The 2020 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

ISo my TBR is now 37 down on the start of the year at 960.

I finished another today, so my TBR at the end of June is 959!

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by PurpleStar

Geez I don't think I've even read 12 books all year.

You probably score more brownie points where it matters, such as being verbose and informed and knowledgeable

[Rumpelteazer]

Doing okay-ish. Six books and just over 2200 pages. According to Goodreads I'm 16 books ahead of schedule for reading 52 books this year. So that's good. Compared to earlier I'm not doing that well. But I'm happy that I'm reading again regularly.

[Tarana]

Only goal reached was reading over 3,000 pages for the month (just shy of 5,000). Otherwise, TBR is up again despite all that reading.

How the goals size up for Half Year:
Reading 3000+ pages per month: Met goal every month
Ebook TBR Goal down 10 books: Not a chance, up 64 books!
Audiobook TBR: Goal down 10 books: Up 18
Magazines TBR: Goal down 10 books: +1

Lots of pages read but most were rereads of Dresden Files and Shannara series. Done with the rereads now, so back to knocking down the TBR. I quit all my magazines last year, but still receiving some from a Kickstarter reward, so near progress. Purchases aren't the new shiny thing but primarily adding to current series or authors.

Funny thing: For 2 years, I tried to reach a goal on short stories/novellas and failed miserably. This year, it is not a goal and I've read nearly 50 that are not part of an anthology.

Happy reading!

[DrNefario]

My total books read is quite a long way down on the last couple of years, for no particular reason. I think I've just been reading longer, slower books. Most of my goals are more-or-less on target, but I had a bit of a slip-up on the new purchases at the start of June (and still have some credit to spend in the next 10 days thanks to that pesky Amazon offer), so I've gone behind on my main goal.

Books bought: 20
Books read: 34
(Target was to read twice what I buy, so I'm 6 behind.)

King of the Mountains (longest 5 books total 3000 pages): 3291 - Target reached
Morningstar Crescent (Morningstar award nominees): 2/5 - Not disastrously behind
Curtains (finish Agatha Christie): 6/10 - On target
Paper Chase (paper books): Read 9, acquired 1, so 8 ahead - On target
Blogged Off (SPFBO finalists): 5/6 - On target

[astrangerhere]

Through the end of June 2020:

Goals:

Length Goals:
Total Books: 50 (stretch goal of 75) | Total Pages: 25,000 | ETBR Reduction: 25 | PTBR Reduction: 10
Substantive Goals:
Read at least 51% non-American authors | Read more female/nonbinary authors than male | Read at least 52 short stories | Read at least 10 of the New Leaf Book Club/Literary Book Club selections

Cumulative 2020 Totals:

55 books - 110% of my goal (73% of stretch) - GOAL MET / Stretch Goal On Target
34 short stories - 65% of my goal - On Target
17195 pages - 69% of my goal - On Target
58% female/nonbinary authors / 42% male authors - On Target and 1% better than May
33% US authors / 67% non-US authors - On Target no change since May
ETBR Reduction: Reduced by 18 - 72% of my goal - On Target
PTBR Reduction: Reduced by -27 - 10% of my goal - ABANDONED - my wife has been buying a few books a week from our local independent bookstore to support them while they are closed due to Covid-19. She plans to keep this up until they area able to re-open, so my print TBR goal may just be shot for the year. Still, worthy cause.

Overall TBR Reduction 24 - reduction of Ebook TBR and Audiobook TBR. I have removed paper books from the calculation for the reasons above

[HLS]

To all that read 100 or more books a year. Do you speed read? I can read 3 books a month on average

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by HLS

To all that read 100 or more books a year. Do you speed read? I can read 3 books a month on average

No, but I don't really watch TV beyond following some professional sports. It is not unusual for me to read from 7:00 to 10:00 on a weekday evening. I usually read a bit with my morning coffee and am always listening to a book or short story on my commute or when riding my bike.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by HLS

To all that read 100 or more books a year. Do you speed read? I can read 3 books a month on average

During all of the years that I was finishing 130 books per year, I was unemployed. Now that I don't have that free time, I find my reading appetite diminished. June was my last hurrah. I read a lot last month, because I was mostly free.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HLS

To all that read 100 or more books a year. Do you speed read? I can read 3 books a month on average

I don't speed read, I just read for an hour or more nearly every day, at around 350-400wpm which is my natural reading speed.

When I was commuting for a couple of hours a day by train and bus, I was getting through 200 books a year. Now I'm down to 130/year or so.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by HLS

To all that read 100 or more books a year. Do you speed read? I can read 3 books a month on average

I'm retired and I watch little TV. When I worked full-time (and listened while commuting), I read, on average, 50 books a year, but I also watched more TV. I've been an audiobook listener since 1992. I'd probably get through more books, but my reading speed is now roughly the same as an audiobook due to a brain injury (I had to relearn how to read).

[issybird]

Originally Posted by HLS

To all that read 100 or more books a year. Do you speed read? I can read 3 books a month on average

I’m also in the camp of not watching television and augmenting my total with audiobooks.

I’m going to add that books are not books, i.e., Cartland isn’t Kant. You can’t compare apples and oranges. And you shouldn’t compare anyway; this is not a contest. However, if you want to find more time to read, you probably can.

[Paperbackstash]

I usually read a little over 300 books a year, but do not speed read. If anything I get frustrated with my reading speed. I go through periods of binge reading, and rarely read dense or extremely long novels

[jbcohen]

I need three more books a month for the rest of the year and I reach my goals, easy peasy.

[HLS]

I use audiobooks to help get threw those long books like The Terror over 900 pages. i could never read that and finish otherwise