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Personal Reading Goals - 2016
Update on goals as of July 31 (Full updates in post #2):1. Read at least 120 books. (Update -77 of 120 as of 7/31/16)
2. Complete both the challenge and sub-challenge for all four seasons in the Reading With Style Challenge.- Winter & Spring seasons completed and 25 books of 30 read for the Summer challenge.
3. Complete the Year in 52 Books challenge. (Update- completed 38 of 52 as of 6/30/16).
4. Complete the A to Z challenge using the initials of novel authors.
Pre-2006 books (Fiction): 21 of 26
Post-2006 books (Fiction): 4 of 26
Non-Fiction books: 10 of 26
5. Complete the A to Z Book Title challenge.
20/26
6a. Pop-Sugar
29/40 tasks completed
6b. Rejected categories for the Year in 52 books challenge- 30 (see post #48)
7. "Read as many books published in different years from 1900 to 2016, minimum of 60." 41 of (60 for the year) and (116-total) as of 6/30/16.
8. Reading Map - Read a book corresponding to 26 places using the alphabet using the same rules for Q and X as for authors.
15/26
9. Bookcrossing 666 challenge-
27 of 36
10. Read at least 20 more books on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List
16/20
I still have one outstanding goal: to reduce my TBR (books I own and have not read) below 200 and keep it there.It's crept down from 209 at the end of June, to 207 at the end of July ... which obviously is a net effect, and does not mean I have only read two books in the month, as non-book-lovers might think - you will all know better ;-)
I know exactly what you mean, Rosemary. I posted a month ago that my same goal was at 200/200 and I was celebrating! I'm still at 200/200. ;-)Well done everyone who is working toward goals and being as successful as is in their power!
I read 4 books off my TBR list in two months
I read some and add more. Plus there are the library books .... which do not go on my TBR, or not for long.
My update comments: A lot of my goals were centered around completing old challenges and finishing new challenges for other groups to which I belong. I had hoped to complete four 2016 annual challenges this summer, so that I could focus on finishing up other old challenges by year's end. But, I got sidetracked by two groups doing BINGO (!) and family health issues, so I did not make as much headway as I had hoped.
Out of 81 books to read for old challenges, I am down to 46. For new challenges (78 books), I completed one challenge (18 books) and have 12 left for the other three challenges. You'd think that 58 books would be easy to complete before year's end...but, I am not really sure I can do it. I seem to be bogging down on my reading.
I noticed I haven't updated in a while...I don't usually write down reading goals, so it's interesting to see my progress. Despite not really doing well when it comes to the RwS tasks this season, it really has helped with some goals!
So, as of today:
1. 77/100
2. This is one of the goals that this season helped with. I chose 4 non-fiction for the 15s. So I am at 8 non-fiction. So I can call this goal complete, since I was only aiming for 4 in the whole year.
3. I've done 17/26 for the A-Z classics challenge. I feel like I slacked a little here, so hopefully next season's RwS will help push me along.
4. This is also complete - the goal was read 20 books (previously unread) from my personal book shelves + use for RwS challenges. At the end of May I had 18/20. This season I gained 8 more! So, I would say this goal is also complete at 26/20.
5. previously completed
6. previously completed
Since goals 1 + 3 are ones I've achieved in previous years they don't seem as exciting as goal 4. I rearranged our fiction bookshelves this past week and now really want to get to even more of the unread books. I suspect that most of them will not be 'keepers', so it's probably just an excuse to clear room for new books! ;)
Update on goals as of September 1 (Full updates in post #2):1. Read at least 120 books. (Update -84 of 120 as of 9/1/16)
2. Complete both the challenge and sub-challenge for all four seasons in the Reading With Style Challenge.- Winter, Spring & Summer seasons completed.
