Reading Goals for 2014

[Cliff]

Jennifer wrote: "I'm going big this year… with 100. But in all fairness, a lot of those will be middle-grade books. I tend to pre-read a lot of what my kids read. Just to make sure it's age appropriate and I lik..."

I do the same thing. Trying to pre-read books for my kids so I can make intelligent recommendations for them.

But I think for my own reading goal, I tend to start low, at around 30 books. But I have every intention of upping that number to around 50. I've typically adjusted my GoodReads number once I've achieved my initial goal.

[Viola]

I don't set reading goals but I strive to surpass the previous year. So for 2014 I have to read closer to 40 books. Right now I'm on 36 books for this year and unless I suddenly forget how to read I might end up with 37 read books, granted a fair amount of read books are audiobooks.

Will try to buy less books next year.

[Rynn]

More reading is a MUST this year. I've been insanely lax since high school (almost 9 years!) but this year I'll set the scales for 25 books. It makes me so happy and thank god for the club. Gives me a place to actually discuss and get new ideas!

[Alexander]

I'm going to go big this year and aim for 24 books. Two a month seems like it should be doable provide I can find the time.

[Phil On The Hill]

Ben wrote: "My main aim for 2014 is to have a lot of fun reading and pick some books that I will just get a lot of pleasure out of reading..."

I think this is a good call. My TBR pile has too many good books I am saving......i need to get on and enjoy them.

Harry Christmas and A good book reading new year to all.

[Magda]

few months ago I've gathered all my unread paper books to one pile (a really big pile) and now I intend to read at least 24 of these
add to that some ebooks and audiobooks and I'll probably go for, let's say 52 books for a good start

[Robert]

My reading goals for 2014 are:

- Read the S&L picks for each month.
- Read books from my A-Z Reading Challenge list for this year.
- Finish off The Wheel of Time series. (I've read 1-4 so far)

So, that's 48 books right there. I'll probably also be reading rulebooks for whichever pen and paper RPGs I'm running as a one-shot each month, but those don't really count, do they? ^_^;

[Oblomov]

I have For a variety of reasons been very slack in my reading this year. Goal for this year is 26 books which should be possible. Yet to decide if this will include audiobooks.

[Seawood]

I'm done - 150/150. Ta-dah :D And no, none of you should feel bad about how many you read - I have loads of time because I read exceedingly quickly, listen whilst I do chores and don't work full-time. If I did no doubt I'd have far less time. I'm enjoying it now before I have to go back to a real job!

Is there no way to set more granular targets on Goodreads? I'd really like to enforce getting through my to-read pile, or sort it by fic/non-fic, paperback/Kindle, that sort of thing. I get seduced far too easily by 99p sales.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Seawood wrote: "Is there no way to set more granular targets on Goodreads? I'd really like to enforce getting through my to-read pile, or sort it by fic/non-fic, paperback/Kindle, that sort of thing. I get seduced far too easily by 99p sales. ."

The only way I know is if a moderator in a group sets up a challenge, then you select a shelf to associate with a challenge. The general goodreads one is automatically associated with books read, and I don't see a way to change it. You might be able to find a group with a goal that you can track.

Or you could start a blog. Or use those free Internet trackers that people use for babies and weight loss, and change your status with an update. We'll cheer you on!

[Virginia]

My goal is always up around 100 because I read so many graphic novels. Of paperback/hardback book-books (non graphic novels), I want to get at least 75.

As another goal, I want to read more non-fiction. I love S&L, but I also want to read more histories and science texts.

[Noah]

I think I'm going to add another goal: finish completed series that I've started.

[Joanna Chaplin]

I probably read an average of a book a week, so my goals are elss about how much to read an more about what. I'm planning to read with the club and also start working on the backlist of books S&L has read. As I read them, it's fun to find the wrap up in the archive and just listen to the part about the book.

[Viola]

Pammie wrote: "So I guess my goal would be to keep up all that stuff, and as for a number....well maybe I'll pick my age. ..."

Now there is an idea. It would mean a decress in books I would have to read in 2014, but that might be a good thing.

[Bill]

I'll probably keep my goal at 100 next year, but focus more on my growing stack of unreads. This was also a terrible year for me of non-fiction reading, so I'll beef that up too.
So:
24 S&L club picks (12 for 2014 and 12 from before I started reading along)
6 picks from another club
20 non-fiction books TBD
25 books from the TBR pile
25 TBD of any stripe

[Carolina]

This year I achieved my goal of 42 books...I actually managed to finish 67 books, a personal record. So next year I'm thinking I will try to do 50. I still don't know which books I will read, but I would like to read more non-fiction and at the same time read more of the books I already have (this year was mostly books from the library!). I will participate in several challenges during 2014, including the Read-a-Thon and the Prequel/Sequel challenge.
Happy new year to everyone! :)

[Molly]

I think I'm going to bump my goal up from 50 to 75 this year. I graduated college this summer with a history degree and have been shocked at how many books I can devour when I'm not buried in reading and writing assignments. I've actually taken a good chunk out of my purchased-but-unread pile this month. Hoping to keep it up!

