The 2014 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread!

[Katsunami]

My subchallenges are proceeding, but I'm behind schedule now.

My expectatioin to hit my end of year target would now be FAILED, lest I finish this book over the weekend. Then it might still be SUCCESS.

[pdurrant]

My reading has been going well - 40 books so far this year.

And at the moment, my TBR pile is down 41 on the year!

After my disasterous January, in terms of restricting my ebook purchases, I had a successful February, with only one (non-subscription) purchase, and I'm not actually counting that until March and later.

So for the next few hours I'm less than 14 dollars over budget. But March was already a heavy month for subscriptions, and the Baen Monthly bundle. Adding in my Kickstarter LightSpeed purchases takes it well over budget.

And adding in all my March purchases will also bring my TBR back above 800 again. But I'll only note them when they actually come in, so perhaps I'll be able to keep below 800 all month. I should certianly be back below 800 again by the end of the month.


But I'm hopeful that I can keep additional spending in March down to a minimum.

And looking ahead at the rest of the year, my planned book purchases will leav me around $70 under budget for the year. I intend trying to keep that at that level, so that I can take advantage of any good offers towards the end of the year.

[Katsunami]

Ask someone to put the big book retailers in your router's BLOCK-list, and then have him secure the router using a password

[sakura-panda]

I don't think I'm going to finish any books today, so it looks like I've read 14 books so far this year. Goodreads says that I am one book behind schedule if I really want to read 94 books for the year (benchmark from two years ago), but I don't think I'm going to read that many. I've been spending too much time since Christmas playing video games instead of reading.

(And I think that is okay because I'm still reading and I'm happy that I am able to do both.)

[treadlightly]

I am fully prepared for drmageddon now but the 90% off Kobo coupon has seriously threatened the book budget portion of my challenge.

[MeSue]

Well, I am late to this thread.

Last year I read 153 books without a goal, so this year I made my goal 150 books, including reading "The Voice" version of the Bible. I am behind on my Bible reading, but on track with other reading. Finished 26 books so far and have bailed on about 4.

I like the idea someone posted about reading a book published for every year since I was born. I might try to make that part of this year's goal.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

But I'm hopeful that I can keep additional spending in March down to a minimum.

And looking ahead at the rest of the year, my planned book purchases will leav me around $70 under budget for the year. I intend trying to keep that at that level, so that I can take advantage of any good offers towards the end of the year.

Half my remaining book budget for the year has just been expended in a Kobo 90% off coupon spree. So much for keeping spending in March down to a minimum!

But a surfeit of good books is a nice problem to have.

[Yapyap]

My spending spree definitely set me back, and not by a little, either.

I've usually been counting omnibuses/bundles as separate books (for a more accurate calculation of average price per book as well as to keep count of what I've read and what not - they're all omnibuses of novels), but with the Kobo 90% off spending spree, for the purposes of my challenge, I'm tempted to consider one omnibus = one ebook bought, because otherwise I'm hopelessly lost already...

[DrNefario]

You've got to show some restraint. I've bought one book with the kobo coupon.

Honestly, there aren't that many I can think of to buy, given that I don't do virtual tourism, so most of my wishlist is ineligible. Also, I'm confident there will be more big coupons along sooner or later.

[Yapyap]

I have wishlists in the hundreds... and virtual tourism is pretty much a necessity for me at this point, as while every book is couponable in my own country, the recent better multi-use codes don't seem to work in the old check-out (which I have) any more.

Ah well; at least tourism (and restrictions on the couponability) means I couldn't buy nearly as many as I'd have liked to!

[orangedotgreen]

I am 2 books behind schedule, but I was expecting February to be a bad month as far as reading was concerned. On the plus side, the move to my apartment is almost done and I'll be finally able to enjoy my quiet, comfy reading spot

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

My spending spree definitely set me back, and not by a little, either.

I've usually been counting omnibuses/bundles as separate books (for a more accurate calculation of average price per book as well as to keep count of what I've read and what not - they're all omnibuses of novels), but with the Kobo 90% off spending spree, for the purposes of my challenge, I'm tempted to consider one omnibus = one ebook bought, because otherwise I'm hopelessly lost already...

I used the coupon mainly to convert Ents to electrons, and there are a few cases where that meant buying omnibus versions of single books I already had. I think I'll wind up separating those "back" into individual books, so I can just switch editions in Goodreads. However, there were a few cases where I picked up individual short stories because Kobo didn't carry the collected versions; I'll probably do the reverse for those, building the collections from the pieces to wind up with more substantial volumes.

(Speaking of short stories, I really don't get self-pub authors who want to charge three bucks each for short stories of about 5K words. That's what, a buck a page? Outrageous!)

[HomeInMyShoes]

Brazil is finished. Now in Venezuela.

[pdurrant]

I am still on track for coming in under my yearly spending total. But only if there isn't another super-discount spree.

[Katsunami]

I haven't read a single chapter in nearly four days. I wonder how far I am behind on my reading challenge. I'll see as soon (or late) as I finish this book...