Lesson learned after completing the 2017 Reading Challenge

[Meg]

Now that the 2017 Reading Challenge is done, what did you get out of it? Any lessons learned? Will you do it again this upcoming year?

Best book?
Book you didn't enjoy?

I really loved doing the challenge, because it had me reading stuff I would never have picked up (and I read a wide range of stuff), but I probably won't do it this year as strictly because I have so many books on my shelf that I ignored and my TRB list just keeps growing.
Lesson: the reading challenge is what you make of it. If the book doesn't fit the topic to a t, it is your decision if you will include it. I know this is silly, but I went into this trying to fit each topic perfectly. I changed my rules a bit and became more flexible as the year passed. For example--- I read a book that was 751 pages for the 800 page book challenge and decided it counted because the book was in French--- and some editions had it longer/shorter.

Best Book: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Book I Didn't Enjoy: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (to the point that I gave up after 100 pages) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1. I am glad to have read/tried each....
In the end I was quite impressed I actually finished....and with only 2 days to spare.

What did you think? None of my friends did this challenge and I would love to discuss with someone and hear about some fun books you discovered while completing the challenge.

[Caitlin, mostly absent but fairly enthusiastic mod]

I love this topic, Meg! I am a terrible Pop Sugar challenge user in that of all my book goals for the year this is my least important so I've never actually completed it!

Finding a way to fit the books I'm reading anyway into the challenge is interesting though. It can get me to bump things up or down my TBR.

I'm excited to hear what everyone else thinks.

[Christina]

I agree. Great topic.

This year, I'm not setting the goal that I absolutely have to finish. By the end of the year last time, I was bending all sorts of rules and reading books I wasn't interested in just to fill a category. What started out as fun, ended up being really annoying by the end. Also, looking back at my year, every book I read that I either didn't like or was only lukewarm about were books I read only because they fulfilled the challenge.

So, this year, I still plan on doing the challenge, but, taking a more easy going approach to it. The goal for me was to expand my reading horizons. I'm going to still do the challenge, but, instead of focusing on the finishing, my focus is on finding great and interesting books, fill categories as I can, and let other categories go.

[Meg]

I agree with you two. I think I'll use the 2018 list as suggestions/guidance, but my real goal is going to be to finally attack books that are already in my life. I do like list, so I will use it when I need inspiration. Any books that you loved?

[Bonnie]

Meg wrote: "I really loved doing the challenge, because it had me reading stuff I would never have picked up (and I read a wide range of stuff), but I probably won't do it this year as strictly because I have so many books on my shelf that I ignored and my TRB list just keeps growing. "

^^^THIS

I've done the PopSugar Challenge 3 years in row and really enjoyed it. I've been taken out of my comfort zone, found some amazing new authors, found some new favorites, finished some truly awful books just for the sake of finishing it for the challenge, and even made some new friends.

I think I'm taking a break from this challenge in 2018. The challenge takes most of the year for me to finish and then I don't have time for the rest of my TBR list. But, who knows, I might still end up seeing how many topics I can cover anyway.

A few favorites of 2017:

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THESE. These were eye opening and mind changing. They offered so much perspective. And, I get why Evicted won the Pulitzer.

The Hate U Give Another thought invoking book.

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead gave me a lot to think about in my career.

When Breath Becomes Air

Winter Garden Kristin Hannah strikes again.

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage I got this one for free in the Audible anniversary celebration and it was an unexpected gem (warning: animals are killed - but it was only because of survival)

Beneath a Scarlet Sky Another historical novel that sucked me in.

All the Light We Cannot See Another Pulitzer winner. Beautifully written.

Also, all of the Scalzi. I love him.

[Christina]

I also love this topic.

What I learned: Just because I want to like a book doesn't mean I will. So many in the past I have force fed myself just to say it's done, some I liked, some I wanted to like and then, in the end, was sad I wasted my time.

Best books:
Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us (I was surprised because I hate books like this, but I finished it Feb and was still quoting & recommending it in Dec.)
The Elements of Typographic Style(type need stuff) and Tales of dueling neurosurgeons (interesting stories)

books I hated: Bittersweet...because it was boring, A Gentleman in Moscow (dragged on for little reward), and The Bourbon Thief (Not one part of this story was appropriate like I was furious the whole time, just got worse and worse and the plot didn't justify the wtf factor on every other page)

[Meg]

This is why I love discussing stuff!
I read A Gentleman in Moscow for the challenge (a book that takes place in a hotel) and enjoyed it. I really liked the "gentleman" and found it interesting how he spent his days. It is interesting to see someone who did not like it--- you are the second to say they found nothing happened. I guess this serves as a reminder that there is reader out there for every book.
The books you enjoyed sound interesting, I'll have to look them up.

I have a hard time throwing a book aside...I am always an optimist and want to find something worth reading, so I force myself through books, but like you this year I have tried to stop doing it because in the end reading should be for enjoyment.
Thanks for sharing!