2014 Reading Challenge

[Ana]

What is your reading challenge for this year?
Have you changed it?
What's your current progress?
Do you think you will complete the challenge?

[Ana]

Right now my challenge is for 50 books and I have read 47, apparently I am 5 books ahead of schedule.

I feel like I cheated a bit because some of those are short stories. But hey other books were incredily long or at least felt that way, so I guess it sort of balances out.

I started with maybe 25, not sure anymore, and changed it a couple of times. Not sure if I will change it again if I complete it before the year ends, not like there's long left :)

I definitely think I can complete it!

[Kandice]

My challenge was to read 100 books in 2014. For a book to count toward my total I had to write a review. I've met and exceeded it, but I don't think I need to change the goal at this late date. Next year I will probably set my goal at 110, but sometimes life gets in the way and setting too high a goal is a bit worrisome. :)

https://www.goodreads.com/user_challe...

[Nathan]

Congrats on hitting your goal! It's a little/way too late for me to start this challenge. Next year I will have to remember this.

I wonder what would be a good number for me. Maybe fifty or so... That seems low, even to me.. But, I read a lot of chunksters. How will I decide?

[Melaslithos]

I fixed my challenge at 12 books. It was when I just joigned GR, at a time where I was quite on a low regarding reading. So I thought that if I could read at least one book per month, that would nice already.

In the end, I ended up reading much more than this, although there were quite several short reads in it.

I decided not to increase the number of books for my challenge, because I don't want to feel the pressure of absolutely having to read books. I also wanted to keep my freedom of reading short/long books, and not going only for short books in order to make the number.

I might increase the number next year, or I might not. I like to idea of keeping the challenge to a minimum, in order for me not to forget to take time to read, but yet not put in too many books, so as not to have too much pressure and still allow me to read at my own rythm, as I like.

[Ana]

I understand what you're saying Melas, about the pressure, so I usually increase it 5 or 10 at a time at most and make sure some of those are short stories. Encouragement is fine, motivation to achieve something, but not pressure eheh.

And wow 100 books, I wonder if I could do that next year... Probably not. Even if I manage to read 4 books per month that's only 48 in a year... I might stick to 50 and see how it goes from there. Or maybe 75. The possibilities are endless eheh.

[Kandice]

Some of what I read is short, but not a whole lot.

There is a library at the synagogue where I work, so I usually read at least 2 books a month with them, 2 books a month for the book clubs I am a member of at the county library, a couple of clubs on here that I try to participate in monthly reads and then I like room to read whatever strikes my fancy, so 8 books a month is ok for me, but much more really would feel like pressure.

[Melaslithos]

I have no idea how you find so much reading time. I'm envious.

[Ana]

Same here, I would read a lot more if I had time but these days I seem to be able to read in bed at night before falling asleep...

[Kandice]

I am not a good sleeper, so a lot of my reading is done after my children and husband are asleep. I also always have an audiobook in my car, and although I don't have a long commute, it still adds about a book a month to my total.

I was thinking of setting myself a "pages read" challenge instead of books, but I have no idea how to calculate something realistic.

[Abigail]

In 2013 I read 46 books for my yearly challenge, which was the most I ever read in a year. I was happy about it because I think the challenge itself is what motivated me to read that many, I had also never done a formal reading challenge before. I am glad to have experienced that in 2013 so I decided to change it up this year. In 2014 I set a much lower number, because I already knew what it was like to read a lot of books in one year and I knew I could do it if I tried. So this year I did the opposite. I set a much lower number and decided to read LONGER length books. In doing so, I also wanted to at the same time try to read more books that were part of a long series of books. (I ended up going with the Dark Tower series)

And lastly I made the decision to as much as possible read ONLY Stephen King books all year. I had never done that before and I wanted to know what it was like to read only one author over an extended period of time.

Well here it is almost the end of the year and I have had such a great time reading some of King's best work both old and new. The only time this year I strayed from reading a King book was when I read two George R.R. Martin books back to back because I always read the "Game of Thrones" books around the time the show is about to come on. I read A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows back to back. This seemed to take me a VERY LONG TIME reading those two books despite constantly digging in to reading them. But this was my intention I reminded myself, to read longer books, so I accepted that it took me longer to get through those. I also read The Stand which is King's longest book I think, so I did satisfy my requirement of reading long books that is for sure!

Around the summer I had to start reading something different on the side, so I began reading some comic book trade paperbacks (Marvel/DC comics and a Star Wars trade paperback) and I only read a few but next year I plan to read more comic book stories!

It's almost the end of the year and so I'm already getting an idea of what I want to do next year for my challenge. I want to go back to reading more than 25 books and switch back to shorter length ones. I read the Dark Tower series up to Book 4, and I hate to abandon the series there as it was getting really good so I know I'll end up back with those books next year.

But this year looks like it will only be 14 books by the time I finish Revival and maybe starting the 15th book. But that is okay. I am okay with that number because I've read some of the best books I've ever read this year and overall it's been a memorable year of books for me!

[Melaslithos]

@Abigail

I've only read the "Game of Thrones" series, never seen the show, but those are great books. There is so much thing happening and you never get bored, so it doesn't feel like a long read to me, even though I might spend some time over it.

