Goodreads Yearly Challenge

[Aglaea]

I was just looking at the stats for 2015 and they are interesting:

1719746 participants (!!!)
94563039 books pledged
27682336 books finished
54 average books pledged
10948 challenges completed (!!!)

I pledged 60 this year and have read 81 so far. Think I'll put 100 in 2016, because I went months this year without reading.

How about you?

[Zaz]

Currently at 208 "books" (counting short stories, graphic novels and several picture books) and around 49000 pages. I'll probably tackle around 5 other books before the end of the year. My challenge was at 136 (first at 68).

Just to compare, my 2014 stats were 55 "books" & 14500 pages.

For 2016, it will be around 200, but I haven't decided the exact number yet :)

[Aglaea]

Impressive, Zaz!

Since I breezed past my number, I threw in some cookbooks, too, although Larousse I'm actually reading cover to cover.

This year I've read a few novellas and short stories, so I'm not too strict with the definition of 'book', as long as it is finished. I'm the queen of leaving things halfway *blushes violently*

Last year I put 40, since I hadn't read for pleasure in a long time. This year I figured something like a book a week should be doable, but I've surpassed all my exprctations! I'm just so happy to be reading again.

As for the stats in OP, I found it curious how few have finished by now!

[Lieke]

I pledged 40 books this year since I didn't read a lot the last two years. But I almost read 80 books, only one left. I probably will finish two more books this year :)

Well done Aglaea and Zaz!
I wonder if people just forget about their challenge, or put in a to ambitious goal.

[Krissy]

I set mine too 600 but I've surpassed that and I'm at 888 total so far.

[[deleted user]]

Krissy wrote: "I set mine too 600 but I've surpassed that and I'm at 888 total so far."

Oh.My.Goodness. I think I just fell out of my chair lol.

My 2015 goal was 52 books and I'm currently at 112 read, and will probably read 3-4 more before the end of the year. I should have set my goal higher, but at the beginning of this year I was still in a semi-reading hiatus (from last year), and didn't really get back into things until July. From January to the beginning of July I read 21 books, and since July 16 I've read 91 books :)

[Nicole]

My goal was 12 books, but I've read 15 (technically 13 since 2 of them were rereads of Harry Potter). I'm currently reading two books right now (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Hopper's Destiny).

I would have put a higher goal but I was in law school (graduated in May and took the bar at the end of July!), so for the majority of the year I had no free time to read anything for pleasure. I read about 4 books from January-August, and the other 11 books from August-now.

My goal for next year is 20!

[Aglaea]

Whoa, 888?!? That is something else, well done, Krissy.

Lieke, I like the feeling what happens once you hit your target. All pressure is off, you feel accomplishment and can see where you end up. The trick is to find a high enough number, suitable to lifestyle and time available, without it becoming a stressor.

Nicole, I've only heard of the bar on tv, since we don't have anything similar here, but from what I understabnd it can be an ordeal. Congrats on graduating and passing! For what it's worth, I read no fiction during my studies, because I didn't want to look at another book.

If you look at books read versus challenges finished, it seems like many have read huge amounts without maybe finishing the challenge itself. And the average is a book a week, so there can't be many with super high numbers either. I just love the fact that GR alone has read close to 3 million books.

[Michelle]

I went with 60 books this year and I'm very close to hitting that. I also went four months without picking up a book this year due to personal stuff so I think I could have really knocked that out of the park if I had been able to stay consistent with my reading. Next year, I'm going to try and double that with 120 books.

[Aglaea]

Emm the Elf wrote: "I went with 60 books this year and I'm very close to hitting that. I also went four months without picking up a book this year due to personal stuff so I think I could have really knocked that out ..."

Gutsy :) I'm increasing from 60 to 100 only, right behind you in other words.

[Marta]

I didn't start reading much until June, when I saw that I was reading a lot during the summer I pledged 50... increased it to 60 in October... I am at 81 now, so I think I am going with 100 for next year, I want to keep up my pace but not overschedule.

[Sophie]

I started this year with 52 books pledged, but updated it to 70 along the way. Right now I'm at 75 and I'm going to try and reach 80.

Next year is another story, as I know I'm going to have less time to read... I don't take the train to work anymore (the car is good for audiobooks, but books are read quicker than listened to!) and with almost 2 hours a day it allowed me to read a lot. I think I'm going to set my goal at 80 though to really try and read more at home.

[Jody]

I started the year with 52 (last year I read 50, and it was the first year that I've read anything since 2009), but I've now read 138. That number includes new picture books that I read to my daughter, but not the ones already marked as read. I'm sitting at 29,400 pages, but if I counted all of those, it would probably be double!

Next year, I'm setting my goal to 100. I have four challenges planned, but not sure how many I'll get through, and I have a whole bunch of hefty tomes on our AtY challenge. I'm trying not to be too concerned about quantity of books read next year, but more focused on pages & ticking books of my TBR list.

