Reading Challenge - Are you on track?

[Latinandgreek]

I ended up losing track at around 20 books 3 or 4 months ago, because I had no internet connection at home for a few weeks. I might be on track... but probably not. I've been very busy lately for the past few months and am only just now finding time to get some reading done. I'm off to go do some now, actually

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

I find myself a little bemused by this thread really.

I'm not trying to be a party pooper, but, for me, it goes against everything that reading means to me..........

What relationship the number of pages/books one reads has to the enjoyment/information/experiences to be gained from the pursuit of reading, is quite beyond me.
If I find a subject I want to find out more about, I may read 6 books over a couple of months - sometimes because they're really big (!) sometimes 'cos they cover complex issues, and need careful consideration.
On the other hand, I may hit on an author I click with, and I could race through 6 books in a couple of weeks (ie the George Martin 5, recently).

I can what is rather grandly described as speed-read if necessary, but I rarely use it if at all possible.
And I am not suggesting that my approach is any more "righteous" (!) than the target-led method.........

I suppose I look on my reading as a leisurely family meal (rather like memorable ones in France) or perhaps an Irish wake - where the end is relatively irrelevant, but the company and the getting there is all-important !

Of course, it may be a hang-over from childhood, when I was always told/nagged "don't rush your food, you never know where the next meals coming from."

(Not desperately logical, but it fooled me, I suppose.............

I would never read books fast because I'd need to get a goal by the end of the year. I'm with you on that one. But I was just curious how many books I read a year, so I'm keeping track of my books read this year.

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I ended up losing track at around 20 books 3 or 4 months ago, because I had no internet connection at home for a few weeks. I might be on track... but probably not. I've been very busy lately for the past few months and am only just now finding time to get some reading done. I'm off to go do some now, actually

I'm using Calibre to keep track of my books read. I made custom column, "Year Read" and when I finish that book, I'll just fill that column. No internet required!

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I would never read books fast because I'd need to get a goal by the end of the year. I'm with you on that one. But I was just curious how many books I read a year, so I'm keeping track of my books read this year.




I'm using Calibre to keep track of my books read. I made custom column, "Year Read" and when I finish that book, I'll just fill that column. No internet required!

Great idea! I do read p-books, too, however, so I'd probably do well to keep them written in excel. I get lazy though

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

...I'm using Calibre to keep track of my books read. I made custom column, "Year Read" and when I finish that book, I'll just fill that column. No internet required!

If I may ask, how did you create that custom column in Calibre. I use it, but just to have a list of books and make it easier to put on my reader. I would love to expand my use of Calibre.

By the way, I am behind in the challenge, but I joined the challenge in March. I am quite a few behind, but my reason for keeping track is to see how many books I actually read in 2011. I am a slow reader, so I knew it would be hard. Still, I am enjoying trying and seeing how far I really get.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Great idea! I do read p-books, too, however, so I'd probably do well to keep them written in excel. I get lazy though

Simply add an empty book in Calibre, and let that represent your pbooks. I plan to add all my pbooks in Calibre as well, once our lounge is finished.

Originally Posted by jersysman

If I may ask, how did you create that custom column in Calibre. I use it, but just to have a list of books and make it easier to put on my reader. I would love to expand my use of Calibre..

Go to Preferences -> Add your own Columns. Then press the "plus' icon on the right. The first field is the field Calibre itself uses (and you can use if you want to make templates). The second is the text you want your column to have in your overview.

So, for instance:

Lookup name = year_read
Column Heading = Year read
Column type = Text, column shown in the tag browser

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Simply add an empty book in Calibre, and let that represent your pbooks. I plan to add all my pbooks in Calibre as well, once our lounge is finished.



Go to Preferences -> Add your own Columns. Then press the "plus' icon on the right. The first field is the field Calibre itself uses (and you can use if you want to make templates). The second is the text you want your column to have in your overview.

So, for instance:

Lookup name = year_read
Column Heading = Year read
Column type = Text, column shown in the tag browser

Thank you for the information, Sweetpea. Always glad to get more ways to use it.

[anamardoll]

I never make my challenge, but that's partly because I always set it to 365 (a book a day) and then just see what happens. I like it, though.

The reviewing slows me down a lot, too. And my writing... Never enough time in the day, it seems.

Loving the Calibre suggestions in this thread. Thinking I make have to backfill some stuff...

I never get the hate on the Reading Challenges. The whole YOU READ SHORT BOOKS TO PAD YOUR TOTAL seems kind of hysterical strawman to me. I mean, I'm all about the sky is falling panic, but getting upset over a Reading Challenge just strikes me as odd.

[David71]

I am and I'm not. I've read 46 complete books but I'm in the midst of reading five others. Plus, I've gone back to read back over the first three books of A Song of Ice and Fire before reading A Feast For Crows. I don't count those three since I was just refreshing my memory by speed reading through them. That also applies to the Harry Potter books before the last movie comes out.

It's not really about the numbers for me, though. I'm just keeping track of what I'm reading for the first time in a while and it's nice to see how many books I've actually read. It helps me focus more on reading books in my spare time instead of spending so much time online. That's a good thing in my opinion. Music is my first love, by a slight margin, so a good bit of time goes toward listening and playing. Oh yeah, and I love movies. Still, this challenge has helped me to become passionate about reading like I was when I was younger and I think that's the best thing about it.

[Soldim]

I've read 67 out of the 100 which was the goal. I 'cheated' at start, by finishing some six or seven books started at the end of last year -- but I guess that won't affect the total number too much in the end. What did help is that someone handed me a stack of Jim Herriot books (paper -- I don't think they even exist as eBooks) which are a breeze through

[HomeInMyShoes]

No way I'd read 100 books in any year. That's one every 3.6 days and I read way too slow for that to happen. Unless I count the books I read to my son every night, then I'm probably at around 1,200 now.

I do keep track of my reading and am aiming for 10 pages a day. So far this year, I'm at 15.608.

As far as keeping track, I just use an excel spreadsheet and a few forrmulas.

[MrsJoseph]

I hit my mark already of 100 and then increased my goal to 150. I'm currently 22% ahead.

I expected to hit the 100 (cause I'm a real bookworm) but I wasn't expecting it would happen so quickly. This is the first time I've ever kept track of what I've read.

Normally I think I would have read a little less quickly...but I joined a group on GoodReads that really pushes me. Somehow the entire group almost are all crazy bookworms like me and they really encourge a lot of reading. In fact, a running joke in the group is that they are all "book pushers."

What I can say is that I haven't rushed myself. I've re-read several books already this year as well as I've gone through quite a few books that don't qualify for the challenge. What I have done is decreased my shorter reads (less than 150 pgs) this year and increased the number of longer reads (150 pgs +).

[RiverY]

I didn't officially join the challenge, but it made me wonder how much I do read during a year. So, I set up a "completed" collection in my kindle and at the beginning of the year started moving completed books to that collection.

Wow, June 30 there were 84 books in the collection! I never expected that kind of a number. I guess I'll make 100 by the end of the year.

[hedwig]

I'm at 75, which is 24 books ahead of schedule. I'm actually amazed at myself. Never really thought I could do it.

[sakura-panda]

I answered this somewhere else -- I didn't know this was the "popular" thread.

I put 100 books in my ticker because that was the name of the challenge and it was a nice round number that is a stretch beyond my actual goal.

My real goal was something higher than 65 since that was the number of books I read in 2009, the last time I kept track of my reading for a year. I think I am on track to reach that goal.