Personnally, I have a love for big thick books. I feel like the author has so much more time to develop his world, characters, storyline, etc. Also, the pleasure last longer. It's always a heartbreack to put down a book you loved because you finished it. I like to be able to spend more time with it.

@Aaron

I have a few of what I call "comfy books". They are the books I go back to when I'm not in the mood for anything, need a pause, or just want a sure thing and not take the risk of something new. I know that when I pick them up, no matter how many time I've read them, I will always enjoy them. They are the book I pick up for self-indulgence time, like a good cup of hot chocolate and a nice plaid to wrap yourself into. Do you have any of those? It looks like you're in a mood for one.

My personal ones are The Three Musketers, Harry Potter, any Jane Austen or Pratchett books. Sometime also Gaiman, but his books are a big more melancholic, so it'll depend on my mood at the time.

[Kandice]

I adore super long books. If the author is good enough you just get more out of them. Margaret GeorgeColleen McCullough and Lucia St. Clair Robson are all authors that benefit form page numbers. Anything by them is good, but the longer the better! Instead of just getting a story, I feel like you get a life, if that makes sense.

[Ana]

Wow very nice Abigail, and great choice of author too. He's my favourite author by far. You must have quite a deep knowledge of his work and writing style by now!

[Gavin]

First time doing the yearly challenge, so my number went through various phases. At first I thought I wouldn't read much because in last year I was kinda in a reading slump, so I went for 24; two books a month definitely seemed doable. I completed it in May (I think), even though I started reading in March. I was like "okay, that's good, but next increase in the last one"; I went for 36. Completed that as well halfway through June. Then I increased to 40, thinking that The Divine Comedy would take a while to finish. It didn't, it was great btw.

Feeling lucky I went for 50, caught up with that in like a month. Finally, I decided 60 would be my last increase, and I completed my challenge in October. Currenly I'm at 64/60 boos read, 10 ahead of schedule. Don't know how I did it because I read the entire LOTR trilogy (plus The Silmarillion), and some other long books.

Rest of the year and in 2015, I'm just going to take it easy with the longer books on my shelves.

[Ana]

Oh wow, you are quite the speed reader, Gavin! It's great when you have the time to just let yourself get lost in a book. I do know that if I had the time to read a book in one or two sittings it would be a much more enjoyable experience. Lately I have been having bad luck with the writing of the books I am reading but I also know that if I had that availability it would go more smoothly. It's a shame. Glad you managed to read that many books, hope overall they were pleasant experiences!

[Ana]

How are the rest of you guys going on 2014's reading challenge? Do you think you will make it? Have you reached your goal yet?

[Kandice]

I exceeded mine and will probably raise it a bit for 2015, but not too much because I hate feeling like I have "have" to read.

[Ana]

I hear ya!
I'm thinking of cheating and at the same time catch a breather by reading a short story or two ;)

[Kandice]

I can't remember if i posted this here anywhere, but I was trying to think of a way of making myself a page goal instead of a book goal that makes sense. I read a LOT of bricks, but I throw a couple of shorter ones in there as palate cleansers. I've just always wondered what a page goal would be like and if it would be practical since different editions have different numbers of pages.

I think I will go back and tally the pages I've read this year and see if that's "do-able" for next year. When I have a free hour I mean! ;)

[Ana]

Sounds like a good idea for a new topic! I think other folks might be interested in it. What should it be called? 2014 Page Challenge? Well, might as well do 2015 now?

[Kandice]

I think 2015 is better and maybe we can just record our page numbers there even if we don't set ourselves an actual page challenge. I think we would all be pleasantly surprised by the number of pages we blow through.

[Melaslithos]

Kandice, on the "my books" page, click on stats, than pages. You'll see all the pages you've read this year (provided that the page number is well provided in the GR book page)

[Kandice]

Melaslithos wrote: "Kandice, on the "my books" page, click on stats, than pages. You'll see all the pages you've read this year (provided that the page number is well provided in the GR book page)"

Oooh! Thanks. I was seriously going to click on each title and use a calculator to add up the pages. I swear, I am archaic at times. O_o

[Melaslithos]

^_^

[Ana]

Thanks, Melas!I didn't know that either. K, I'm creating the topic now.

[Sarah]

My challenge for 2014 was for 60 books, I am at the 51 book mark possibly will not get this completed.

[Ana]

12994 pages and 57 books is my final count but it's not too accurate since I only joined GR in August. Can't wait for next year :D

[Kandice]

I could go back through the thread and find the instructions if I wasn't so lazy... how do you get your page count again? :D

[Ana]

My books > Stats > Pages :)

[Kandice]

Ana wrote: "My books > Stats > Pages :)"

Thank you dear!

34989 pages, 125 books. What surprises me most is that 29 of them were 5 star reads and yet when I was trying to think of my top 10 I had trouble.

I was also disappointed to see that I rated 4 books with only 1 star. I'm a pretty easy rater too, I think.

[Gavin]

Totally smashed my goal: 74/60 books, 24, 455 pages.

[Ana]

Woohoo, grats guys!
Yeah Kandice, I really can't pick 5, let alone 10 xD