The 2013 Annual Reading Challenge - Discussion Thread!

[applesauce]

I have 2 goals for 2013, One is to get past 50 books for the year, rather difficult as I have a passion for as my mother calls them door stoppers. I do not think anything under 500 pages is on my must read now list. You know the TBR list inside the TBR list that is a million miles long. My second is to increase up my 5km walks to a greater distance. Tho I will not get a start on that until after we finish summer here. Way to hot right now. So air con and books it is.

applesauce

[burgesk]

For the past 3 years I've had 75 books as my goal. In 2010 and 2011 I hit that goal but found that I was reading shorter books in order to meet it. This year I will not make my goal since I picked books I wanted to read, not ones that would help me hit my goal. I will end up just less than 60 for the year.

For 2013 I would like to read more classics and books from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list (but only the ones that I want to read since I'm not trying to read the entire list). I would also like to read more history books next year and will probably focus on the history of the middle ages. I might try to hit a number of pages read goal, just not sure what that goal should be yet. I'll check to see how many pages I read this year to help set that goal.

Just checked and I will end up reading almost exactly 15000 pages for 2012, so that will be my pages read goal for 2013.

[Anabana]

Since I'm a first-timer here, and have no clue how many books I read in a year, it will be good just to keep track. I have two or three books going all the time and at least one is usually an old friend that I haven't read in a few years.
I think I'll try to include a 'best seller' from each decade of the 20th century.

[orlok]

I'm going to miss my 2012 total books read challenge by 3 books. For 2013 I'm not setting a total, and am just going to read what I want to, so that if I feel like it I can choose door-steps, comics and short stories, all of which I have avoided this year as I tried to make my target.

I will still keep a track of what I'm reading, but my challenge is just to have fun .

[pdurrant]

I think I'm going to change my rating system this year. I've been using an "out of 10" rating system, but I find that it's too fine grained. So I'm going to switch to an 'out of five' system, with a couple of extras.

0: Stinker! I probably abandoned this one. I doubt that anyone would like it.

1: Bad. I wish I hadn't bought this one, but it's possible others might like it
2: Poor. Readable, but I won't be looking out for more by this author.
3: Average. An OK read, but it didn't really grab me.
4: Good. An enjoyable read. I'll probably buy more by this author
5: Excellent. This author's other works are on my wishlist now.

5*: Wow! How could I have missed this before now.?

I expect most of my ratings to be 3 or 4. Hopefully not more than 1 or 2 zero ratings a year. And if I award a 5* rating, it'll be a good year. I don't think I would have awarded a 5* rating in 2012 or 2011. Heaven by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen in 2010 would have been a 5*.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by alucarda

Well I'll be damned. This guy stole my challenge and my list. Wtf.....

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...3&postcount=26

I'd be flattered.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Anybody stealing my list is probably slightly unstable.

My goal is to read one book published in every year I've been alive. 44 books starting in 1970. I guess I'll be opting out of the classics book club selections this year.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Anybody stealing my list is probably slightly unstable.

I agree

[issybird]

I've been spending a lot of time figuring out my challenges and tweaking the numbers to make it a reasonable challenge, i.e., a doable reach, and I still think I might be committing to more than I can manage given limited time and powers of concentration on workday evenings, but I'll give it a go. With a benchmark of 100 books for the year, I'm assigning 50 to challenges with 50 free reads.

The theme of 2012 was breadth, so for 2013 I've decided to go for depth. My topic is 17th century England, and I plan to read 12 non-fiction books on the topic and dip into the literature of the period: plays, poetry and Pepys.

I've also noted that I've missed out on several recent works of non-fiction I want to read, mostly because they're doorstoppers in paper and I didn't want to pay agency prices. I'm over that. This year, I'm going to ignore the coupons and deals and buy whatever I want only when I'm ready to read it; I figure I'll save money and cut down on the eclutter. So I'm committing to 10 non-fiction books of recent (2011 or newer) vintage.

While I made some inroads into the unread PBs toppling over themselves, I still have quite the accumulation. I just missed my 2012 goal and I decided I have to commit to fewer this year; my PBs tend to be longish non-fiction (especially since I cherry-picked several of the easier reads this year), and another big non-fiction goal seems unattainable. So 12 PBs from the laundry basket this year.

As I kept adjusting my PB goal downward, I had to come up with something to take up the slack to hit my commitment of 50 books. I'm going to read 10 of the 12 MR lit club choices (to give myself some wiggle room in case I really, really don't want read a selection) and six classics. The latter can be a reread of something I read once or twice in my salad days, but not a classic I know thoroughly.

I'm looking forward to 2013, but I'm going to have to pace myself or I'll get into trouble early. Fun!

[paola]

Oops, it is 2013 already, so must get on with this!

As I am new to book challenges, and I don't want to risk turn it into a chore, so for this first time I will keep to something quite vague, i.e. do more or less what I did this year, namely 30 books/9000 pages, at least to begin with, of which about a third fiction books. There are a couple of books from 2012 which I will finish shortly and won't enter the count. I plan to add more nuances to this challenge as the year progresses and I see how I get along (yeah, I know, it is cheating ), but for the moment I'll keep it simple.

[BelleZora]

2012 was the first year I've tracked books read and was amazed to hit 190 books. No more than a half dozen were short (A Christmas Carol, some novellas), but I feel that was balanced out by Ivanhoe, Moby Dick, and 11-22-1963. In 2013 I won't include anything under 160 pages in the book count.

I don't want to set goals that may turn reading into a chore. I'm working my way through several series and will continue to read maybe a classic a month. I enjoy choosing a reading plan one month at a time, so that will continue to be my method for setting goals. Books left unread will transfer to the next month. K.I.S.S.

[jersysman]

I'm ready with my challenge I think. I am going to challenge myself to read 35,000 pages this year. That way, I won't be tempted not to read short stories or novellas. Also (these I will keep track off), I will read 20 books in my theme for the year. My theme for the year is The American Civil War and Biographies of Western figures (such as famous gunslingers, Native Americans, etc.)

This should be an interesting year.

[barb2cats]

I missed my 2012 goal (200 books) by ll books - Read 189.
I further missed my goal of documenting books read on the 2012 List thread.
(I did keep a paper list - just didn't get it onto Mobileread).

I'm trying again for 200 books in 2013. And, am trying to document each month's reading as I go.

Barb

[pdurrant]

barb2cats:

2013 Reading Goal - 200 books read and documented!

Wow. That's a lot!

[applesauce]

my 0 of 2012 where the Shades of Grey books. I rate them rather have poked my eyes out with burning coals.
I MUST break my once started must finish mentality.

applesauce

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I think I'm going to change my rating system this year. I've been using an "out of 10" rating system, but I find that it's too fine grained. So I'm going to switch to an 'out of five' system, with a couple of extras.

0: Stinker! I probably abandoned this one. I doubt that anyone would like it.

1: Bad. I wish I hadn't bought this one, but it's possible others might like it
2: Poor. Readable, but I won't be looking out for more by this author.
3: Average. An OK read, but it didn't really grab me.
4: Good. An enjoyable read. I'll probably buy more by this author
5: Excellent. This author's other works are on my wishlist now.

5*: Wow! How could I have missed this before now.?

I expect most of my ratings to be 3 or 4. Hopefully not more than 1 or 2 zero ratings a year. And if I award a 5* rating, it'll be a good year. I don't think I would have awarded a 5* rating in 2012 or 2011. Heaven by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen in 2010 would have been a 5*.