[AndrewP]

I just went over my 2013 reading stats and my total of 73 breaks down as following:

Physical books - 31
eBooks - 19
Audio Books - 23

My audio books, and total, were a bit inflated this year due to listening to several short books. Edgar Rice Burroughs Pelicidar and Caspak books, Picture of Dorian Grey, A Christmas Carol etc. Next year I don't plan on listening to so many of those so I think my total will drop for 2014.

So I am going for 52 books in 2014 to hopefully include:
1) Finishing off at least one series.
2) Read at least half the S&L picks (this year I did ten off the S&L bookshelf but only 3 as read-alongs).
3) Read some more from the PBS 100 Greatest SF&Fantasy list.
4) Get to another couple of those doorstops I have sitting around, Shōgunand some Peter F Hamilton for example.
5) Read more of my physical books and get rid of anything that isn't exceptional, free up some shelf space:)

[Andrew]

No numeric goal for 2014. My goals for 2014 are;

- return to reading books rather than listing to the majority as audiobooks.
- Revisit my backlog (a common issue it seems), but not to feel guilty if I don't
- diversity - new authors, from different countries etc.

2014 for me is all about enjoying reading without lists, commitments and guilt :)

[Adam]

I am shooting for 37 (I start grad school this month) plus the book club books.

[Paul]

I'm shooting for 60. Read 99 in 2013 (missed my goal by 1 book!). Think this is going to be a busy year for me and 60 seems like a goal i can achieve.

[Sandi]

My goal for 2013 was 120 books. I finished 132. I set my 2014 goal at 100 because I have a lot of doorstops in my backlog.

[Trike]

I'm aiming for 52 again this year.

More importantly: two titles from each letter of the alphabet. I can never quite hit that goal. (Although this year I'm starting off with a pair of U titles near the top of the heap.)

Also doing the TBR Challenge where I only read from my to-read pile until April 1st. Since I added about 20 new books over the holidays to the Stack That Nearly Killed Me (see photo in profile), I will have plenty to read.

[Jerry]

After being glued to Sword and Laser a few years back, I got distracted and didn't follow it very well. That lead to me reading about 5 books total in the last 3 years,

I have decided to read 52 books this year, a book a week essentially to kickstart my brain. I am just about done with book #2!

[Kurt]

I will be going for 30 this year. I'll start with a manageable number and increase as I go.

[kvon]

I'm going to set my goal at sixty this year, but I'm going to count my lemmings, as I want to make a dent in my TBR pile by getting through at least 50 pages (with the A to Z author thing going). 'A' seems like a dud so far, so this may work well. I'll also keep trying to get my real life and S&L book club to overlap ;)

Series books I'm looking forward to getting this year include from Moon, Brust, Hodgell, Pratchett, and Aaronovitch, plus some standalones to check out from Jo Walton and Karen Lord.

[Harm]

1) Feel good about whatever I read
2) Enjoy the time of computers/gadgets or online fora
3) One a months, which I like, i.e. not the Sword & Laser picks (when not made into a movie or TV series yet)
4) Read swedish books
5) Read hardover books

[Sara]

My goal for the year is to read 120 books I've never read before. I topped out last year with 140 books total and most of those were new to me, so, so I think it's do-able. I need to spend less time screwing around on the internet to get that done, but then, I need to spend less time screwing around on the internet in general, so it works out. ^.^

[Christopher]

I've actually decided not to set a goal this year. I will be tracking my tally but more out of interest and for future reference than to meet some challenge I make to myself.

[Bawa]

I wish I could read a lot of books but really, my reading is basically done when commuting on my phone or kindle as I've started another graduation course (yay me! I guess...) and have a full time job.
I've never really joined any book clubs so I might as well give it a try here at S&L. Let's see how I fare.

I must say it is really inspiring to see people reading more than 3 books a month! I don't know if I have to speed up my reading or dedicate more time to it so achieve such numbers but I'm prone to work on reaching that goal!

Keep these stakes high, people!

[Joanna Chaplin]

After checking my Amazon Kindle history for 2013, it looks like I read at least 160 books that year. I'm already one of the most voracious readers I know, so I'm not going to worry about increasing the number of books read in a year. What I am going to try to do is read through the entirety of the Sword and Laser book list backlog and then listen to the wrap-ups. Of course, if I'm working from oldest to newest, that means the next one I need to read is Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, which I'm a little leery of.

[Jenelle]

With two young children, and lots of writing/editing on my plate in 2014, I'm actually dropping my reading "goal" from 30 to 20. But I don't count any of the hundreds of books I read out loud to my kids in that... it'd be way too many to keep track of!

[Jonathon]

I set my challenge for 50 books, but this year I'm trying to keep track of more of what I read so I'm trying to log the comics and graphic novels I read too (I only count the trade paperbacks of monthly comics, otherwise I'd have hundreds). So, I may have to up my number, probably closer to the 100 region... maybe.

I've hit my target of 50 last year and the year before, it seems like a good number for actual novel-length books for me. But, I do read a lot of comics, and I normally end up adding them at the end of a year in a Christmas week mad rush of trying to remember what I've read since the January. So, this year's something of a tester year for me, trying to keep an accurate log of what I'm reading so that I can set myself more realistic challenges that incorporate everything I read.