The 2013 Annual Reading Challenge - Discussion Thread!

[treadlightly]

Thanks Nyssa and BelleZora!

[Tarana]

I will probably finish another 2 books before the end of the year, so finishing at 120. This is a huge improvement from last year, where I topped out at 62 (before that, it was maybe 24 a year or less).

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I will probably finish another 2 books before the end of the year, so finishing at 120. This is a huge improvement from last year, where I topped out at 62 (before that, it was maybe 24 a year or less).

Wow! Good Job & Congratulations!

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

Some interesting (to me) stats:
I read 150 books in 2013 (probably 151 by the end) and 193 books in 2012.
Average pages/book in 2013 was 422, and in 2012 it was 333.
I read 1000 more pages in 2012.

Since I do a similar breakdown...

I'm on book 152 for 2013 and will probably finish it by the end of the year. Not counting that:

2013:
Books - 151
Pages - 44246
Average - 293

2012:
Books - 156
Pages - 44722
Average - 286

2011:
Books - 115
Pages - 39622
Average - 344

(I actually have figures going back another couple of years, but I might as well stop at three.)

It's kind of eerie how similar the 2012/2013 numbers are. Book 152 is about 400 pages, which will bring the page count to less than 100 pages from last year's mark. I think switching to ebooks (between 2011/2012) has inflated my book count a bit by allowing me to pick up tie-in short fiction, which accounts for the drop in average page count.

[sun surfer]

I made my goal! This is the first year that I have completely finished my reading challenge. Other years I had completed part of my goal, such as last year when I reached the page count goal but didn't finish the entire list of books that I'd pre-selected for my challenge.

This year I broke my challenges up into half-year sections. First was January to June, with a challenge of 4,000 pages, and I finished June with 4,298 pages. July to December was similar except that it was 4,000 pages including reading Ulysses by James Joyce. I reached 4,000 pages in November so when I finally got through Ulysses earlier this month my challenge was complete. However I noticed I was getting close to 6,000 pages for this half year, so I made myself a mini-challenge for December of getting to 10,000 pages for the year instead of the 8,000 my original challenges would've made. I made that about a week ago - I'm at 5,714 for this half year so far (and may add one more book to the count before all is said and done) and added to the 4,298 of the first half year I'm at 10,012 for the year.

I really enjoyed my challenges this year. I love the half-year aspect because before, if I'd gotten behind in the challenge, it felt like I spent the whole second half of the year behind and trying to catch up. Even though I didn't get behind this year, if I had then the slate would've been wiped clean in July and I would've had a fresh start. So I'll be doing half-year challenges again for 2014. I also love doing it by page count - reading 500, 600, 700, 1100, 1200 page books and so on, it doesn't seem quite fair to count them each as simply "one book" when a 100 or 200 page book would count the same. I don't like thinking that if I were doing it by book count that I might factor length into which book I choose to read, so page count keeps me free to choose whichever book I want with no adverse effect on my challenge.

As a final bit of info, with perhaps one more book to add before the new year, I"m at 10,012 pages read, 27 books read and an average of around 370 pages per book.

[issybird]

^^

Congratulations!

[treadlightly]

Congrats on completing your challenge sunsurfer!

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I really enjoyed my challenges this year. I love the half-year aspect because before, if I'd gotten behind in the challenge, it felt like I spent the whole second half of the year behind and trying to catch up. Even though I didn't get behind this year, if I had then the slate would've been wiped clean in July and I would've had a fresh start. So I'll be doing half-year challenges again for 2014. I also love doing it by page count - reading 500, 600, 700, 1100, 1200 page books and so on, it doesn't seem quite fair to count them each as simply "one book" when a 100 or 200 page book would count the same. I don't like thinking that if I were doing it by book count that I might factor length into which book I choose to read, so page count keeps me free to choose whichever book I want with no adverse effect on my challenge.

I know what you mean about book length. After reading many long books early in the year, my challenge was down in the dumps. Pages is a good way to track. For myself, I'm going to stick with number of books, but keep a closer eye on total page count than I have in the past. Good luck with your 2014 challenge!

[sun surfer]

Thanks issybird and treadlightly!

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I made my goal! This is the first year that I have completely finished my reading challenge.

Congratulations!! Best wishes for 2014!

[HomeInMyShoes]

Congratulations sun surfer. Books and pages just seem to balance out for me over the last few years. It's always around 300 pages a book in the end. Next year will definitely be shorter at around 254 pages a book. I am purposely shying away from long books in order to fit in more countries.

After next year I will probably scale my challenges back to a couple of small challenges of 10 to 20 books each. That is until come up with some other grand plan.

[Dazrin]

I just updated my 2013 list post with my year end results. I am very glad I have participated in the challenge the last couple years and will definitely continue next year. I just need to figure out what my new sub-goals will be.

Here is my final progress chart, the top bar is my goal and how much I exceeded it by, the bottom bar is pages read by month.


(Technically, I haven't finished my current/last book, but I should easily finish it today or tomorrow, so I am counting it already and will start 2014 with a clean slate.)

[mcrow]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Even the Companion?

BTW, there's a new Honorverse book due in November...a Weber/Zahn collaboration. Just thought you should know.

[Edit: Dangit, didn't mean to post this in the list thread. Could a kindly mod move it over to Discussion?]

Yes, I'm aware of the new books and I'm not including the companion just the novels and story collections.

[Rumpelteazer]

I managed to finish one last book, so this year I've read:
119 books
43,958 pages
369 pages is the average length
7 books I didn't finish

This means I've read almost 7000 pages more than last year, which surprised me.

I had two challenges. The first was to read 10 classics, which I didn't manage. After the fire next door in June I decided to read what I like instead of what I thought I should read. The second challenge was to read a book published in each year since I was born, however, I gave myself until the end of 2014 to finish that. I'm behind on that challenge, but I should be able to make it (though I might change some books).

[pdurrant]

The 31st already! Well, I've cheated a little by reading some of the smaller items in my TBR over the past couple of days, so my count is currently at 201 ebooks. I might yet finish my latest ebook, What Ho, Automaton! before the end of the day. Which would take my total read to 202. Unfortunately, my bought total for 2013 is 281…

But I'll do better next year, I'm sure, although thanks to actually cataloguing all my ebooks, I'll have to reset my unread total from 377 to 799!

[jersysman]

What a year!!!

Goodbye to this page and hello to the 2014 challenges!

May we each succeed in whatever challenges we have given ourselves.

Happy New Year!!!!