The 2014 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread!

[CharredScribe]

Welcome Luffy. I find reading addictive too. I started when I was 4, and haven't looked back!

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by CharredScribe

Welcome Luffy. I find reading addictive too. I started when I was 4, and haven't looked back!

I do feel welcome. Good to be here.

[jbcohen]

Originally Posted by CharredScribe

Welcome Luffy. I find reading addictive too. I started when I was 4, and haven't looked back!

At age four my folkes unfortunately sent me to a Montessori school, where I wondered what these books said, so I taught myself to read and never looked back, I have been reading everything in sight since.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

At age four my folkes unfortunately sent me to a Montessori school, where I wondered what these books said, so I taught myself to read and never looked back, I have been reading everything in sight since.

Same here. I learned to read at 5, by age 7 I was on a first-name basis with the staff of the local library branch, and by age 9 or so I had permission to read everything in there, even the adult books you officially had to be over 12 for (as long as my parents were OK with them)...

Great times. I pretty much lived in that library in those days . It's not there any more (the Hilversum city library shut down almost all their local branches due to cutbacks a few years ago), but I will always remember it fondly.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Same here. I learned to read at 5, by age 7 I was on a first-name basis with the staff of the local library branch, and by age 9 or so I had permission to read everything in there, even the adult books you officially had to be over 12 for (as long as my parents were OK with them)...

Great times. I pretty much lived in that library in those days . It's not there any more (the Hilversum city library shut down almost all their local branches due to cutbacks a few years ago), but I will always remember it fondly.

I was reading at age 3. At 5 years old, my daddy took me to the library, introduced me to the librarian, and told her that she was not to censor my reading. If I picked a book that was too difficult for me, I'd figure it out. A couple of weeks later, I'm standing in the library throwing a temper tantrum because the librarian wouldn't let me check out the book I had brought to the desk. I'm screaming "My Daddy said I could take any book I wanted!" She finally called my daddy and asked to to explain to me that *no one* was allowed to check out a volume of the encyclopedia.

I'm now reading from 130 to 160 books a year. My 2014 goal is 150 books. For the first part of the year, I was well ahead of the pace to meet the goal, but at the end of July I noted that I was reading less and falling off the pace. August has been a much better month. I've completed 12 books so far and know that I will finish at least 2 more before the end of the month.

[Katsunami]

The one thing I've learned from this year's reading challenge is that I will never again state subchallenges such as "read X books in genre Y" or "read X classics of Y different authors." I hate it.

I still have six classics, Musashi and Tai-Pan to read, but I feel like reading other books first. I can't do that, because they're not in the subchallenge, and I don't want to cheat by just scrapping them.

Next year, which will be in a bit more than four months, I'll just state a number of pages, and read whatever the heck I feel like at the spur of the moment, even if it is my 17th (or so) re-read of the Lord of the Rings.

(Actually, it's even not sure if I'll make the actual main challenge...)

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

The one thing I've learned from this year's reading challenge is that I will never again state subchallenges such as "read X books in genre Y" or "read X classics of Y different authors." I hate it.

Yeah, you've gotta watch those subchallenges and keep 'em manageable, or they stop being fun. I combined two into one by picking the "12 unread books I've owned for over a year" from my physical stacks, and that worked pretty well...although the larger goal of "get more of these physical books read and into storage" has not. I may just abandon the e-reader for a little while in September and knock out a stack of trade paperbacks; I've got five Star Trek Mirror/Myriad Universe volumes piled up, and there are several New Sherlock Holmes books under those. All of those should go pretty quickly, while clearing out a decent volume of ink-and-pulp. (And hey, there are a couple of other Trek mass-markets nearby that fit the MU theme...)

Originally Posted by Katsunami

(Actually, it's even not sure if I'll make the actual main challenge...)

I'm in the same boat, but at least I've narrowed my deficit from 12 to 9 books. The tonsillectomy was horrible in terms of writing progress, but at least it was good for Just Plain Reading.

[Katsunami]

I've been stuck in Hitchhiker's Guide 6 for two weeks or so. Hardly any time to read.

Same as in May, where reading a Professor Challenger story/novella (The Land of Mist) took me three weeks.

[CWatkinsNash]

I've increased my challenge from 50 to 75. I'm now on #55. Don't know if I'll get there, but at this point it's about tracking, not about hitting a given number.

[pdurrant]

I've just finished my 160th book of the year. Unfortunately, I've also just bought my 242nd book of the year...

However, I still have a chance of staying within my $480 budget limit for the year.

[Katsunami]

Do you almost read and buy books at random?

I can't even THINK of 160 books to read in one year, let alone think of almost 250 to buy... years on end.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I can't even THINK of 160 books to read on one year, let alone think of almost 250 to buy... years on end.

Well, it's not like we select 'em in bulk lots or anything like that. But, for example, I just picked up an 8-book series that I owned in paperback and thoroughly enjoyed. I'm not expecting to reread 'em in the near future, but the author's recently finished a first draft on the ninth book (after a 20-year gap!), and I'm pretty sure that'll find its way into print one way or another. When it does, bam - perfect reason to pick it up and read all nine. At the same time, I picked up books 2-4 of a series where I own but haven't yet read book 1, and now my plan is to read all of those as a lump...when I get a chance.

And that's the problem: getting that chance. I can think of a few six-book series in my e-collection that I've either not started yet or read the first book of and not gotten around to the second, usually because something with a higher priority comes along, and the bypassed books slowly lose priority as that keeps happening...

[Geralt]

The worst thing is making too many challenges, and then they turn in to a chore to finish.
Turning reading in to a chore is about the easiest way to fall into a slump. But that might be a good thing, because not all people want to read all the time. It's just that with tracking and social media, forums and so on, we came to this idea that we HAVE to be reading all the time. I think slumps can be beneficial. Your mind takes a break, and after a while most people will genuinely want to read something.

On topic, I'm on my 20th book this year. My yearly challenge was 30 books so I'm on track. That means I've been reading 2.5 books a month, with average page of around 875 pages a month. That sounds about right, as most of my reads is fantasy, and the books in that genre are notorious door-stoppers. Pages total is visible in my signature.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Do you almost read and buy books at random?

I can't even THINK of 160 books to read in one year, let alone think of almost 250 to buy... years on end.

If you're interested in the gory details, you can follow the links to my lists for the past five years of reading and buying in my signature.

I tend to buy SF/Fantasy, along with a bit of Mystery/Detective and some historical fiction.

And an ocassional book of (auto)biography, history or science.

I don't find it hard to find more books to buy. Rather the opposite!

[jbcohen]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

I was reading at age 3. At 5 years old, my daddy took me to the library, introduced me to the librarian, and told her that she was not to censor my reading. If I picked a book that was too difficult for me, I'd figure it out. A couple of weeks later, I'm standing in the library throwing a temper tantrum because the librarian wouldn't let me check out the book I had brought to the desk. I'm screaming "My Daddy said I could take any book I wanted!" She finally called my daddy and asked to to explain to me that *no one* was allowed to check out a volume of the encyclopedia.

I'm now reading from 130 to 160 books a year. My 2014 goal is 150 books. For the first part of the year, I was well ahead of the pace to meet the goal, but at the end of July I noted that I was reading less and falling off the pace. August has been a much better month. I've completed 12 books so far and know that I will finish at least 2 more before the end of the month.

My only regret is the Montessori school, I have big problems with their teaching techniques. When it came to be my turn to chose a pre-school for my son, I told my wife simply to avoid Montessori and everything to do with her like the plauge.