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Group Challenges
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Self Challenges:- Elle for 2014
55 BooksIn 2013 I read 56 books which included quite a lot of shorts. This year I am making a goal of 55 with the hope of reading a few more shorts and some more longer books.
3/55
The Song of the Sword and Other Verses
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
Books that seriously need read this year
also known as my most expensive books
12000 pagesIn 2013 I did a poor job of reaching my pages goal although I skimmed it near the end. This year I am wanting to go beyond it and read a lot more longer books in between the shorts I love so much.
708/12000
ShortcutLast year I read 17 books that fell into the boundaries of the challenge 'shortcut'. I had my original challenge at ten which I smashed even before half the year had passed.
This year I am aiming for 20!
1/20
The Song of the Sword and Other Verses
Serial EyesLast year I had a challenge for 20 which I failed to meet so I am lowering it to 15.
1/15
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
Another ChanceLast year I had a challenge for 3 specific books that I had started but abandoned. The idea was to just give them another chance - not necessarily make yourself miserable to finish them. I ended up finishing one so I am having the remaining two for 2014.
Reality CheckI smashed my target for 2013 for this too so I'm raising it to 7. This challenge is to read non-fiction books which for me generally are history related dipper books or general history non-fiction.
0/7
Home AloneThe idea of this challenge is simple: read books that you already own! I take this to mean older books that have been sitting on my virtual shelves for some time. In 2013 I said that meant any book bought before the year started and in 2014 I am keeping the same dates - anything in 2012 and before counts for this challenge. (I still have a pile of old books!) I made this challenge practically my entire books of the year in 2013 but have decided to lower it incase I want to read library books.
1/35
The Song of the Sword and Other Verses
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
GoodReads AuthorizationRead books by authors that are authorised by Goodreads. I found that in 2013 I didn't actually even need to try to beat this challenge so this year I put it up a little in hopes I might need to make an effort to read more indies.
0/20
ClassicsYou know I hate classics. I wanted to read five in 2013 and only managed (barely) 2. In 2014 I want to do 2 again (keeping it easy) but hope to read more.
0/2
Shelving UnitThis particular challenge is broad and asks you to read books of a certain shelf. I decided to use this challenge to tackle some long unfinished dipper books which have been on the go for months.
1/5
The Song of the Sword and Other Verses
DoorstopsIn 2013 I failed to read one doorstop (a book over 500 pages) so it makes sense that I'll try to read 2 in 2014 (not). I actually specifically choose two because two of the books I definitely want to read this year are over 500 pages.
0/2
Graphic NovelsI had some fun finding graphic novels again in 2013 and want to read 10 of them in 2014.
0/10
MoviesThis one might shock you but before you freak out you might be interested in the rules of this challenge. I get paid to watch on average 4 movies a week and a lot of the time that is the same movie over and over and over and over again (My record this year was EIGHT) so this challenge is not for unique movies but for the amount of times I sit down to watch any film - simple. Due to the amount of work in updating the film bit last year I am simply going to put the movies with links in the comments and list them here without hyperlinks.
81/250
I think it's just best you just view my imdb
TVI am challenging myself to watch 70 TV episodes this year. Doesn't seem like a lot to some but I don't watch a lot of TV. I might put this up later in the year as I have some programmes I do watch religiously and I have a feeling they probably equal 70 alone and I am looking to catch up on all series' I keep meaning to watch... Much like the movies challenge, I'll be listing the TV shows in the comments with links and listing them here without.
86/100
Bones
Castle
Elementary
NCIS
NCIS: LA
Criminal Minds
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Sherlock
Big Fat Gypsy Wedding
Law and Order: SVU
The Mentalist
Well done Elle!I hope it all goes well!
I'm going to have to think of some more challenges for next year!!!
Phew. Okay I've finished typing them all out now xD
I usually just pick a number (175 this year, beat it a few days ago) and go for that many books. How do you account the number of pages challenge?
i just realised i have written 1.2k instead of 12k LOLi just wanted to hit over 10k this year for the first time and since i want to read longer books next year but same amount i figured i could hit 12k
i use the stats on goodreads or amazon to add up the pages i read and also compare to stats bit in my GR challenge to keep myself right. if the book doesn't have a page count (which is rarely for the ones i read) i estimate with locations compared to similar length book - i generally underestimate just incase - or i just ignore the book in my page total xD
Hehe, it took me 2 minutes to calculate I have read over 30k pages this year.You can export your library to a spreadsheet and one of the columns is number of pages.
About 40 of the books didn't have page numbers, so I'd have to look them up individually.
i always make sure my book has page numbers when i add it to my read shelf since i know im doing the challenge. if it hasnt got them on GR but does on amazon, i'll edit the book to make sure its fixed xD
Wow - you're going to be busy, Elle!
I can't think of any new challenges this year but would like to carry on with last year's challenge as I didn't do very well at it.
I can't think of any new challenges this year but would like to carry on with last year's challenge as I didn't do very well at it.
Good luck, might pinch some of them. I am still finalizing my 2014 challenges
I figured I'd do it when I had time - Sunday nights are always a little boring!
