Bill’s Declining Shame - Year 3

[Bill]

Started a new graphic novel series with Outcast by Robert Kirkman. Most of my planned reads for the rest of the year are ones that I own so going to try to do some graphic novels to use up my Hoopla loans. Should be able to get this series done by end of the month.

[Bill]

I probably foolishly signed up for Marvel Unlimited last week. I don’t think I want to track them with my main challenge so created three new comments for them basically a finished, unfinished and a status box.

I will most likely shuffle things around as I get into it more but for now can figure a good way to intergrate them.

[Bill]

October Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 20
Finished series: 1 (Draconis Memoria)
Brought up to date: 2 (Saga, Paper Girls)
Series progressed: 6 (Riftwar, Drenai, Heartstrikers, Outcast, Emperor)
New series started: 3 (Outcast, Paper Girls, Black Magician)
Series Restarted: 1 (Traitor Son)
Abandoned:
Total series completion: 190 for 290 = 65.5%

A good month but didn’t really get done what I wanted to. Got a bit distracted with Marvel Unlimited and read around 90 comics on there.

[Bill]

Bill wrote: "October Goals
Buddy Reads - Magician: Master, The Legion of Flame, The Magicians' Guild, The Dread Wyrm, The Field of Swords
..."

Didn’t do great on my goals this month. Finished all but 1 of my buddy reads and that 1 was purposefully delayed. Didn’t get any of my series done. Oh well will try again this month.

[Bill]

November Goals
Buddy reads: Silverthorn, The Labyrinth of Flame, The Gods of War, The Dread Wyrm, A Plague of Swords
Series to finish: Drenai, Heartstrikers

Scaling down my goals this month as I need to work on some other challenges.

[Virginie]

Still a good month, even though you didn't complete your goals. But... 90 comics? 90?!? That's crazy!

[Bill]

Lol yup. Went a bit overboard. I probably won’t read that much in a month ever again. I hurt my back so was laying around for a few days with that.

[Tammie]

Good job Bill. How did you like the Draconis Memoria series?

[Bill]

Thanks Tammie. I thought it was pretty good. Had some new aspects I hadn’t seen in other fantasy series and had a great blend of tech and magic. That being said I never felt like I got fully invested in it. It had a formal tone to it that I didn’t really enjoy.

[Angela, I'm Silverfox lost]

Good going Bill. 90 comics wow.

[Tammie]

Bill wrote: "Thanks Tammie. I thought it was pretty good. Had some new aspects I hadn’t seen in other fantasy series and had a great blend of tech and magic. That being said I never felt like I got fully invest..."

Those were pretty much my thoughts exactly. I like the elements that were different, but felt it was hard to really connect with it the way I wanted to. I liked all the characters, but there was something missing for me. I think you are right about the formal tone. I couldn't put my finger on it.

[Jenna, I'd be free if not for Temper & Edgewalker]

I'm going to sort of copy your set up for my 2019 tracker :)
I've been using the same one since the beginning of my challenge and yours is set up a lot better.

[Bill]

Thanks I’ve been refining it a bit each year. My first year setup was a mess. I tried cramming everything into a couple boxes and it made updating a nightmare.

Hope it works well for you.

[Jenna, I'd be free if not for Temper & Edgewalker]

Bill wrote: "Thanks I’ve been refining it a bit each year. My first year setup was a mess. I tried cramming everything into a couple boxes and it made updating a nightmare.

Hope it works well for you."

Thanks!

[Bill]

November Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 15
Finished series: 3 (Drenai, Heartstrikers, Riftwar)
Brought up to date: 2 (Outcast, Deadly Class)
Series progressed: 3 (Traitor Son, Emperor, Vorkosigan)
New series started: 1 (Deadly Class)
Total series completion: 188 for 276 = 68.1%

Kind of a weird month as I kind of read in bunches. I would read a few books in a couple days then nothing for a few days. Still happy with the overall progress.

November Goals
Buddy reads: Silverthorn, The Labyrinth of Flame, The Gods of War, The Dread Wyrm, A Plague of Swords
Series to finish: Drenai, Heartstrikers

Finished both my planned series along with Riftwar. Only managed 60% of my buddy reads.

[Bill]

December Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 13
Finished series: 4 (Emperor, Riddle-Master, Traitor Son, Book of the New Sun)
Brought up to date: 2 (Karen Memory, Paper Girls)
Series progressed: 3 (Traitor Son, Book of the New Sun, Black Magician)
New series started: 2 (Riddle-Master, Takeshi Kovacs)
Series Restarted:
Abandoned:
Total series completion: 184 for 265 = 69.4%

[Scott , Karsa Orlong]

Impressive.

