The 2014 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread!

[CRussel]

I'm finishing up a Campion right now, it would be #173 for the year if I finished it, but I don't think it's going to happen. So my total for the year will be 172 books read (including 2 abandoned). But not including several shorter works that would add another couple to the total. But what I'm happiest about with this year's challenge is that I managed to not lose track and stop recording them.

[sun surfer]

I did it! I finished both books and all my subgoals before the new year, just in the nick of time. Whew! Now, time to party.

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I did it! I finished both books and all my subgoals before the new year, just in the nick of time. Whew! Now, time to party.

Congrats!

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I did it! I finished both books and all my subgoals before the new year, just in the nick of time. Whew! Now, time to party.

Congratulations, Sun Surfer! Best Wishes for 2015!!

[BelleZora]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I did it! I finished both books and all my subgoals before the new year, just in the nick of time. Whew! Now, time to party.

Yay! Congrats and Happy New Year!

[sun surfer]

Thank you all! If I had paced things out even only slightly better it wouldn't have been so rough at the very end but I knew was going to have extra free time the last two weeks of the year and I think I let myself slack a little too much before then because of it. Anyway, now that's all so last year.

Good luck to all of you in 2015!

[Stephjk]

I managed to surpass my goal by 1 book! Got to do better in 2015, 60 books to read!

[Waylander]

LOL, I did the same as Stephjk, and read 136 books in 2014, one up from 135 in 2013.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'm finishing up a Campion right now

I'm waiting for the remaining books in the series to come out as ebooks on 5th Feb before starting my reading of the series. I hate reading incomplete series!

[orlok]

Originally Posted by issybird

I add books to my list at Goodreads as I think of them, but I generally keep it to significant titles and not all of them and I have little if any sense of dates.

I do the same - there are still hundreds, if not thousands, that I read in my late teens and early adulthood (when I had time to read a two or three books a day, sometimes more) that I can't remember, and when I stumble across them now I'll add them to the list, but it will never be complete. I have also resisted adding any children's books (Enid Blyton's mysteries, the Hardy Boys etc. etc.) as that's going too far, IMO ).

Congratulations on your challenge achievements, btw, very impressive, and you definitely shouldn't beat yourself up over the sub-challenges. Wish I could even approach your total.

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

I went on a mass scanning spree when I joined GR in 2011, and I started logging my progress there as soon as I found the feature. I also started religiously adding my new purchases as I made them, just because it's easier that way.

I joined in 2011 too, and have been doing exactly the same. Just wish I had kept a record of my reading before then. I have reached the age where I forget the titles of books I have read previously, and being able to check if I have already read a book is invaluable.

I topped out the year with 76 books read (against a target of 75) so I was pleased with that, and also beat my average page-count target. Not as many books as I would like to read (I managed 110 in 2011) but given where I am in life and the distractions I have, I'm happy with where I am .

[issybird]

Originally Posted by orlok

I do the same - there are still hundreds, if not thousands, that I read in my late teens and early adulthood (when I had time to read a two or three books a day, sometimes more) that I can't remember, and when I stumble across them now I'll add them to the list, but it will never be complete. I have also resisted adding any children's books (Enid Blyton's mysteries, the Hardy Boys etc. etc.) as that's going too far, IMO ).

I've decided that this year I'm going to make an effort to add a few books at a time to my Goodreads list. Just in my bookshelves, I've got hundreds of books that I've read. Still, as you say it will never be complete, nor would I even want it to be. All those mysteries I used to devour!

That said, I don't know quite what to do about authors who were of some importance to me (albeit not to the literary world) whose entire œuvre I've read, but it would be faintly ridiculous to list all their books. Angela Thirkell, just as one example - I greatly enjoyed her more than thirty novels (some more than others, of course), but I can hardly differentiate among them now. She herself had her literary doppelgänger, Mrs. Morland, say about her books, "Not but what they are all the same, because my publisher says that pays better." On a higher plane, how about C.P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers sequence? I was mesmerized by those novels and I think I've listed one; do I just go ahead and add the other ten?

It's all just for fun, of course, I'm not really losing any sleep over it.

Congratulations on your challenge achievements, btw, very impressive, and you definitely shouldn't beat yourself up over the sub-challenges. Wish I could even approach your total.

<snip>

I topped out the year with 76 books read (against a target of 75) so I was pleased with that, and also beat my average page-count target. Not as many books as I would like to read (I managed 110 in 2011) but given where I am in life and the distractions I have, I'm happy with where I am .

Thank you and congratulations to you, too. The only person we're in competition with is ourselves, of course; I'm delighted that my reading has become increasingly rewarding now that it's more focused and I keep track.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Keeping track has made me more conscious of what I read and I try to read a better variety and expand my horizons. That makes me very thankful for the challenges. It makes searching for books that much more fun and finishing a book that much more satisfying.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm waiting for the remaining books in the series to come out as ebooks on 5th Feb before starting my reading of the series. I hate reading incomplete series!

And that doesn't bother me at all. If I waited until a series was complete, I'd miss out on some wonderful books in series which the author is still contributing to. And I don't have a problem with reading some books in a series in paper and others in electronic format. The only format that I don't seem to be able to mix in is audio. If I start a series in audio, I seem to *need* to continue with the audio editions.

I find it interesting and stimulating to compare with other readers -- likes, dislikes, pet peeves, habits, etc. I look at the books that someone is reading and see some I'd like and some I'd detest and I wonder how someone could *possibly* like both! I certainly find more books to add to my "I want to read this" list -- particularly when someone posts a thoughtful review which resonates with me.

[orlok]

Just for completeness sake I have updated the 2014 Annual Reading Challenge List thread with all 76 books. Average page count was 339, which is okay, and beat my target of 300 (as previously stated, I did have a few short stories in my list, which is why I set the average page challenge as well) .