Halfway through 2021: how is your challenge going?

[Ilona]

Hi all! We are halfway through the year, and halfway through our challenges! How is it going for you?

For me it's going pretty good at the moment! At the beginning of the year I set my goal to 50, same as last year, and I am currently at 23 books! According to Goodreads I am currently 1 book behind schedule. but I always seem to more books in the second half of the year, so I am not too worried.

[Cindy]

I just finished reading a great book last night bringing my total to 47.
My goal is 60 so I am doing great. I have read some incredible books such as Shuggie Bain, All the Children are Home, and Dear Edward just to name a few. I've read two classics: Sense & Sensibility and The Old Man and the Sea. I totally enjoy Stewart O'Nana and I created a goal to read all of his novels which I have. My other goal is to read the six Jane Austin novels and at this point, I have only read one. I love the reading challenge!

[Marleen]

It’s going very well, I read 26 books so far, which is more than I read in the whole of 2020! My goal for the year is 40 and I’m 7 books ahead of schedule :)
The majority of my books (18 out of 26) were 4 and 5 star reads, and I only had two books below a 3 star, so I’ve enjoyed almost everything I’ve read. My favorites were Vicious, Hex and The Bone Shard Daughter.

[TerryJane, Challenges]

I am 84% done and 83 ahead of schedule, with a goal of 240. The challenges here and at my local library, plus two local book clubs, have made me push the envelope this year.

[Flora]

I'm actually ahead of schedule. I've read 68 toward my goal of 100. I've completed almost half of the Popsugar challenge, so I should be able to finish before the end of the year. :)

[Brittany]

I'm actually ahead of schedule too! 90 books was my goal and I am currently at 61 so I am 17 ahead.
Love all the challenges as always thank you everyone here for working so hard at them.
Some of the best books were catching up in the Grishaverse with theSix of CrowsSix of Crows and King of Scars duologies, Catching up with the Guild Codex Universe by Annette Marie, and my biggest surprise that I loved was Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
So many other great books as well of course.
Best of luck to everyone on the rest of the year! Enjoy all those fabulous books

[Pooja]

I am done with 14 books so far but I want to read more in the second half of the year

[Arielle]

It's going pretty well for me. My goal for this year is 10 books and I am almost done with my fifth book! Once the school year starts, I will not be reading as much so I am hoping to read as many books as possible as summer break comes to an end.

[Joan]

I'm ahead 9 on my Around The Year in 52 Books Challenge and 6 ahead on my overall annual challenge. I've read 36 book so far. I've been reading about 6 books a month.

I'm behind 4 on my Goodreads Choice Award Challenge. I think I'll be able to make that up. We'll see.

[Ashleigh]

I'm pretty much on target. 21/36 so far. Maybe a little ahead?

June was a slow reading month for me due to being a bit busy, but I've already completed one for July so that's good!

[Ilona]

Wow! Looks like most of you are ahead of scheduled, congratulations! :)

[Edward]

The theme for my progress has been "expansion." At 37 out of 50 books done, I might raise my bar. 60? Who knows? I don't know. I've read my usual - fiction and philosophy - but, I've also read more graphic novels, plays, and poetry than usual. I've done a bit of audio, but it's mostly been that paper book that I tuck in my pocket and carry with me.

[Sai]

I have completed 7/15 so far. Completed 12 last year, so gradually increasing the number. You guys are attempting huge numbers and making significant progress, which is awesome!
I would really appreciate it if you guys share your tricks to doing so much reading.

[Sue]

I'm 98% of the way to completion with 39/40 books read.

My tips for reading: I read on public transport, travelling too and from work. I also decided that, barring emergencies, after 7:30 is me time. It helps I have a grown up family. This wouldn't be nearly as successful if I had a young family at home.
I joined Kindle Unlimited and got into cosy mysteries. I can get through one of these EXTREMELY quickly...like 1 every other day. It all adds up

[Alekhya]

I'm 55% through. 28/51. Goodreads says 3 books ahead of schedule, but I'm actually just on schedule. I have a heavy read planned for the rest of the month. I was skeptical this year about a 50+ target but I'm doing good until now. :)

I used to read less than 30 books a year until 2 years ago. Staying at home a lot due to corona helped me scale up, especially during the time before I took up a job after college.

