The 2014 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread!

[Nyssa]

I count anthologies as 1 book, and an omnibus as however many books it contains (e.g. The Chronicles of Narnia omnibus = 7 books, whereas Side Jobs - an anthology of Dresden Files short stories = 1 book).

[Dazrin]

Regarding short stories, I do the same as the above 4 posters. But since I use a page count for my goal, it really doesn't matter if they are combined or not, it just helps me be able to take notes for each individual item. Even the anthologies I normally comment on each story (at least I did with the Sherlock Holmes ones last year.)

Originally Posted by SouthernSun

I think that this year I'm going to aim for one of two things: to either read 52 books (1 book per week) or 50,000 pages (962 pages per week)

Wow, you must read really long books if those are equivalent length challenges! My fantasy books only average out to 615 pages/book and I read all of the Wheel of Time in the last couple years.

[sakura-panda]

Thanks for setting up these threads! I enjoy keeping track of what and how many books I read and it's nice to have them together with other readers and reading ideas.

[SouthernSun]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Wow, you must read really long books if those are equivalent length challenges! My fantasy books only average out to 615 pages/book and I read all of the Wheel of Time in the last couple years.

Not always, but my prior experience estimates that they'll balance each other out by the end of the year.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by sakura-panda

Thanks for setting up these threads! I enjoy keeping track of what and how many books I read and it's nice to have them together with other readers and reading ideas.

Glad to do it. And I agree, its fun to find new ideas.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by SouthernSun

I tend towards larger fantasy novels, so this way, if I pick up another book which clocks in above 1,000 pages (I'm looking at you, IT!),

When It was published, I was in high school. I picked it up and read it in six days.

On the seventh, I rested.

I've reread it several times since, and I highly recommend it. If you're a big King fan, there are all sorts of Easter eggs, too. For instance, pay attention to the car that picks Henry up...

[SouthernSun]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

When It was published, I was in high school. I picked it up and read it in six days.

On the seventh, I rested.

In high school, I could have managed the same pace. These days, I'm lucky to get half an hour alone for reading, and I'm not as fast as I once was!

[Yapyap]

I also count short stories separately if they've been published individually. I would also count a short story separately if I only read one story in an anthology (and if an individual entry exists for the story on Goodreads).

Otherwise, if I plan to read all or most stories in it, it would definitely be one collection/anthology = one book.

I read ten Doctor Who 50th Anniversary short stories last year - one per month, as they were released, as individual ebooks. So those counted as ten books. (I also read two ~1000 page books last year, for example, so I'm thinking it does even out over the year!)

With omnibuses, I split them up for reading, and count each one as a separate book - especially as I won't be reading them all after one another.

[Tizzalicious]

I don't count short stories, unless there are multiple in a book (in which case I count them together as one book).

Omnibuses I count as seperate books.

[Geralt]

If goodreads had page counter widget we could use as a reading challenge tracker, than you wouldn't have to separate omnibuses or wonder how to count something.
But it is how it is.

What is funny to me is people who keep track of comics and manga as books on GR. One volume of 100-150 pages of pictures and maybe 5 pages of text is not a book lol. There are better sites to track your comics/manga.
But, hey to each his own I'm sure some people track even the picture books they read to their kids

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Geralt

If goodreads had page counter widget we could use as a reading challenge tracker, than you wouldn't have to separate omnibuses or wonder how to count something.

Well, they kind of do. You just have to look for it, rather than it being a detachable widget.

(For the curious, my 2011 stats are so much lower because I started using Goodreads in the latter half of the year.)

[Geralt]

I know about stats Rev. Bob. Not exactly what I'm talking about.

[Yapyap]

The problem with the page count in Goodreads statistics is that for those of us who read a lot of ebooks, it's quite likely that some of the editions in the database don't have a page count attached to them (not to mention it can vary wildly, ADE page counts in particular often being considerably lower than any paper edition page counts, but that's the case also with various paper editions) - so it's not at all impossible that some books read don't show under the page count at all.

I usually do try to pick an ebook edition that has a page count attached to it, even if it's not the exact same edition I'm reading, but it's not always possible (and I don't always feel up to trying to hunt down some kind of "official" page count for that edition and add a new entry or edit the existing entry, even though I have Librarian status there).

So this is one reason why I'm doing challenges by number of books, not number of pages - the other reason is that with reading on the Kindle, counting number of separately existing items just seems to make more sense (for me, that is). And another reason is to cut down on the TBR list / not acquire more books than I read this year, so for that, both challenging myself to a specific number of titles as well as marking individually released items as individual reads, even if it's a short story, also seems to work better in my case.

[Geralt]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

so it's not at all impossible that some books read don't show under the page count at all.

I usually do try to pick an ebook edition that has a page count attached to it, even if it's not the exact same edition I'm reading, but it's not always possible (and I don't always feel up to trying to hunt down some kind of "official" page count for that edition and add a new entry or edit the existing entry, even though I have Librarian status there).

When I find a book that has no page number I post in here and request to be added.
I don't have a librarian status, but that doesn't stop me in being very active.

I always, always add the e-book edition I am reading with correct page number, which I get 99% of the time from the publisher page.

Number of pages for ebooks is not a problem at all, since most of them are based on the paperback of the same edition.

[Yapyap]

I guess it depends on what kind of books and how many you read, as finding that information isn't at all easy sometimes for me.

Maybe I just pick really odd editions (or rather, have really odd editions sold to me), because I've had the "missing page count" problem quite a lot over the last few years - and finding the corresponding paperback can be a problem when there are several dozen paper editions listed / in existence, each with different page counts.

I do think this is an issue that is getting lesser and lesser, as ebooks become more popular and have more information available - it was more of an issue in 2011 and 2012 than last year, IIRC.