The 2017 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[DrNefario]

I just finished my 50th book of the year, and at the same time managed to meet both of my major targets for the first time since Jan 0th: I'm 1 ahead on my overall TBR and 7 ahead on my paper TBR.

Now if I can just refrain from finishing or acquiring any more books for the next 3 days, that will be a great way to hit the half-way point...

[jbcohen]

Given that July is half way through the year how many of us are half way to their goals? How many of us are more than half way? Personally I am a bit more than half way through and should be able to surpass my goal posts if something does not stop me from reaching my goals.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I just finished my 50th book of the year, and at the same time managed to meet both of my major targets for the first time since Jan 0th: I'm 1 ahead on my overall TBR and 7 ahead on my paper TBR.

Now if I can just refrain from finishing or acquiring any more books for the next 3 days, that will be a great way to hit the half-way point...

Some quick stats, given that I've read 50 books and the maths is easy:

40% women authors/editors - Still slightly low, but an improvement, I think.

Top genres:
34% Fantasy
34% SF
16% Crime

34.6% conversion rate - (OK, I've only acquired 49 books, so there are fractions on this one.) This is a measure of how many of my books in have turned into books out. I think one in three is reasonable. It's maybe slightly better than last year, where I think I was at roughly 30%.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Given that July is half way through the year how many of us are half way to their goals? How many of us are more than half way? Personally I am a bit more than half way through and should be able to surpass my goal posts if something does not stop me from reaching my goals.

I'm more than half way through (82% completed), but I'll move the goal further if I read a lot.

[Dazrin]

Well ahead of schedule going into summer, which is necessary since I will have several periods this summer and fall where I won't have much time to read - vacations aren't for reading, they are for family time - the commute is for reading.

[CRussel]

As far as total number of books read, I'm doing well. By the end of the month I'll be at 50% of my stretch goal (160 books read or abandoned), so right on target. BUT, I've been doing abysmally at keeping track of the books as I read them. Which probably means I've actually got a couple more that I haven't recorded because I couldn't remember when I finally got around to it. This behaviour must change!

[Catlady]

My main goal was to surpass last year's total; I'm on a pace to do that easily.

[bfisher]

I'm slightly off pace this month, but hope to catch up in July or August when I come up to the head of the library queue for "Longitude" - but that assumes that I can tread water with the July and August selections

[astrangerhere]

June was a big drop-off month for me in terms of pages read. I am in the middle of two long books - one anthology of short stories and one comic omnibus. All the reading I did this month was only after I had read a bit out of each of those each day.

I am working on one goal though - a full third of my reading has now come from non-American authors.

Good reads also tells me I have hit my 50 book goal. I actually missed hitting it as I put in completed book 51 today.

Geeky images attached.

[Rumpelteazer]

I've had a good month. I have another 100 pages to go to finish my current book, which shouldn't be a problem, then I have finished 11 books and 4503 pages this month. On average I read about 3000 pages in June. I'm now 2000 pages ahead of my average for the first six months of the year. In a couple of weeks I'm going to dog sit for three weeks, which is always a good reading time, so hopefully I can expand my lead.

This month I have experimented with a randomizer app. I've entered the titles of all the series I'm currently reading and I let the app choose which book I will read next. I can let it choose another series if I've read the chosen series very recently. It worked very well, so I'll be continuing with the app.

[orlok]

As we reach the half-way point, I'm 7 books ahead of schedule, but that does include a few short stories (the longer ones - very short ones I have not counted). I am also over half-way in my books-from-40-categories challenge, so all good at the moment.

[jbcohen]

Originally Posted by Catlady

My main goal was to surpass last year's total; I'm on a pace to do that easily.

Unless my memory is totally failing me you keep a rather sizeable TBR stack and you have said in years gone by that you tend to add to the stack each year. Have you made any progress towards catching up, I mean removing all the books from that stack?

[sakura-panda]

I increased my book number goal significantly, from 94 to 125, because last year I recorded 149 books read. Goodreads says I am currently 9 books behind schedule.

However, this year I decided to record books bundled as one title as one book, instead recording each book individually. While I have only recorded 52 books (instead of 58), I am not unhappy as I seem to be on track to again besting that 94 that was my benchmark for many years.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Unless my memory is totally failing me you keep a rather sizeable TBR stack and you have said in years gone by that you tend to add to the stack each year. Have you made any progress towards catching up, I mean removing all the books from that stack?

No, you must be thinking of someone else. I don't have a TBR stack at all; I do have a backlog of numerous books I intend to read someday, but I've never tried to quantify them and I don't worry unduly about them.

[pdurrant]

I'm a bit behind my goal. I need to buy fewer books in the second half of the year.