3. Complete the Year in 52 Books challenge. (Update- completed 40 of 52 as of 9/1/16).
4. Complete the A to Z challenge using the initials of novel authors.
Pre-2006 books (Fiction): 23 of 26
Post-2006 books (Fiction): 4 of 26
Non-Fiction books: 10 of 26
5. Complete the A to Z Book Title challenge.
21/26
6a. Pop-Sugar
29/40 tasks completed
6b. Rejected categories for the Year in 52 books challenge- 35 (see post #48)
7. "Read as many books published in different years from 1900 to 2016, minimum of 60." 46 of (60 for the year) and (116-total) as of 6/30/16.
8. Reading Map - Read a book corresponding to 26 places using the alphabet using the same rules for Q and X as for authors.
18/26
9. Bookcrossing 666 challenge-
27 of 36
10. Read at least 20 more books on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List
17/20
I am struggling with this. I am so third at night that I am only getting 20 pages read, and even then I am falling asleep over them :(1) To get up to 200 books read from the combined 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list 171/200 This goal is going quite well, and I am pretty confident that I can get it finished.
2) Read 50% of texts by women out of total reads. 39/90 I didn't read a lot of women last season, and I don't think I have a lot of women to go this season. Will have to try to find some way to fix this. I'm not too far behind, so should be able to catch up.
3) Complete either both RWS and sub challenge each season OR finish RWS challenge twice (preferably both!) 0/4 I managed a RWS finish last season. That's the closest I have got yet, but I am very confident about Fall :)
4) Read 4 stories each month from The New Yorker ( I think that is the limit that you can access for free). 11/48 ( 3 stories have disappeared off GR, so my totals on GR are not adding up!) My spreadsheet is still on the old computer, but this hasn't changed. This probably means my total above and below should be increased by 3, but I'll wait until I can confirm
5) Read 200 texts for 2016. 90/200 I am very behind on this. Fall looks very busy with books, and I think I can catch up a little, but I don't think I will make this one
6) Read globally, with representation from all continents and regions, trying to read from at least 70 different countries / states from this list :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... 14/70 I really need to update my spreadsheet for this one.I don't think I have added any of the Summer reads to it. I don't think I added much to this last season, but this season I definitely will have a few new additions.
7) Read as many books published in different years from 1900 to 2016, minimum of 60. 53/117 This one should be fairly easy to exceed the minimum. I think I should be able to get it over 70 by years end. One 12 years left to cover between 1975-2016, so I need to work on the earlier years. I think I have lots of older books scheduled for this season.
Ed wrote: "Update on goals as of September 1 (Full updates in post #2):1. Read at least 120 books. (Update -84 of 120 as of 9/1/16)
2. Complete both the challenge and sub-challenge for all four seasons in t..."
You are doing so well Ed, I wish I was as dedicated!
Amanda wrote: "You are doing so well Ed, I wish I was as dedicated! "I was thinking the same thing!
I am not doing at all well with my personal goal to get my To-Be-Continued shelf down from 63 to 50. So far I haven't got it down any lower than 57 before I read the first book in a new series that I want to continue, or find a series that should have had a book on that shelf and didn't. I am going to have to really concentrate on those old series for the rest of the year.
Rosemary wrote: "I still have one outstanding goal: to reduce my TBR (books I own and have not read) below 200 and keep it there.It's crept down from 209 at the end of June, to 207 at the end of July ... which ob..."
I'm down to 199 as of this moment! Yay!
Now just to make sure I read a few more before I let any more books in the house, so it stays there ...
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Amanda wrote: "You are doing so well Ed, I wish I was as dedicated! "I was thinking the same thing!"
Thanks.....being retired makes it easier..... of course, I'm living a nearly sedentary lifestyle which isn't good for other reasons.
Five of my original seven goals are measurable (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...). Of those:1. I have read 43 of the 81 books I had identified.
2. I have read 196 books out of the yearly goal of 250. (This goal has been reset once so far this year.)
5. I have nearly finished this goal. I am down to 3 books left on 2 lists.
6. Old challenges: I have 3 challenges/27 books to go.
7. New challenges: I am still working to complete 3 challenges/10 books. One challenge of 2 books is in progress, although it might take a while as one of the books is over 1000 pages!