My tip(not much different from Sue's):
1. Set aside a fixed amount of time every day, doesn't have to be a fixed absolute time.
2. Don't be too hard on yourself if you don't meet your daily goal.
3. Have an aggregate goal for a week or 2 with a small buffer. e.g. if your goal is to read 1 hr a day, 1-week goal can be 5/6 hours.
Make sure you reach your one/two week aggregate.
^This has worked for me so far.

Even more importantly, don't forget to have fun while reading!
Sai, there'll always be people we can look up to and it's a good thing as long as we don't get intimidated. We're all on our own journeys. You can scale up in your own time.

[Dr Hanif]

With this ongoing lockdown due to pandemic, here in India, I have got enough time to read books since last year. This year I had set a goal to read 160 books, and have completed 101 books (63%) this afternoon. I have a pretty huge TBR and I guess if I don't speed up, I won't be able to read all the titles that I dream of to read in this lifetime.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished 29 in the first half (just finished my 30th) and my goal is 52 for the year so I'm a little ahead of schedule. I have some lengthy books coming up so I think my second half of the year will be slightly slower than the first half of the year, but I still think I will exceed my goal by 2 or 3.

[Tia]

This year's challenge has really helped me refine my tastes in reading! Not only have I started to notice what author's and genres I seem to drift naturally more towards, when I do find an interesting read, I've noticed my reading speed has actually gotten faster! I used to average about one book every 3 months but now that I've learned to accept that it's okay not to waste your time in reading something you don't like, I'm averaging 1 book every 1-2 weeks! (This is based on most books I read being 300-600 pages).

I know this is seen as kind of taboo, but I ended up decluttering a lot of books I realized I just wasn't ever going to read. I'm a very 'seasonal' reader I've discovered too - Summer is for Rom-Com's and Fantasy, Winter is for Sci-Fi and Mystery. I've kind of discovered I don't really like reading psychological/thriller books anymore, maybe its because I'm in a better place mentally or perhaps its due to the fact life is a struggle as is and I don't need to read about anyone else's trouble plus a serial killer? I kid, of course, however I do find it interesting since that was all I used to read. Perhaps it was also a rebellious part of me due to having to read unrelatable classical literature all throughout high school and college, so now that I'm done with education I can indulge the YA streak I never was able to before. So far there have only been 2 DNF books too, which considering last year where nearly everything I picked up for some weird reason was a slog to get through and nearly put me off of reading entirely.

Some members on here will probably disagree with me for counting these, but I have also taken to reading all of IDW's first comic run of Transformers via The IDW Collection Volumes. Each Volume averages 300 pages, and though they take me a shorter time to read, I'm still reading after all, so for me it's a no-brainer to count them.

Overall I'm very proud of my progress so far, and have even considered bumping up my goal!

[Michelle]

Surprisingly enough I am ahead of my original goal. I set it a little lower than last year because I am so busy with work, so being ahead now helps me stay positive. Lets just hope I can finish the two yearly challenges I am working on!

[Karin]

I've passed my second goal for the year, but am not going to change it. I have no idea when my reading will drop back to normal, but if all goes according to plan, probably September.

[Yasmin]

I’m 45 out of 50 and 19 ahead. :) Considering I only read 3 books last year I’m pleased, thinking of raising it to 75 but we shall see.

[Julietta]

I'm almost done with my goal of 21 books in 2021...I've read 19. Just from book club reading alone, I'm sure to surpass the goal sometime in August. I'm "enjoying" a combination of grief books (due to a loss), novels, books in Spanish, and non-fiction.

[Carmen]

I reached my goal of 250 yesterday!

[Tahera]

I have passed my goal for this year which was set to 65 books.

[Nicolina]

I didn’t start my goal until May. I read a few books in a couple of days and then decided to read 100 books in 100 days. My only rule were that in the end it had to be over 30.000 pages and it ended up at 33.000.
It was a little extreme, but I’m a binging person 😅

[Fran]

Audiobooks have been an enormous help for me this year, like every other. I've read/listened to 140/180 and I'm 21 books ahead of schedule. I've pledged 55,000 pages this year and have already completed over 45,000! I'm surprised at how well I've done honestly and push myself for one more chapter or more often just one more CD (audio book format) while I tidy something or prepare for the following day,