[Bill]

January Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 14
Finished series: 2 (Winternight, Black Magician)
Brought up to date:
Series progressed: 2 (Fables, Vorkosigan)
New series started: 5 (Empire, Fables, Cycle of Fire, The Giver, Books of Babel)
Series Restarted:
Abandoned:
Total series completion: 193 for 293 = 65.9%

Started too many new series but they should all be wrapped up by March. Want to get back to dropping my total open series down.

[Angela, I'm Silverfox lost]

Well done Bill. Nice to finish two series.

[Bill]

Thanks Angela. It’s always nice to finish a couple of series.

[Bill]

February Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 10
Finished series: 3 (Jupiter’s Legacy, Prince of Nothing, Empire)
Brought up to date:
Series progressed: 3 (Empire, Fables, Books of Babel)
New series started: 2 (Jupiter’s Legacy, Tawny Man)
Series Restarted: 1 (Prince of Nothing)
Abandoned:
Total series completion: 194 for 290 = 66.9%

Felt like I had long stretches of not reading this month but ended up having an ok month. Been starting too many series this year so would like to get back to dropping my number of open series.

[Bill]

March Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 17
Finished series: 2 (Tawny Man, Arafel)
Brought up to date: 3 (Wayward Children, Walking Dead, Umbrella Academy)
Series progressed: 3 (Giver, Fables, Oxford Time Travel)
New series started: 4 (Umbrella Academy, Arafel, Oxford Time Travel, Legend of Eli Monpress)
Series Restarted: 1 (Sorcery Ascendant)
Abandoned:
Total series completion: 204 for 299 = 68.2%

Done for the month since my last is a standalone. My open series number is starting to creep up again. Happy that my total is still below 300 though.

April’s goal is to finish some series to get that number heading back in the right direction. Thinking Sorcery Ascendant, Oxford Time Travel, Cycle of Fire and The Giver to start. Got two books left in each series.

[Bill]

Books read towards challenge: 14
Finished series: 4 (Sorcery Ascendant Sequence, Oxford Time Travel, Path to Ascendancy, The Giver)
Brought up to date:
Series progressed: 3 (Fables, Eli Monpress, Takeshi Kovacs)
New series started: 1 (East of West)
Series Restarted: 1 (Path to Ascendancy)
Abandoned:
Total series completion:201 for 285 = 70.5%

Really enjoyable month of reading. Got some series done. Sorcery Ascendant and Path to Ascendancy we’re both series where I read the first book and the. Waited for it to be completed before attempting to finish so it was good to knock them out.

[Bill]

May Goals
Series to finish: Takeshi Kovacs, Legend of Eli Monpress, Fables
Series to restart and finish: Cycle of Fire
Series to start and finish: We are Bob, Book of the Ancestors

Looking to get some series done this month. 12 books and 6 comics should be doable.

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

Wow are you really down to just 19 active series? Omg!!

[Bill]

Yeah still starting new series just finishing them right away. Thanks Nikki.

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

That’s incredible! Are you planning to hover at 20 ish or are you still whittling? Going for zero? Lol

[Bill]

I’m hoping to keep whittling. I’m going to try to get down to 15 by months end. The 12 series in my ongoing section are hard because they are mostly series where I’m waiting for the last book to come out. I could do a single book in most to bring them up to date but want to restart them and read them straight through when the are done. The exception is Stormlight which I’ll probably read next month from the beginning.

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

Oh yeah I have a couple of those. It seems to I efficient to have to possibly read them twice, so I’m waiting on them as well. Kudos though - this day has been a long time coming! :)

[Bill]

Thanks it certainly has.

[Bill]

Decided to abandon 2 series today. The first is Shattered Sigil which I loved but the 3rd book isn’t available in audiobook. I’ve tried to start the ebook a few times and it’s just not happening. Second is Dragonlance which I just don’t have interest in continuing at this point. Can’t really even remember the first book.

[Bill]

Abandoned 2 more series Magic 2.0 and Rivers of London. They are both series that I would have finished except I saw they each have more books coming out and I’m not that interested in either one anymore.

Also changed my ongoing series section to on hold. All the series in there are ones where I’m waiting for the series to be finished and then will reread and finish them.

With that I’m down to 4 series that I’m actually actively trying to finish.

[Tammie]

Bill wrote: "Abandoned 2 more series Magic 2.0 and Rivers of London. They are both series that I would have finished except I saw they each have more books coming out and I’m not that interested in either one a..."

That's great!

[Scott , Karsa Orlong]

Pretty amazing Sir William.

[Bill]

Thanks Tammie and Scott.

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

Omg!! 4?! O_o you’ve passed me up haha. Well done!!

[Bill]

Thanks Nikki. I did start another comic series yesterday so up to 5 now.

