Those who will not meet your goal this year

[jbcohen]

What do you attribute to your not reaching your goal. I can think of a few possible reasons:

1) Overly ambitious;
2) Really did not have a good idea of what you could read in a year;
3) Some events got int the way, unforeseen events such as a family vacation where you will not be sitting with your nose to the reader screen where you thought that you might have your nose to the screen;
4) You almost got the goal right may simply need a little fine tuning;
5) An unforeseen broken reader gets in the way (happened to me, my one and a half year old kindle died on the way to work and it took me a little while to get a new one, then had to play catch up)

[DiapDealer]

6) Did not have one
7) Gave up on it

Seriously, what's with the "goal" obsession around here?

Free-range readers unite!!

[latepaul]

For me it was a combination of 1 & 3. I can't claim 2 because I've been tracking how many books I read for the past few years. However this year's goal, 50 books, was always going to be a stretch given that last year I managed 30 and the year before was 18!

I found I can maintain a level of reading that'll get to me to 50+ only if my motivation remains high and there were times when I was too tired or too fed up to feel like doing anything much more than slumping in front of the TV or PC.

Re: "free-range" reading - I never used to track these things but then having been an avid reader when I was young and realising with a shock one day that I'd only read about three books in the previous year, well I wanted to consciously change that and so I started measuring. (Plus there's a geeky part of me that likes all the numbers etc)

[Asawi]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

6) Did not have one
7) Gave up on it

Seriously, what's with the "goal" obsession around here?

Free-range readers unite!!

+1

I don't know how many books I've read this year, but I'm pretty sure it's not as many as I thought it would be. I just had other things to do. For me that's a good thing!

[HomeInMyShoes]

I am way past my goal for this year. I read my required reading list and I feel better for having read some things I should have read a while ago and for broadening my horizons. I'm hoping next year I can finish my required reading list which will be more difficult. I don't think I'm going to pledge a number of books or pages outside of the required list I've got for myself. It is plenty big.

My challenges will continue to be weird.

[theinfamousj]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

2) Really did not have a good idea of what you could read in a year;

I am not going to reach my goal. I thought I could read 48 books, or roughly a book a week/4 books a month. Nope!

In my case, this was the first time I'd ever tracked my annual reading stats, so I had no idea how ambitious I was being.

I managed to read 37 books so far, so not too shabby. Roughly 3 books a month isn't too bad. I read lengthy tomes a la Wheel of Time or Song of Fire and Ice.

[jbcohen]

The way I see it diap, there is no point to it outside having a little fun, I can see having a little fun with attempting to hit a mark that you set yourself then at the end of the year fine tuning that mark such that the mark accurately predicts how many I am going to read. Intellectually there is no reason what so ever.

[HarryT]

I've found it interesting to record what I've read this year: 56 books read purely for pleasure; 19 properly proofed for the MR library, for a total of 75. But I had no goal, and wouldn't set one. I read and proof books purely for pleasure.

[treadlightly]

I used the challenge to nudge myself out of my reading comfort zone this year and I'm certainly glad that I did. I discovered books outside of the genre that I had been selecting from and now have some new favourites. I'm looking to continue this in the 2013 challenge, so it is definitely not a "contest" or "race" but motivation to expand and grow a little bit. Sort of the opposite of a New Year's resolution to diet.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

6) Did not have one
7) Gave up on it

Seriously, what's with the "goal" obsession around here?

Free-range readers unite!!

#6.
Maybe those interested in Goals should take up Football. (whichever version you prefer)
Or did you mean gaol.
Apache

[Quake1028]

I got married, went on our honeymoon, got a promotion at work: in short, life got in the way. Blegh. Hoping for an uneventful year next year, I want to double my books read, at least.

[sun surfer]

I met my page count/amount of books goal, but I'm having a hard time finishing out my TBR list for 2012. I think, of the options, I'd chalk it up to "4) You almost got the goal right may simply need a little fine tuning".

I think I just underestimated the length of many of my TBR books, and so here I am with a finished page count goal but still trying to read all the titles on my list.

So yes, there will be some fine tuning in the form of checking beforehand the length of all my TBR books for 2013.

[BenG]

No goals. I just read books for pleasure.
I rate what I read on Goodreads and I've finished 42 books and have 6 anthologies partially read. (I rarely read books of short stories straight through unless they're borrowed.)

On a side note I have a lifetime total of 1874 books listed as read on Goodreads. That's what I can remember. Every now and then I remember another book I've read and put it on the list.

[AnemicOak]

No goals here, although I do keep a list of what I've read (been doing that for years now) just for the heck of it.

[pdurrant]

A too-good-to-miss sale on Georgette Heyer novels happen to my goal.