The 2018 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[Wearever]

I've just finished my last fantasy challenge book for the year. Started with The Wizard of Oz and finished with Children of Blood & Bone . What an interesting challenge it's been. I've also read first book in a series for my fantasy challenge and can now finally read the rest of the series that I liked best for January. It was hard for me to wait but I'm glad I did it this way. Knowing myself so well, I knew I would have found less new series to read. By selecting only the first book each month I knew it would make me search out more authors to meet the challenge. I started this fantasy challenge because it was a genre I didn't read much before and wanted to read more than my favorites mystery & history genres. I still read those too. Next year for the 2019 challenge I have no idea what I will pick for a challenge. I never do until January.

[sakura-panda]

Pretty sure I'm done reading for the year. I haven't read much since the fall and it is unlikely I'll read much more before the end of the year.

I restarted a Masters of Rome book, on a different device that didn't know where I left off, after having not picked it up for several months. It's unlikely that I'll finish it before the end of the year, so I'm ending the year at 73 books.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by latepaul

I only made it to June on the book club. I was ill in July (0 books read ) and so skipped that month and never ended up returning.

Come back at any time; the latchstring's out. It could make an excellent 2019 challenge....

(I'm sorry you had such a bad patch.)

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by issybird

Come back at any time; the latchstring's out. It could make an excellent 2019 challenge....

(I'm sorry you had such a bad patch.)

Thanks - I'm considering it.

[Dazrin]

It doesn't look like I will be able to finish my current book (its over 850 pages long) this year so I have updated my 2018 post with what I expect will be my final stats and some screenshots from my spreadsheet. If I am able to finish it I will just barely exceed my previous record for pages read from last year so I will definitely keep trying (besides it's interesting so far.)

As a reminder, if you have a link to your 2018 stats in your signature it will be time to update it soon.

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Page Goal: Read 30,000 pages in 2018.
Status as of December 31: 37,864 pages read, 111 books/short stories completed.
Page Goal Completed 9/22/2018.

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Additional information (and screenshots) in my 2018 post.

• Bingo: 300 points out of 300 possible. Completed 6/16/2018.
• Read 52 Books from 36 new authors
• Read 76 library books (67%)
• Read 34 books that either won or were shortlisted for a literary award
• Read books published in 45 different years
  • Highest from 2018 with 13
• Most read author: Elizabeth Moon with 9
• Re-read 20 books this year (18%)
• Read 35 different genres
• Read 27 audio books, totaling 178H
• Total pages read since 2011: 240,002
• Average pages/year went from 28,907 to 30,000, up 4%.

[Wearever]

I've read 62 books this year, ten more than my goal of 52. I read 15 fantasy books for my challenge. I'll also add the series that I will continue reading from my fantasy challenge.

Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
Legends of the First Empire series by Michael J. Sullivan
Legends of Muirwood series by Jeff Wheeler
The Forest Lord series by Steven McKay

[Tarana]

Well, I did a lot of work on my spreadsheets and have every unread and unlistened item that I can find. Ebook and audiobook are separated. I also included my treasure trove of magazines (most from those Kickstarter projects by Lightspeed). About 200 items are Whispersync so on both lists. Should be able to track stuff better in 2019.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Well, I did a lot of work on my spreadsheets and have every unread and unlistened item that I can find. Ebook and audiobook are separated. I also included my treasure trove of magazines (most from those Kickstarter projects by Lightspeed). About 200 items are Whispersync so on both lists. Should be able to track stuff better in 2019.

This is what I'm doing right now! I did a lot of work trying to actually catalog our pbooks (856 total) due to us having done some major cleaning out when we moved.

[Dngrsone]

I'm at eleventy-five at the moment, but likely to finish another two or three by the end of the week.

Not nearly enough to meet my target, however.

[CRussel]

I'm currently at 141 books read, which is well past my base goal, but only half-way between that and my stretch goal. I'll likely finish another book or two this week, but that's still not going to make my stretch goal. Still, respectable, considering the load at work.

On my other, secondary goals:
1.) Read at least 10 of 12 New Leaf Book Club selections. Met
2.) Update my list here every week. Not met. Though I did do reasonably well through the first 2/3rds of the year, until LIFE and WORK. Still, need to work on that for next year.

[pdurrant]

We're nearly at the end of the year.

My TBR is lower than it was at the start! I win!

But only by a trick. I've reduced the number, but not by reading more or buying less. I've just discarded some freebies that I was never going to read anyway.

Next year my goal will be to actually read more than I buy!

[Tarana]

Still getting some books listened/read although these are favorites that I purchased this year to have in my digital library. Listening to Fellowship of the Ring and reading Dragonflight. Also going through some of the freebie audiobooks; a fair number are worth only a single listen, some not even that. I'll keep preening until New Years.

[orlok]

I've read 128 books, far exceeding my challenge of 100 (which I had upped from the original 75), and beating my previous best. Will probably end the year on a total of 129.

My other goals were:
- to complete Dazrin's Bingo Challenge, which I did by about August, I think
- to read at least 4 of the New Leaf Book Club selections. I managed 8.

There were a few DNFs in there (7, which is higher than average. I'm getting less patient as I age...) and a few short stories, but still an achievement I'm happy with all told.

[pdurrant]

Here we are at the end of our challenge.

I hope you all enjoyed thinking about the books you were reading this year, whether you completed your challenge or not.

If you haven't signed up already, now's the time to take your spot on the 2019 Reading Challenge List Thread.


And how did I do? Well, I'm finishing the year with 1014 books on my TBR pile, which is three less than at the start of the year. So I completed my challenge! But only by discarding lots of freebies that I was never going to be read.

During 2018, I bought 194 books, and only read 127. So my challenge for next year is to actually buy fewer books than I read.


This discussion thread will be closed at the end of January. Happy New Year!

[latepaul]

Well there's 10 and a bit hours to go (here) but I won't be reading any more books. So I ended on 65 which is good for me.

Here's my Goodreads "Paul's Year in Books" link