[Bill]

May Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 17
Finished series: 4 (Takeshi Kovacs, Legend of Eli Monpress, Fables, Bobiverse)
Brought up to date: 1 (Stormlight Archives)
Series progressed:
New series started: 1 (Bobiverse)
Series Restarted: 1 (Stormlight Archive)
Abandoned: 4 (Shattered Sigil, Dragonlance, Magic 2.0, Rivers of London)
Total series completion: 179 for 254 = 70.5%

Meant to get Cycle of Fire and Book of the Ancestors in this month but doing the 3 Stormlight books pretty much eliminated any chance of that. Really happy with my progress for the month and overall challenge.

[Bill]

June Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 15
Finished series: 3 (Sarantine Mosaic, Lock In, Book of the Ancestor)
Brought up to date: 2 (Rat Queens, East of West)
Series progressed:
New series started: 4 (Sarantine Mosaic, Lock In, Song of the Lioness, Book of the Ancestor)
Series Restarted:
Abandoned:
Total series completion: 185 for 253 = 73.1%

Happy that I finished 3 of the 4 series I started.

[Bill]

So the last book for the dominion of the fallen by Aliette de bodard was due out today. Got up today and couldn’t find it anywhere turns out it isn’t being released in the US. Guess it’s heading to the abandoned section. Really disappointed.

[Bill]

July Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 22
Finished series: 7 (Wayfarers, Song of the Lioness, Valdemar: Mage Wars, Akata Witch, Locke and Key, Southlands, Xenogenesis)
Brought up to date: 1 (Books of Babel)
Series progressed:
New series started: 5 (Wayfarers, Southlands, Valdemar: Mage Wars, Akata Witch, Xenogenesis)
Series Restarted:
Abandoned: 1 (Dominion of the Fallen)
Total series completion: 180 for 204 = 88.2%

Really good month. I finished all 5 series I started plus 2 left over from last month. I didn’t have any 5 star reads this month but I also didn’t read any bad books.

My completion rate jumped up 15% because I removed all the non-release ebooks from my tally.

I unfortunately abandoned the Dominion of the Fallen series because the last book isn’t being released in the US and not in audio.

[Bill]

August Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 4
Finished series: 1 (Walking Dead Comics)
Brought up to date:
Series progressed:
New series started: 3 (Malloreon, Raven Cycle, Arthurian Saga)
Series Restarted:
Abandoned:
Total series completion: 150 for 187 = 80.2%

By far my worst month of the challenge. Most of my reads were standalones and then I started a few series to get going again. I think I want to get back up to around 10 open series so I have some options. Need a little chaos to keep going.

[Virginie]

Your completion rate is still above 80% so I'd say you've done a good job :)

I've found that having too low a number of open series is counter-productive as I keep getting distracted by all the shiny books on my TBR. 10 open series sounds good! Lots of options but not overwhelming.

[Bill]

For me being so low just took all my motivation away. My only limit is going to be to stay under 200 books total. Ideally I should be able to knock a couple of series off my UTD section by years end although everytime I think that the release date gets pushed back.

[Bill]

September Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 9
Finished series: 2 (Paper Girls, White Sand)
Brought up to date: 1 (Outcast)
Series progressed: 3 (Vorkosigan, Space, Malloreon)
New series started: 1 (Dreamblood)
Series Restarted:
Abandoned: 1 (Space)
Total series completion: 157 for 199 = 78.9%

An improvement over last month. I also read like 25 marvel trades and some standalones. So really good month just most of it didn’t go towards this challenge.

[Bill]

Today marks the last day of my third year of this challenge. Here are my numbers for each of the years. This challenge has help me a ton in getting to a really good place with how many open series I have. It has also got me to a much better place stress wise with my reading. Having so many open series was really weighing on me and I no longer have that feeling which is fantastic because reading is a hobby not a job and shouldn’t feel like one.

Year 3
Books Read Towards Challenge - 171
Finished - 36
Brought Up To Date - 12
Progressed - 2
Started - 32 (22 Finished, 4 UTD, 1 Abandoned, 1 Progressed)
Restarted - 5
Abandoned - 6
Audiobooks - 113
Graphic Novels/Comics - 58
Kindle - 0
Physical - 0

Year Two
Books Read Towards Challenge - 186
Finished - 37
Brought Up To Date - 16
Progressed - 11
Started - 25
Abandoned - 24
Audiobooks - 166
Graphic Novels/Comics - 19
Kindle - 1
Physical - 0

Year One
Books Read Towards Challenge - 245
Finished - 24
Brought Up To Date - 13
Progressed - 8
Started - 28(11 finished, 8 progressed)
Abandoned - 6
Audiobooks - 129
Graphic Novels/Comics - 97
Kindle - 18
Physical - 1

[Tammie]

Impressive as always Bill! Good work.

[Bill]

Thanks Tammie