Of all these goals, some overlap. #1 includes #6 and one of the books from #5 is in the count for #1.
I am not doing to well with Trollope and Balzac. 4/10 and 2/5 respectively. I might get 2 more Trollope in before year's end, but at present, I have no plans for any more Balzac.My on hand unread books goal is a pure winner. I went to the library book sale and picked up 7 titles, and I have indulged myself with the Kindle and made a couple of more purchases, but I'm at 198 today, so ahead of the 200 goal.
For the women, it's a mixed result. I'm at 21/30 for total books by women and 21/25 for different women. I feel fairly confident of making the 25 different, but I think at this point it's unlikely I'll make the 30 total. Still, I'm pleased to go beyond what I read last year.
I have been seriously distracted byLaura Ingalls Wilder this season, which is great for women reads, but not for 1001 reads ...
Update on goals as of Dec. 1 (Full updates in post #2). I plan on a very active reading season in December to meet as many of the remaining challenges as possible...but I think it's doable:1. Read at least 120 books. (Update -113 of 120 as of 12/1/16)
✔2. Completed both the challenge and sub-challenge for all four seasons in the Reading With Style Challenge
3. Complete the Year in 52 Books challenge. (Update- completed 45 of 52 as of 12/1/16).
4. Complete the A to Z challenge using the initials of novel authors.
✔Pre-2006 books (Fiction): 26 of 26
Post-2006 books (Fiction): 8 of 26
Non-Fiction books: 12 of 26
5. Complete the A to Z Book Title challenge.
23/26
6a. Pop-Sugar
35/40 tasks completed
6b. Rejected categories for the Year in 52 books challenge- 35 (see post #48)
✔7. "Read as many books published in different years from 1900 to 2016, minimum of 60." 63 of (60 for the year) and (116-total) as of 12/30/16.
8. Reading Map - Read a book corresponding to 26 places using the alphabet using the same rules for Q and X as for authors.
20/26
9. Bookcrossing 666 challenge-
28 of 36
✔10. Read at least 20 more books on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List
32/20
6. Read at least 30 women authors, which includes at least 25 different authors. [30/30; 29/25]
My last book for the Fall challenge got this one completed!
Well done Elizabeth!Ed, good luck with your super-active reading plan for December!
Yippee! I managed to finish the year with only 197 on hand but unread books when my goal was 200 or fewer. I'm currently reading a book I expect to finish on Jan 1st, so this is my ending tally.
LOL beat you Elizabeth, I am at 195 :)I have been lower than that, but Christmas books have pushed me up again.
I have finally achieved my goal but it was a lot harder than I expected. There were so many books I kept finding that should have been on the shelf but weren't. I only achieved my target by pruning the shelf of series that I didn't really want to continue and totally banning reading the first book of a new series until I reached that magic figure of 50. Now I can read some of those books that I have put off for the last few months.
Rosemary wrote: "LOL beat you Elizabeth, I am at 195 :)I have been lower than that, but Christmas books have pushed me up again."
Well done! It was so hard to deny myself, but I knew how I'd feel if that number were even just 201!
Coralie wrote: "Now I can read some of those books that I have put off for the last few months. "
Go for it, Coralie!
I did relatively well. Of 7 goals, I completed 4. Of the three I did not complete: goal 1 - read 63/81 books; goal 5 - completed 7/8 lists for 25/26 books; and goal 6 - completed 1/3 old games with 5 books to go.
So far I read 61 out of the 90 books I set for myself. I can probably finish another book before January 1.
I have failed miserably, which is why I am not setting any goals for 2017. I have never been good at setting realistic goals, but I am going to try something different in my own life. Have set up a journal for my daughter for January, and am working on setting up my own. Need to get the bones finished by the time I head out for NYE / my sister's 40th party tomorrow night!
