The 2012 Annual Reading Challenge - Discussion Thread!

[DrNefario]

I don't think I'm going to have a set target next year. I might have a few mini-challenges, and I still have my non-timed challenges (such as reading all the Hugo winners, which I've been slowly working through for the last few years - the half of them I hadn't already read, at least).

I am going to keep recording them on a blog. Otherwise it's hard to remember what I've read and what I haven't.

I've stupidly ended up having to record my reads in three or four different places, this year. I'm going to cut that down next year.

[jbcohen]

Where ever I wind up 2012 at I will probably go for that same level again in 2013. I finished up 2011 at 83 books and I am going for that level again in 2012, although it looks like I will end up a tad short this year.

[Dazrin]

Inspired by HomeInMyShoes' challenge of reading different decades I went back and looked at my reading since I got my Kindle. It isn't what I expected.

Since I do a fair amount of re-reading, I was expecting maybe 40-50% of the books (including short stories) I read to have been written since 2000 - in reality it is 70%. And 40+% were written in 2010 or later. I was expecting 20-25% to be from the 90s (from when I was in high school and college and which I tend to re-read a lot), it is less than 15%.

It turns out (as expected once I thought about it) that a lot of this has to do with how many "indie" books I have been reading and how easily available (and generally cheap) they are with an e-reader. I have read 53 indie books over the last 2 years and only 1 of them was written before 2000, 40 of them were written since 2010 (50 since 2008). My original guesses were very close, if I don't include the indies.

I may try to fill in some gaps next year, or even this year still, but regardless it was an interesting diversion.

/Sorry for my geek out, you may now all return to your regular programming...

[HomeInMyShoes]

I'm shocked I'm an inspiration.

PRE	1
1900	2
1910	1
1920	3
1930	1
1940	1
1950	2
1960	5
1970	2
1980	8
1990	10
2000	18
2010	6

Making an effort to cover all the decades didn't skew the present day bulk much. I did enjoy the 60s selections quite a bit, but almost everything I've read in the last two months has been post 1990.

Book number 60 is complete. Only one more book left in the Myth series now to finally finish that series.

[jbcohen]

Here we are at the start of the finish of the third quarter of 2012 and if we are going to make our goals we should have 3/4 of the way to our goals. Since my goal was 83 then 83/4 = 20.75 books per quarter * 3 for three quarters that are done with = 62.25 I should be done with by now if I want to complete my reading challenge this year and so far I am at 65 which means that I am a little bit ahead of where I need to be at this by the tune of approximately three books. How are you doing in your quest to obtain your goal?

[Nyssa]

My reading grounded to a stop a couple of months ago. I tried kick starting it by reading short stories (as suggested earlier in the thread), but it didn't take.

I have two books, from two of the series I want to read/reread coming in this week, that I pre-ordered during the summer. I'm hoping that will light a spark, especially during the holidays.

[DrNefario]

I'm on my 43rd of 50 books. Well on target, despite a bit of a slow month in September. I still have about 9 books I want to read before the end of the year, so I'm going to have to exceed it slightly to get them all in, but I'm not expecting that to be difficult.

[jbcohen]

I would say Dr. that you will most likely exceed your target for 2012 so perhaps in 2013 your target should be a tad higher.

[pdurrant]

I would have met my challenge already if I hadn't bought 48 Georgette Heyer titles in August!

Now I need to read about 15-20 books a month if I'm going to make it. And that's assuming that I don't buy any more books except those I get on subscription!

And so far this year I've averaged only about 14 books/month.... Of course, that does include most of June re-reading The Lord of the Rings. Discounting that, my average this year is just over 16....

[jbcohen]

You would have met your challenge had you not picked up 48 Georgette Heyer book. Oh, I know how that is I need to lash myself down sometimes to refrain from buying several more then I can read at the moment. I think there was a thread for people like the two of us, I think it was called the Book Buyer Addict's thread. I do not allow myself to buy anything new until I have finished one of current books. I typically have two going at any point in time and at the moment its Horus Rising and the First and Only, both of these are black library books, and I won't allow myself to buy anything new until I finish one of those two. Its too easy to buy my way into the poor house with these books, I have been addicted for many years.

[Dazrin]

I should easily make my yearly goal of 20,000 pages, maybe even this month.

I need to re-evaluate for next year though. I expect that the number of large re-reads (for my WoT challenge) has boosted my page count this year, so I will probably set my goal for next year at the average of this year and last and go from there. Right now that looks like a goal of ~23,000 pages, but I know I will slow down during the holidays, so that may drop a bit.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

You would have met your challenge had you not picked up 48 Georgette Heyer book. Oh, I know how that is I need to lash myself down sometimes to refrain from buying several more then I can read at the moment. I think there was a thread for people like the two of us, I think it was called the Book Buyer Addict's thread.

That's the Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread. Which I started, back in June 2011.

In my defence, the 48 Georgette Heyer books only cost me just under $90, thanks to a splendid promotion by the publisher.

Well, it has made the challenge a real challenge for me this year!

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I'm on my 43rd of 50 books. Well on target, despite a bit of a slow month in September. I still have about 9 books I want to read before the end of the year, so I'm going to have to exceed it slightly to get them all in, but I'm not expecting that to be difficult.

I'm in sort of a similar situation. I was five books behind goal but have caught up to within one book of goal. At the moment I should be around 38 books read out of 50 and I'm at 37. But the extra reading I've been doing to catch up I hope to keep doing to get a good bit ahead, because I have more actual books to read than my goal makes it seem like, so I'll need to stay ahead by a good margin to get them all in.

[dreams]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

My reading grounded to a stop a couple of months ago. I tried kick starting it by reading short stories (as suggested earlier in the thread), but it didn't take.

I have two books, from two of the series I want to read/reread coming in this week, that I pre-ordered during the summer. I'm hoping that will light a spark, especially during the holidays.

Aw, Nyssa, so sorry that didn't help. It did help me, but it still was an on again off again thing, until it kicked in the interest for longer books. I even had to switch genres (mainstream comedy romance and mystery - short, fluffy, fun stuff) to get back into a reading habit. I found that I was doing other things in the time I had used for reading in the past and had to change _that_ new habit in order to get back to my old reading habit. I hope you find a way to get back the joy of reading once again.

I'm still on goal; I met the first 6 month goal and have held to my second 6 month goal (no more than 18 purchased books by the end of the year).

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I would say Dr. that you will most likely exceed your target for 2012 so perhaps in 2013 your target should be a tad higher.

I had to giggle because that sounds like endurance training or sales quotas.

I've already surpassed my goal by quite a bit, but I'm not interested in reaching for the next bar. I'd rather think of it as my "preferred minimum" above which anything is a bonus achievement of sorts.