The 2015 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[Tarana]

do I count the stories or the days? I read two shorter works today. Do I bank the extra story, or do I just record that I read at least one story today?

Depends. Was your goal to simply read and enjoy short stories which you lost the habit of reading or was the goal to tick off a certain number because you've gotten so behind on your reading of them?

Eventually, some calamity or just plain illness will interfere with your daily goal. Will you feel BEHIND if you miss out on a week of reading because you got the flu? If so, then, count the stories. If not, don't worry about it. Perhaps keep a spreadsheet of them. I keep a list and a goal number just because I have a lot of individual purchased and free novellas and short stories in both audiobook and Kindle. Some of these are back from 2008. I usually listen to them in the morning, but then life happens and I get out of the habit and my list reminds me that I still have these waiting for me. Once I get caught up, I will return to my podcasts (Classic Tales, Scipodcast, OldTimeRadio) which was my previous morning fare.

Finished yet another Terry Pratchett audiobook (Reaper Man). I have the next one, but it looks like I have 5 starts already going on and need to finish at least one of those before starting another. I have one non-fiction book "Life at Bletchley Park" that is very interesting, but I always have to push myself to read more of it. I guess this is why I seldom read non-fiction any more. Today though, since the Echo has a very good speaker, I'm going to set it to Text-to-speech (british voice of course) and listen to it while I work on a time-consuming project.

[pdurrant]

My challenge has just got a bit tricker with the LightSpeed Magazine kickstarter. Luckily I have been frugal this month, and the kickstarter payment comes in February, so I can still stay in budget.

But it's clearly going to be harder to stick to my £25/month budget than I'd hoped. (Since the Kickstarter is around £24 all on its own - about £12 carried over from January and the remaining £12 from February.)

[missimpossible]

Finally finished my third book of the year, Emma by Jane Austen. I'm currently two books behind on my challenge. Not sure what's dragged me down. I'm still halfway through the second book in the Gormenghast trilogy and don't see me finishing it by the end of the month. I don't know what's taking me so long with it - partly, because it's a physical book that contains all three of the books, so I can't take it anywhere. But although I'm absolutely loving it, I just don't seem to be getting through it at all. So I'm going to read some other things for a bit, and come back to it. Hopefully I can catch up with my challenge by the end of January.

Fortunately, my limitations I've put on myself for buying books have worked better! I've only spent 30% of my monthly ebook budget so far, and I've only bought one physical book, which I'm going to read now - the Austen Project update of Emma written by Alexander McCall Smith.

[Nyssa]

I've been in a manga mood lately.
Its not very helpful for either of my book club challenges, nor my genre/category challenge, but its great for my series challenge as I'm now 3 books into a 10 book series called Kitchen Princess. I own the entire collection thanks to my daughter being interested in it first.

[Lin2412]

@Nyssa: I have a weakness for Mangas! Which ones are your favorites? When I was in highschool I used to buy volume per volume until I had to give them up for my nieces (younger generation); but when I was in college, I've met a lot of young professionals who still have their manga collections intact.

[Lin2412]

(Sadly Mangas aren't a part of my challenge. But I can always add them up. Hahaha)
I haven't even started on the crime/fantasy books I've challenge myself on. Apparently The Martian doesn't count as a sci-fi book as it's science fiction only... sad face.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by Lin2412

@Nyssa: I have a weakness for Mangas! Which ones are your favorites? When I was in highschool I used to buy volume per volume until I had to give them up for my nieces (younger generation); but when I was in college, I've met a lot of young professionals who still have their manga collections intact.

I'm pretty new to the category, so I haven't found a favorite as yet.

I really enjoyed the first omnibus Volume of Chobits. I plan to reread it at some point this year and then finally read the 2nd omnibus, which has been sitting on shelf forever.
I did not enjoy Clover at all; its ending prematurely didn't help either.
I'm liking Kitchen Princess so far... its a very sweet (no pun intended).

Originally Posted by Lin2412

(Sadly Mangas aren't a part of my challenge. But I can always add them up. Hahaha)
I haven't even started on the crime/fantasy books I've challenge myself on. Apparently The Martian doesn't count as a sci-fi book as it's science fiction only... sad face.

I'm guessing you meant that it doesn't count as Fantasy, because sci-fi is short for Science Fiction.
Challenges are supposed to be fun, so if you want to add manga, go ahead, unless you think adding it will interfere with the rest of your challenges.
Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy all of your reads this year!

[Tarana]

Finally finished my third book of the year, Emma by Jane Austen.

I should pick that up again. Listened about 1/3 of the way through, but too many interruptions at the time. That was fall of 2013. I have a slew of Classics audiobooks that I got for free or 99c due to whispersync.

[HomeInMyShoes]

One month in (almost) and it looks like I'll finish it with a dozen books in the complete pile and two on the go. I might get a thirteenth in, but probably not. One of my biggest months for pages read at almost 3,600 pages. I don't think I've ever hit 4,000 pages in a month.

My sub challenges are coming along nicely:

TBR: 3/5
Second Chance: 3/5
Canada: 1/6
Book Club: 1/8
World: 0/6

Purchases: $0

[pdurrant]

Congratulations, HIMS, especially on the $0 purchased!

I am well in budget for the month so far, and look like staying in budget next month despite a large spend on LightSpeed Magazine's kickstarter.

But reducing my TBR pile this year is looking less certain - the kickstarter alone will add 50+ books (the Fantasy Magazine back catalogue) to my TBR pile.

[DrNefario]

I think I am going to hit 4000 pages, myself, which is a pretty remarkable total, for me. OK, I finished a 450-page book on the 1st, and I probably only read about 150 pages of the 400-page Shadows Beneath anthology (the rest was transcripts of podcasts I listened to, and earlier drafts of the stories, which I skimmed), but it's still very good going. The extra short story a day has basically given me four additional books already, which is coincidentally how far ahead of my TBR I am.

[CRussel]

Well, 12 books so far this month, so slightly ahead of my 120 book target, and close to my 150 book target. Looking good, considering I've been busier than a [fill in your favourite expression here].

[Love.Forever.]

I want to at least finish 4 books.. just finished one, and about to start reading another. There's also a few manga's I want to get into like the Akira series.. finished the first book last year, but it's a pain to find the rest of the series.

[Rumpelteazer]

Reading my 11th book of the year, which I should be able to finish today or tomorrow. I've been on a short book binge this month so I managed to read 3301 pages when I finish my current book.

[JSWolf]

I'm trying to finish Perdido Street Station. It varies as to how interesting it is. I do feel it's a bit longer than it needs to be.