing, Melodie and Linda!

Leslie ~ I'll have to think about it. If I decide to do War and Peace, I probably won't want to tackle another big book that month, but we'll see. I know ..."

Understandable.

[Karen M]

I'm 122/125 and I know which three books I'm reading next. I knew I wouldn't get near last year's 147. So glad I chose 125 as my goal.

[Marisa, Cozy Mysteries Assistant Moderator]

Heather L wrote: "If it were any other month, I might consider joining the group read for Don Quixote, but there's too much going on in December. Not only am I struggling to meet this year's GR goal, I'm running out of time to finish Christmas gifts. :-\

I'm waffling over whether to attempt the winter quarterly read (Dec-Feb) for the same group, which is War and Peace. It's almost as long as DQ, but at least we have a couple months to work through that one. I read Anna Karenina last year and liked it, so . . .who knows. We'll see how January shapes up.
"

I say again: Bravo! But, yes, this time of the year is usually a busy one.

[Naomi]

My goal was to hit 100 this year, and I'm currently on my 121st book and still have several I want to finish before the year's out.

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Way to go, Naomi! ☺

[Kimmie]

I am at 98 of my 100 goal. I have some books I want to reread so I think I may set a lower goal for 2014. I think rereading a book should count...don't you.

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Go Kimmie go! ☺ ☺ ☺

[❂ Murder by Death]

Kimmie wrote: "I am at 98 of my 100 goal. I have some books I want to reread so I think I may set a lower goal for 2014. I think rereading a book should count...don't you."

Oh yes! A lot of us have been after GR for years to add a re-reading function to the site that would allow us to track re-read dates that could count towards challenges.

[Leslie]

Kimmie wrote: "I am at 98 of my 100 goal. I have some books I want to reread so I think I may set a lower goal for 2014. I think rereading a book should count...don't you."

I definitely count rereads! I use the most recent dates and put older dates (if known) in the private info box - not that I care if it is private or not but it is just convenient...

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

I've never had any problem getting a reread to count towards my goal -- but maybe the fact that I add it to the current year's shelf helps?

[❂ Murder by Death]

They'll count towards your current-year goal if you change the date read, but it also removes the book from your previous years challenges. It's quite a headache for a lot of readers who achieve their yearly reading goals by a small margin - a few re-reads and they find they've lost a previous years badge.

[Kimmie]

❂ Jennifer (reviews on BookLikes) wrote: "They'll count towards your current-year goal if you change the date read, but it also removes the book from your previous years challenges. It's quite a headache for a lot of readers who achieve t..."

Hmm, I don't want them to be removed from the previous year's challenge. I will probably just lower my goal for 2014. I love Goodreads but this is frustrating.

Thanks for the congrats. I am sure many others are approaching this year's goal. It is such an achievement.

[Linda]

I don't usually reread books (too many out there that I still haven't read) but reread an entire series earlier this year. About half the books had the date that I previously read it attached with it here on Goodreads and I really disliked that I couldn't keep the original date and the date I read this year. I switched all dates to this year cause I figured out quick that's what I needed to do to get them to count in this years total. Hopefully they'll come up with a solution to this by the time I'm doing a reread of Sue Grafton's alphabet series when Z is for ... comes out.

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

❂ Jennifer (reviews on BookLikes) wrote: "They'll count towards your current-year goal if you change the date read, but it also removes the book from your previous years challenges. It's quite a headache for a lot of readers who achieve t..."

That would be frustrating. The few rereads I've done have been from either childhood or high school, so it hasn't negatively affected my yearly challenges.

Now, what will affect my total is that it does not count 2-in-1 anthologies as separate books. I don't mean a collection of novellas, but two complete books packaged together. I have one in Mount TBR I was thinking of reading towards other challenges, but it only lists the books together, not individually, and I still need four more books for this year. Sigh...I think this one might have to wait for next year.

[Lynn]

Heather L wrote: "Now, what will affect my total is that it does not count 2-in-1 anthologies as separate books. I don't mean a collection of novellas, but two complete books packaged together. I have one in Mount TBR I was thinking of reading towards other challenges, but it only lists the books together, not individually, and I still need four more books for this year. Sigh...I think this one might have to wait for next year."

I had that issue this year, when I read a 3-in-1 omnibus edition. I just listed the 3 books separately with dates read but did not put a read date on the omnibus edition. It's not a great fix but it worked for this year's reading goal.

But because I use Goodreads mainly as a catalogue of my library rather than to track my reading, I'll probably delete the 3 separate editions and out the date on the omnibus edition next year. I keep track of my annual reading in a paper journal so even if I delete books/reread them here, I know it won't really affect my annual reads.