Help! Goodreads' Reading Challenge is making me read shorter books.

[S.]

I have a habit of picking up monstrously-sized books to read, well they might be average for some of you out there, and I've noticed that subconsciously (well maybe not entirely) I've been picking up shorter books ever since I've been setting my yearly reading goal on Goodreads. Just curious if anyone out there is doing the same?

[G.G.]

I did too. I wished they went by pages read instead. ;)

[G.G.]

Actually, I still read what I want but I wasn't reading short stories much before and now I,m thinking, why the hell not. It helps catching up on the book count when I'm slower. ;)

[Cathy]

Hi everybody. Hey, if you're intentionally looking for shorter reads, you could take a look and see if this might interest you:

https://www.amazon.com/Meeting-Mustan...

I guess you could say it's sort of retro, since I started writing it decades ago, lol. It's kind of for kids, but not really. It's one of those weird ones that don't really fit neatly into any one category.

Thanks for looking and good luck with your challenges!

[Devorah]

S. wrote: "I have a habit of picking up monstrously-sized books to read, well they might be average for some of you out there, and I've noticed that subconsciously (well maybe not entirely) I've been picking ..."

Not only am I reading them, I'm writing them. I have several Short Reads:
Lady Blackwing, Murder by the Book, and One Bad Apple
It's really quite satisfying to get a story finished in less than twelve months.
Perhaps short stories and novellas will see a resurgence in popularity since readers are so busy.

[Michael]

I think reading short stories and novellas is great if you love them. I could see how you could get more bang for the buck, more variety, diversity, etc. However, if you're reading short stories just to fulfill a goal, but you prefer to read longer-form fiction (like myself), then how is the goal supposed to help? Instead, why not set the goal based on what you want to read? Set a plan based on your "Want to Read" list and work on that instead. For example, you could say, "I have X books at the top of my "Want to Read" list that I will read this year.

[S.]

Michael wrote: "I think reading short stories and novellas is great if you love them. I could see how you could get more bang for the buck, more variety, diversity, etc. However, if you're reading short stories ju..."

To be honest, there's a huge list on my mind, mostly classics which tend to be on the long side. In order to offset it, I've dropped down my goal from 50 books to 30. I think it's working. I'd like to see Goodreads set a new goal system based on pages, maybe. Anyway, that's not the main driver behind my reading, just a place to track stuff and get that extra motivation to persevere when I pick up a book I'm not too fond of.

[Sharon]

Michael wrote: "I think reading short stories and novellas is great if you love them. I could see how you could get more bang for the buck, more variety, diversity, etc. However, if you're reading short stories ju..."

This is the question I had as well. If you prefer huge books, drop your goal to one that is more realistic.