MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - The 2013 Annual Reading Challenge

issybird · 12-31-2012, 10:21 AM

I've been spending a lot of time figuring out my challenges and tweaking the numbers to make it a reasonable challenge, i.e., a doable reach, and I still think I might be committing to more than I can manage given limited time and powers of concentration on workday evenings, but I'll give it a go. With a benchmark of 100 books for the year, I'm assigning 50 to challenges with 50 free reads.

The theme of 2012 was breadth, so for 2013 I've decided to go for depth. My topic is 17th century England, and I plan to read 12 non-fiction books on the topic and dip into the literature of the period: plays, poetry and Pepys.

I've also noted that I've missed out on several recent works of non-fiction I want to read, mostly because they're doorstoppers in paper and I didn't want to pay agency prices. I'm over that. This year, I'm going to ignore the coupons and deals and buy whatever I want only when I'm ready to read it; I figure I'll save money and cut down on the eclutter. So I'm committing to 10 non-fiction books of recent (2011 or newer) vintage.

While I made some inroads into the unread PBs toppling over themselves, I still have quite the accumulation. I just missed my 2012 goal and I decided I have to commit to fewer this year; my PBs tend to be longish non-fiction (especially since I cherry-picked several of the easier reads this year), and another big non-fiction goal seems unattainable. So 12 PBs from the laundry basket this year.

As I kept adjusting my PB goal downward, I had to come up with something to take up the slack to hit my commitment of 50 books. I'm going to read 10 of the 12 MR lit club choices (to give myself some wiggle room in case I really, really don't want read a selection) and six classics. The latter can be a reread of something I read once or twice in my salad days, but not a classic I know thoroughly.

I'm looking forward to 2013, but I'm going to have to pace myself or I'll get into trouble early. Fun!

12-31-2012, 10:21 AM	#39
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,226 Karma: 222235366 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	I've been spending a lot of time figuring out my challenges and tweaking the numbers to make it a reasonable challenge, i.e., a doable reach, and I still think I might be committing to more than I can manage given limited time and powers of concentration on workday evenings, but I'll give it a go. With a benchmark of 100 books for the year, I'm assigning 50 to challenges with 50 free reads. The theme of 2012 was breadth, so for 2013 I've decided to go for depth. My topic is 17th century England, and I plan to read 12 non-fiction books on the topic and dip into the literature of the period: plays, poetry and Pepys. I've also noted that I've missed out on several recent works of non-fiction I want to read, mostly because they're doorstoppers in paper and I didn't want to pay agency prices. I'm over that. This year, I'm going to ignore the coupons and deals and buy whatever I want only when I'm ready to read it; I figure I'll save money and cut down on the eclutter. So I'm committing to 10 non-fiction books of recent (2011 or newer) vintage. While I made some inroads into the unread PBs toppling over themselves, I still have quite the accumulation. I just missed my 2012 goal and I decided I have to commit to fewer this year; my PBs tend to be longish non-fiction (especially since I cherry-picked several of the easier reads this year), and another big non-fiction goal seems unattainable. So 12 PBs from the laundry basket this year. As I kept adjusting my PB goal downward, I had to come up with something to take up the slack to hit my commitment of 50 books. I'm going to read 10 of the 12 MR lit club choices (to give myself some wiggle room in case I really, really don't want read a selection) and six classics. The latter can be a reread of something I read once or twice in my salad days, but not a classic I know thoroughly. I'm looking forward to 2013, but I'm going to have to pace myself or I'll get into trouble early. Fun!