My goals are complete for the year - yay! 1. 135/100 (although I may finish another book in the next 2 days!)
2. previously completed
3. Finished the A-Z classics challenge, with The Jungle which nicely fit in the 2016/17 task for this season! To be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to finish the book in time. It is justifiably a classic (and worth reading), but it is unrelenting.
4. previously completed
5. previously completed
6. previously completed
My sympathies for that, Amanda. I made 2 goals, but that's just half, and I think the two not made might have been more important to me. I was envious that you could even consider the Mega Finishes. I have thought about a goal of 750 points each season, but as that would almost always be out of my reach, it's only wishful thinking.Nice job, Valerie!
My yearly reading goal is always the same--to read a book a week. Usually I read more; by tomorrow it will be nearly 130, but I'll post that once I see what I finish between now and then. But a book a week is realistic, although one year I had a huge reading slump and barely made it.
You must be a fast reader karin. The most I read in a year is 92. So far this year is 61.
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "You must be a fast reader karin. The most I read in a year is 92. So far this year is 61."It depends. But I have reading friends who read 20 books and more per year! Also, some of my reads are done on audiobooks while I am driving :).
A book a week is 52 books a year. I reached that goal. My goal was 100 books a year. I came close with 92. I adjusted it for 90 but I am not going to reach that.
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "A book a week is 52 books a year. I reached that goal. My goal was 100 books a year. I came close with 92. I adjusted it for 90 but I am not going to reach that."That's still good reading. I remember years when I hardly read anything that I wasn't reading aloud to my children. Now I get a lot of waiting time, although that will end in about a year and a half when my baby goes to university/music conservatory.
Karin wrote: "That's still good reading. I remember years when I hardly read anything that I wasn't reading aloud to my children. Now I get a lot of waiting time, although that will end in about a year and a half when my baby goes to university/music conservatory. "After I finished university (BA, with major in Literature) I didn't read a book for 3 years, I just couldn't face them, then along came parenthood and I stopped reading again. It took me awhile to get back into it, but I started with a few YA series and worked my way up.
I hate days when I don't get to read, and I hate that the last month or two has seen me falling asleep as soon as I pick up a book. But, I am on leave at the moment, one more week to go, and I am feeling a lot more refreshed and relaxed, so things should pick up soon ( onceI have finished the Large Print book I am reading - the ONLY copy of the book I could get. I hate Large Print, slows me down considerably because the pages are so ugly.)
I like large print. I am visually impaired so it helps me when the print is bigger.
I read 290 books in 2016 -----My 2017 goal is to read less!
That means:
Read my big books.
Focus on RwS and don't obsess over lots of challenges - just enjoy!
Don't obsess on the quantity and speed of getting through books.
Read books I own and use the library.
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "I like large print. I am visually impaired so it helps me when the print is bigger."I just find that there is less gap in the page, no space between the paragraphs like you would normally find, so the words are forcing themselves on you more than giving you a space to move on to the next part. Visual I find it quite relentless, and therefor challenging.
Karen Michele wrote: "I read 290 books in 2016 -----My 2017 goal is to read less!
That means:
Read my big books.
Focus on RwS and don't obsess over lots of challenges - just enjoy!
Don't obsess on the quantity and s..."
We have a 2017 goal thread!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Karen Michele wrote: "I read 290 books in 2016 -----My 2017 goal is to read less!
That means:
Read my big books.
Focus on RwS and don't obsess over lots of challenges - just enjoy!
Don't obsess..."
I'll put it over there - thanks!
Amanda wrote: "Karin wrote: "After I finished university (BA, with major in Literature) I didn't read a book for 3 years, I just couldn't face them, then along came parenthood and I stopped reading again. It took me awhile to get back into it, but I started with a few YA series and worked my way up. .."With that major, I can see why you might need a break! I wish my eldest had done a minor in Lit since she is amazing at it, but she hates analyzing it with a passion. Did you end up teaching Lit or anything?
