The 2012 Annual Reading Challenge - Discussion Thread!

[Sarah-Bookworm]

My aim is to read 50 books before the end of this year.

I'm hoping to break my Women's Fiction addiction by throwing in some mystery and suspense novels but that Chick Lit just keeps creeping back in! lol

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I just past sixty books in my quest to reach my goal. Twenty-Five books left.

Congratulations. You're on track to meet your target.

I'm a bit behind-hand, although I don't regret my Georgette Heyer sale purchases.

[sun surfer]

I got pretty behind a month or so ago, but now I'm slowly catching up. I was at worst about 5 books behind schedule, but now I've caught up to about only 2 books behind.

I am now realising though that I might have to go above and beyond my page count goal for the year to complete the rest of my challenge, which is to read a set of particular books this year. My initial goals were supposed to be symbiotic and harmonious but it's not working out that way.

I had decided on 13,000 pages, split into 50 equal sections of 260 pages each. I had decided on that by deciding on 50 books for the year but wanting to count by pages instead for a fairer count, and then decided that 260 is a good number for average pages per book, and multiplied by 50 it came out to the nice clean number of 13,000.

So with the thinking of "50 books" in mind, even though I was counting by pages instead, I came up with a to-read challenge list. There were 13 pre-selected books and around 24 unknown books to be read for two book clubs. That equaled 37 and left 13 more to choose as the year went on, to reach 50 actual books, but since I was counting pages I thought I may choose more or less than 13 more through the year and that was my safeguard to make both parts of my challenge cohere.

However, it's turning out that I'm reading many books that are much longer than 260 pages, so looking at what's still to be read, I think I'm going to have to go above 13,000 pages to read everything I challenged myself to read this year. It'll be interesting to see if I can achieve both parts of this challenge!

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

However, it's turning out that I'm reading many books that are much longer than 260 pages, so looking at what's still to be read, I think I'm going to have to go above 13,000 pages to read everything I challenged myself to read this year. It'll be interesting to see if I can achieve both parts of this challenge!

It sounds like you can still make it and it looks like you will have a better starting point for next year or at least for creating next year's goals by getting a more accurate average page count for the books you read. My average page count is between 300 (last year) and 320 (this year so far), I had originally though it would be around 250 because of all the short stories I am reading on the Kindle; apparently the longer books more than make up for the short ones.

[sun surfer]

Thanks; I hope so. Yeah, next year I'll definitely be reworking my challenge. Same as you, I knew I'd read a few longer books but thought the short stories and shorter books would make up for it, but that turns out not the be the case.

[Nyssa]

For the pats 2 years I've told myself to set my goal to 50 books, but then I ended up piling on to it in a case of "my eyes being bigger than my stomach". So next year I'm sticking to 50 books, period, with the only provision being that I read/finish any series that I have not read/finish from my list this year.

I will track the number of pages read simply out of curiosity.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I just finished book number 57 for this year. This next one will take me a while though.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

For the pats 2 years I've told myself to set my goal to 50 books, but then I ended up piling on to it in a case of "my eyes being bigger than my stomach". So next year I'm sticking to 50 books, period, with the only provision being that I read/finish any series that I have not read/finish from my list this year.

I will track the number of pages read simply out of curiosity.

I set mine to 50 this year, and when I hit that last week I was so tempted to increase it but I finally let it go.

Next year I don't think I'm going to have a number goal at all. I'll set the GR widget for tracking purposes, but I want to do something different. (In addition to our perpetual series challenges, that is. )

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

...I will track the number of pages read simply out of curiosity.

I like this idea!

I'm still tossing around a few different possibilities for my challenge next year. I know I'd like to have a pre-selected "to read" list again that will probably cover at the very least more than half of what I read next year, so in a way pages read doesn't seem so necessary since so many books will be pre-selected with therefore a pre-selected amount of pages, but I have really enjoyed counting and seeing how many pages I've read this year per day/week, and it still just feels so much fairer counting pages.

So one idea for me that I just thought of with your post is that I could just have a "to read" challenge list that equals a particular number of books, and then still track pages as well just for fun.

Well, there's still a few more months to think on it.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Few more months! I've been working on mine since the beginning of July.

I've read some pretty light books when it comes to pages (actually they look long, but aren't when based on page count.)

H.G. Wells In The Days of the Comet at 276 was a far bigger read than Diane Duane's So You Want to Be a Wizard at 394 pages. Pages are pretty useless, but I do use them to guage pacing of books and my progress on my reading.

Currently, I'm 142 days ahead of schedule.

As sun surfer alluded to, the only thing that actually matters is am I reading or did I read what I wanted to. Whether that is a set out list way before the year starts or just ends up being random things along the way doesn't matter. The challenges have got me reading every day. Many thanks to the challenge creators!

[CRussel]

Finished book #97 this morning. I don't think I'll have any problems hitting 100 books read. But I'm rather disappointed in my overall book quality. Too many contemporary SF and Mystery books, too few Classics or Non-Fiction. OTOH, I read for enjoyment mostly, so hard to argue with what I enjoy.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Finished book #97 this morning. I don't think I'll have any problems hitting 100 books read. But I'm rather disappointed in my overall book quality. Too many contemporary SF and Mystery books, too few Classics or Non-Fiction. OTOH, I read for enjoyment mostly, so hard to argue with what I enjoy.

I feel this way a lot too. I keep thinking that I should read more non-fiction or classics or "literature", but I never read much of it. I do enjoy what I do read though, so I am happy.

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

. . .Next year I don't think I'm going to have a number goal at all. I'll set the GR widget for tracking purposes. . .

Christa what GR widget?

[HomeInMyShoes]

^There's a GoodReads widget you can get to if you log in:

Goodreads Widgets

It will list all the available widgets and give the html code for embedding it on your blog or website or whatever.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by jersysman

Christa what GR widget?

Just that Goodreads challenge graphic that shows the books goal and progress.