MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - The 2019 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

pdurrant · 12-31-2019, 09:48 AM

Time for a final report on my reading challenge for 2019.

My goal was "to buy fewer books than I read".

I read 135 books in 2019. I bought 166 books in 2019. So on the raw numbers I've failed.

But looking closer, 15 of those 166 were books I'd read before, but wanted in ebook form. So we can ignore those. 135 vs 151. And 23 others were reference books, or books included in bundles that I'm not going to read, and so aren't added to my TBR. 135 vs 128!

But if we're going to discard some books, I must also included the freebies I added to my TBR this year - seven of them.

So that makes 135 read vs 135 acquired. I break even.

Except that eight of the books I read were re-reads. But I also discarded 29 books from my TBR pile as being books I was now no longer interested in ever reading.

So that makes 156 books removed, and just 135 added.

An overall reduction of 21 for the year!

While I've managed to end up with a reduction in my TBR, I think I'll have to do better next year, and end up with both a reduction in my TBR, and a clear gap between the books I buy and the books I read.

12-31-2019, 09:48 AM	#160
pdurrant The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠 Posts: 71,514 Karma: 306214458 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Norfolk, England Device: Kindle Voyage	Time for a final report on my reading challenge for 2019. My goal was "to buy fewer books than I read". I read 135 books in 2019. I bought 166 books in 2019. So on the raw numbers I've failed. But looking closer, 15 of those 166 were books I'd read before, but wanted in ebook form. So we can ignore those. 135 vs 151. And 23 others were reference books, or books included in bundles that I'm not going to read, and so aren't added to my TBR. 135 vs 128! But if we're going to discard some books, I must also included the freebies I added to my TBR this year - seven of them. So that makes 135 read vs 135 acquired. I break even. Except that eight of the books I read were re-reads. But I also discarded 29 books from my TBR pile as being books I was now no longer interested in ever reading. So that makes 156 books removed, and just 135 added. An overall reduction of 21 for the year! While I've managed to end up with a reduction in my TBR, I think I'll have to do better next year, and end up with both a reduction in my TBR, and a clear gap between the books I buy and the books I read.