Joo The Grand Inquisitor wrote: "I usually just pick a number (175 this year, beat it a few days ago) and go for that many books. How do you account the number of pages challenge?"I've just found a stats page that tells you how many pages you have read. In 2012 I read 23,880, this year have only managed 9809!!
Where's the stats page Desley?
If you are in your challenge you can go into 'view your stats' which is just under the bar
I did it by going on the my books tab at the top, and near the bottom of the left hand side is stats, you can look by publication date too
im spending some time tonight picking out books i really really want to finally read in 2014. making a serious effort to get to them
Elle wrote: "im spending some time tonight picking out books i really really want to finally read in 2014. making a serious effort to get to them"Yay! for Elle!
I'm terrible, I very rarely have a backlog for long; I buy the books and just can't seem to sleep until I've read them all!!!
Bad DeeDee!
D.D. wrote: "Elle wrote: "im spending some time tonight picking out books i really really want to finally read in 2014. making a serious effort to get to them"Yay! for Elle!
I'm terrible, I very rarely have ..."
Lucky DD!!! I picked up over 400 freebies last year, plus ones I paid for. AT 40 books a year, that's a lot of reading!!
I'm not quite sure if it's lucky...It generally means that I'm sleep deprived!!! I love it when holidays come around, I can normally do a book a day then!!!
D.D. wrote: "I'm not quite sure if it's lucky...It generally means that I'm sleep deprived!!! I love it when holidays come around, I can normally do a book a day then!!!"
i'm sleep deprived most of the time anyway!! i can do a book a day when I set myself to it, but oddly, I tend to feel guilty.
That's why I wait for holidays, I'm a pretty quick reader so I go through books quickly. It used to drive my mum nutty when I was little. The reading bug is in my family, I have two (much) younger cousins and they are hyper quick readers. When I finished Broken Truce and gave it to my cousin Bobby, he finished the book in four hours flat! Now he's pestering me for then next one...
D.D. wrote: "That's why I wait for holidays, I'm a pretty quick reader so I go through books quickly. It used to drive my mum nutty when I was little. The reading bug is in my family, I have two (much) younger ..."My grandparents were avid readers, my grandad always had two books, one at home, one in the car. My mum did when she was younger, then moved onto magazines. My bro got back into it recently, but is a fairly slow reader. I used to have to go to the school library every day, as they would only let you have two books at a time. In fact, I was a member of 3 libraries at one point. It's always drove my mum nutty too!!
Oops! Have we derailed your thread horribly???Bad DeeDee!
haha no i like this conversation.i always read when i was younger but i was never an avid reader until i hit my late teens.
my parents dont read much, neither does my brother, but they generally always have a book on the go. my late grandmother was an avid reader though and bought me books all the time as a kid. i remember one year she bough me heidi and i spend all christmas ignoring everyone as i read it.
im aslo a quick reader.
im jealous of you too DDDDDDD!!! i wish i had no backlog!!!
Elle wrote: "haha no i like this conversation.i always read when i was younger but i was never an avid reader until i hit my late teens.
my parents dont read much, neither does my brother, but they generally..."
*Evil Grin*
I started to hit my reading stride at about 11, my sister reads my books (She says they're the only interesting books out there! Lol! I have trained her well!!!) but the mostly reads music books!
My mum likes to read, but she takes AGES! She says it makes her so relaxed she ends up falling asleep after a page or two! She has yet to finish any of my books!!!
My aunts are all keen readers and I have converted them to kindle, along with my Nana! ;-P
A *LOT* of my friends read as well!
Glad we didn't annoy you Elle.I used to get loads of books or tokens for presents, as I generally had to rely on second hand or library books. Very few of my friends read, I do miss having conversations with my neighbor over books, and swapping books. :(
Ahem.I think you've got a few thousand friends who are avid readers, Desley.
:D
Ooooo Desley!Sorry, Peanut. Hope you don't mind me posting this here. :)
Desley, have you read Dolan's Cadillac?
Stephen King at his best. Ramping up the tension. Brilliant characterisation.
He makes me disappear into the tale. Magic.
Sorry, i meant outside this group.
Desley (Cat fosterer) wrote: "Sorry, i meant outside this group."Lol
Of course. :P
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Books mentioned in this topic
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (other topics)The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (other topics)
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (other topics)
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (other topics)
The Song Of The Sword And Other Verses (other topics)
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In 2013 I learnt some valuable lessons. Some of my challenges I smashed half way through the year and others I blatantly ignored. This year I want to complete every challenge so I put up the ones I smashed and lowered the ones I failed. I'm not picking specific books for my challenges this year (apart from one challenge) and I'm also adding in a proper screen challenge.
Happy reading/watching.
Formatting is working a little different this year;
- no trackers (they are so bloody annoying to work/update)
- each book read or movie/tv episode watched will get a new comment with a mini-review
- each book read for a challenge will be listed under that specific thread
Please note: I get most of my challenges from a goodreads group known as 'Challenge Yourself' which can be found here