The 2025 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[jbcohen]

How do all of you keep from amount of $$$ spent on books from consuming your entire income?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

How do all of you keep from amount of $$$ spent on books from consuming your entire income?

By only buying books when they go on offer, at least most of the time.

My average book cost over the past ten years has been £1.46

[DrNefario]

I have spent around £1400 in total on kindle books since 2010. That's less than £100 a year on average. Kindle books are the vast majority of my purchases, so I guess even with other sources added it will still be less than £10 a month. If that's all my income I have bigger problems. (And it's also why I can't see KU as good value.)

[astrangerhere]

I finished my first challenge book of the year - Samantha Harvey's Orbital. While I recognize that this book will not be for everyone, I adored it.

[issybird]

I start to panic a little every year at this point. Goodreads is showing that I'm already two books behind schedule! And it's a little tougher this year, as I made a point of finishing everything by year's end, which means no low-hanging fruit I can finish and notch as a 2025 read!

[Quizlit]

Last year I got through 106 books, I do read a lot of shorter books.
For 2025, I've set the target at 100, good start I'm 3 down already

[pdurrant]

The start of a month is always bad for me, with Amazon's Monthly deals coming out. Read 6, bought 8....

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

I start to panic a little every year at this point. Goodreads is showing that I'm already two books behind schedule! And it's a little tougher this year, as I made a point of finishing everything by year's end, which means no low-hanging fruit I can finish and notch as a 2025 read!

I like the way StoryGraph presents this a lot better. Congrats if you're ahead but nothing about being behind. But I am trying to fully divest myself of all things Amazon this year, so I'll likely never see GoodReads ever again. (This is not a judgment of folks still using it!)

I was also pleased to discover that I'm already ahead on pages when I went to go pull this snip

[issybird]

Originally Posted by issybird

It's going to be tentative for now, but if by the end of January I've read A Question of Upbringing, I'll commit.

Done. So I'm in. I've added it to my challenge.

(There's still the overcommitting issue, but the shortness of these novels will make a good offset to my doorstops.)

[shuvashish76]

Originally Posted by Gormagon

I totally lack any ambition and have no reading goals for 2025. I read (a book, I guess reading a website online doesn't count) when I have the time and when I'm interested in a book. Why should I make a list prior to that?

I remember a quote from The Art of Focus - Gauranga Darshan Das

"In his essay titled ‘A Deliberation on the Methodology of Sadhu-sanga’, the great Vaishnava reformer, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, wrote, ‘The quartz crystal assumes the colour of any object in its proximity, regardless of the hue of that object."

The whole point of joining such challenges is to get motivated for our final goal. The path becomes easier when we associate the people with common goals.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

Done. So I'm in. I've added it to my challenge.

(There's still the overcommitting issue, but the shortness of these novels will make a good offset to my doorstops.)

Same. I know the novels go up and down for me as the series goes, but I've always remembered that opening scene of the workers around the coke fire bucket.

[pdurrant]

I'm pleased to say that we have a few more members taking part this year.

[issybird]

On month in and I'm on target with my total books and Music of Time challenges and one book ahead on my travel challenge. I'm also more than halfway through my first doorstop so I'm on target with that as well.

Usually by the end of January I've developed a cushion on total books read; I think the difference this year is that I didn't have any hanging books from last year I could log. Still, it makes me aware I need to keep moving. What I'm most pleased about are two habits I've developed that I hope I can sustain: I never have more than four books going at once (six or seven was not unusual for me) and I read from my doorstop every day even if I'm not feeling it. I had thought the latter might be a productive strategy if I hoped to meet my doorstop challenge and I think it's working.

[JSWolf]

I'm on target. I've read out of order though. I had to finish two books before I got to my challenge books.

I read February's book are it's the next book after one of the two books I had to finish. It was the short book. But I am 53% into January's book. So that will be finished this month.

I've also started the March book so that should also be finished this month.

[astrangerhere]

I have 24 books on my StoryGraph TBR challenge and I've finished 6 of them. Only one of them was a dud, so I am pleased so far.