Amanda wrote: "Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "I like large print. I am visually impaired so it helps me when the print is bigger."I just find that there is less gap in the page, no space between the paragraphs like you would normally find, so the words are forcing themselves on you more than giving you a space to move on to the next part. Visual I find it quite relentless, and therefor challenging."
But Large Print books are intended for people with certain visual impairments. Those people don't have so many options, because the number of Large Print books is tiny compared with regular print. Those of us who find regular print books easier are lucky, because we have a lot more options. We can surely allow Large Print books to exist without complaining about them?
Rosemary wrote: "But Large Print books are intended for people with certain visual impairments. Those people don't have so many options, because the number of Large Print books is tiny compared with regular print. Those of us who find regular print books easier are lucky, because we have a lot more options. We can surely allow Large Print books to exist without complaining about them?.."I agree. After all, even those of us who can read regular print books now might someday be limited to large print ourselves. And even if we never get there, they do fill a need!
Update to close out the year...completed all the goals I set! Yay!(Full update in post #2)
✔1. Read at least 120 books. (Update -138 of 120 as of 12/31/16)
✔2. Completed both the challenge and sub-challenge for all four seasons in the Reading With Style Challenge
✔3. Complete the Year in 52 Books challenge. (Update- completed 52 of 52 as of 12/31/16).
✔4. Complete the A to Z challenge using the initials of novel authors.
✔Pre-2006 books (Fiction): 26 of 26
Post-2006 books (Fiction): 12 of 26
Non-Fiction books: 12 of 26
(I tracked these last two but never expected to meet those challenges.)
✔5. Complete the A to Z Book Title challenge.
26/26
✔6.. Pop-Sugar
40/40 tasks completed
6b. Rejected categories for the Year in 52 books challenge- 35 (see post #48)
✔7. "Read as many books published in different years from 1900 to 2016, minimum of 60."
73 of (60 for the year) and (116-total) as of 12/31/16.
✔8. Reading Map - Read a book corresponding to 26 places using the alphabet using the same rules for Q and X as for authors.
26/26
✔9. Bookcrossing 666 challenge-
36 of 36
✔10. Read at least 20 more books on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List
39/20
Ed has an amazing ability to do a LOT of reading! Very impressive.
Thanks! Reading is my primary retirement "activity". The secret to my numbers is that I listen to a lot of books in my car too.
Reading with Style
Books mentioned in this topic
The Jungle (other topics)A Writer's House in Wales (other topics)
The Hairdresser of Harare (other topics)
Slaughterhouse-Five (other topics)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (other topics)Benjamin Franklin (other topics)
Yuri Herrera (other topics)
Edgar Allan Poe (other topics)
Christopher Isherwood (other topics)
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1. Read at least 120 books. (Update -61 of 120 as of 6/30/16)
2. Complete both the challenge and sub-challenge for all four seasons in the Reading With Style Challenge.- Winter & Spring seasons completed and 10 books of 30 read for the Summer challenge.
3. Complete the Year in 52 Books challenge. (Update- completed 33 of 52 as of 6/30/16).
4. Complete the A to Z challenge using the initials of novel authors.
Pre-2006 books (Fiction): 20 of 26
Post-2006 books (Fiction): 4 of 26
Non-Fiction books: 8 of 26
5. Complete the A to Z Book Title challenge.
18/26
6a. Pop-Sugar
26/40 tasks completed
6b. Rejected categories for the Year in 52 books challenge- 26 (see post #48)
7. "Read as many books published in different years from 1900 to 2016, minimum of 60." 33 of (60 for the year) and (116-total) as of 6/30/16.
8. Reading Map - Read a book corresponding to 26 places using the alphabet using the same rules for Q and X as for authors.
15/26
9. Bookcrossing 666 challenge-
25 of 36
10. Read at least 20 more books on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List
11/20