[Amanda]

I set my goal at 12 books and I'm just about to finish my 17th book. I hope to get to 19 or 20 before the end of the year. I will be setting my 2016 goal at 52 and praying I can actually complete it. I've tried to read a book a week for the past month since I found this challenge as sort of a trial and it usually takes me 8 days to read a novel of 350-400 pages.

[Michelle]

Amanda, we're here for support! You can do it! :)

[Pam]

My goal was 20, set based on my reading habits in 2014. I'm at 70 today! Goal is 75 for 2016.

[[deleted user]]

Pam wrote: "My goal was 20, set based on my reading habits in 2014. I'm at 70 today! Goal is 75 for 2016."

Great jump this year!

[Raeann]

This year my initial goal was set at 50, but then I started compensating for all the children's books I was reading and set my goal at 79. (I forget why it ended up at such an unpleasant number. There was a reason at the time, but that was in April or some other long ago month.) Without counting picture books, I've read 74 books this year. So I still need five more!

Next year, I'm setting my goal at 117. That's our challenge + popsugar + read harder. I may round up to 120 just so it's an even number, but we'll see...

[Amanda]

Emm the Elf wrote: "Amanda, we're here for support! You can do it! :)"

Thanks Emm! This group has been so great and supportive. I can't wait to start the challenge.

[Aglaea]

So, it is orange this time! Did you pledge yet? I did! Totally excited! :D

[Zaz]

216 for me :D (finished 2015 with 222, I've OCD with numbers :p).

[Sophie]

I pledged 80! In 2015 I read 82, but I won't have the same amount of time to read this year, so it is going to be a challenge, as it should be ;)

[Jody]

I've gone with 75 this year, up from 52 last year. It's still way lower than my total reads from 2015, but I don't like to jinx myself just in case I hit a reading slump this year.

[Michelle]

120 is the goal this year. Fingers crossed!

[Marina]

My goal in 2015 was 50 books, but I ended up reading 109 books and a little over 36400 pages. My goal for 2016 is 100 books. I know I have a busy year ahead of my, so it'll be a challenge.

Good luck to all of you :-)

[Katy]

70 books for me, even though I read 88 in 2015. I know this year I plan to read some whoppers (1200+ pages) and I want to give them the attention they deserve without feeling rushed. I only can manage reading around 100 pages a day and that works for me.

[Pam]

I was going to set my goal for 75 but decided to be more ambitious and go for 100! I will need to add some audiobooks though.

[Adam]

I've set mine to 100. That seems to be my average each year.

[Krissy]

I'm starting my goal this year at 500. That may get higher later in the year. We'll see.

[Aglaea]

Pam wrote: "I was going to set my goal for 75 but decided to be more ambitious and go for 100! I will need to add some audiobooks though."

Exactly! I started listening to an audiobook yesterday during my walk and it worked very well. I just stopped it when I got home, and will continue in a bit when I head out again. If I get anxious to finish it sooner, I might put it on when doing dishes or other housework. I've done the latter with quite a few TEDtalks and podcasts, also during commutes.

[Sophie]

I love listening to an audiobook while doing housework, time passes so much quicker and my hands just work as my mind is somewhere else.

[Jody]

I've only recently jumped on the audiobook bandwagon & am glad I finally did! Loving listening to LotR while I iron. No, really.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

I set my goal at 75 but I would really love to get to 100. Last year I set it at 100 but I had to decrease it halfway through the year and I only made it to 86. I'd much rather surpass an initial goal than have to decrease it again.

[Anne]

This year i set it at 80, i'll read 30 books for this challenge since last year i managed to read only that much and i expect to read 5 more from my to read list. The rest will be comics as i started to get interested in them recently. I'm trying to read classic french comics and US ones and sometimes i just pick randomly a comic book in my library. I hope to read more novels but I don't know how the year will unfold.

[Sophie]

Which classic french comics are you interested in? I read a lot as a kid and would like to dive in them again. Sadly I gave them all to my cousin long ago...

[Fatemeh]

I set my challenge on 300. It kinda scares me to read so many books but that's why it's called a challenge, right?
I'm really aiming on reducing that ever-growing TBR list.

[Anne]

Sophie wrote: "Which classic french comics are you interested in? I read a lot as a kid and would like to dive in them again. Sadly I gave them all to my cousin long ago..."

I started Thorgal which is surprisingly great both story wise and the drawings too. I'll let my friend help me read more comics from Belgium and France and my big brother reads a lot of those too so i'll dive in his library when i visit him.

[Sophie]

I actually never read Thorgal, I read more "simple" less graphic things like Astérix or Tintin. But with what I'm starting to like in graphic novels, I'm sure I would appreciate Thorgal! My uncle was a big comic books fan, I'm going to ask him tomorrow if he can lend me some.