The 2021 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[Tarana]

February didn't go so well due to health issues mucking with concentration. I only read 1/2 my 3,000 page monthly goal. TBR up for both ebooks and audiobooks.

Progress though - read 1 magazine and 1 600 page book, so some success.

[astrangerhere]

Length Goals:

• Total Books: 75 (stretch goal of 100) (up from 50/75 last year)
• Total Pages: 25,000
• E-TBR Reduction: 25
• Print-TBR Reduction: 10

Substantive Goals:

• Read at least 51% non-American authors
• Read more female/nonbinary authors than male
• Read at least 52 short stories
• Read at least 10 books across all our collections that are my wife's or that she wants me to read.

Cumulative Totals Through February:

• Total Books: 24 - 32% of goal, 9% of stretch goal - ON TARGET
• Total Pages: 5729 - 23% of goal - ON TARGET
• Gender Goal: 52% Female, 0% Nonbindary, 48% Male - ON TARGET
• Country of Origin Goal: 48% USA, 52% out of US - ON TARGET
• E-TBR Reduction: +7 - ON TARGET
• Print TBR Reduction: -19* OFF TARGET
• Short Stories: 6, 11% of goal - ON TARGET
• Books Recommended by my wife: 3 - 30% of goal ON TARGET

*My wife continues to buy 1-2 books a week from our local independent bookstore and will do until they are able to fully open again post-covid. I expect this to skew my PTBR list all year long, but its for a good cause.

[Rumpelteazer]

February was okay, I read five books, one less than in January, but I did slightly more pages. For the past two weeks I have been reading every day, which I hadn't done in a long time. Sure, sometimes it's only a couple of pages a day, but I'm getting back into regular reading. I'm still picking books that catch my fancy, because of the genre, author or description. I feel that planning my reading still won't work for me at the moment

I don't think I'm going back to reading around 40000 pages a year, I've gotten a couple of new hobbies. But I'm glad I'm reading more and more regularly again.

[Uncle Robin]

I did no leisure reading at all for the entire month February, please that I got off to a blinder in January. Finished the mostly very entertaining Saki Megapack today, ticking several boxes on my challenges here and at The StoryGraph.

[Uncle Robin]

I rounded up both my books challenge and my pages challenge at The StoryGraph, to 156 books and 52000 pages. Not very brave, it seems, now that I'm at 61/156 and 26479/52000 with a week left in March.

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I rounded up both my books challenge and my pages challenge at The StoryGraph, to 156 books and 52000 pages. Not very brave, it seems, now that I'm at 61/156 and 26479/52000 with a week left in March.

Goals are fun, and I know you can do it. Thankfully March is long and gives us more reading time than February that flies by in a blink.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Goals are fun, and I know you can do it. Thankfully March is long and gives us more reading time than February that flies by in a blink.

I had a crazy busy February, not a single page of leisure reading. Back on track now in March, working through my TBR in descending page length order, to have a nice lazy finish at the end of the year., and because three of the short books on my TBR are not in my L1 language.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Back on track now in March, working through my TBR in descending page length order,

Golly. I couldn’t. Don’t have a fixed TBR (sometimes it’s better not to know); read what’s calling to me. I’m gobsmacked at the notion of having a reading order. Do you never kick over the traces and stray?

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by issybird

Golly. I couldn’t. Don’t have a fixed TBR (sometimes it’s better not to know); read what’s calling to me. I’m gobsmacked at the notion of having a reading order. Do you never kick over the traces and stray?

This is the first year I've had a more or less rigid TBR, for two main reasons: 1, to tackle my "read 20 more than I buy" challenge here (going very well so far, 10 bought 64 read), and 2, to force me to get stuck into the non-English books I've been intermittently starting and stopping over the last couple of years. After more than a decade of buying books for my Kindles and then my Kobos, it has not been hard to build a TBR from Calibre full of books that fit the "I've been meaning to get around to this" category.

As for "do I ever stray", at the start of the year, my StoryGraph TBR was around 60 books. Today, thanks to TheLibrary Extension and those 10 bought books, it stands at 87, after having read 64 books. My self-discipline is more gallium than iron, it tends to melt when subjected to the warmth of my Kobo

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I had a crazy busy February, not a single page of leisure reading. Back on track now in March, working through my TBR in descending page length order, to have a nice lazy finish at the end of the year., and because three of the short books on my TBR are not in my L1 language.

I've had extra reading time every month this year, but sometimes life puts in the same boat. That's okay, reading is supposed to be for fun leisure time anyway, it can wait when it needs to.

[Rumpelteazer]

Looking at the number of books I've read in March I did well, looking at the page count I did okay, in other words the books I've read this month weren't long. I had hoped to finish my current book today, but that didn't happen.

I am extremely happy that this month I read each day, sometimes just a couple of pages, but still. I had gotten into the habit of reading during the weekend and very little during the rest of the week. It helped that I have time to read during work; due to the Covid rules customers have to book appointments, and there has to be at least 4 hours between booking an appointment and the appointment itself. Most customers know what they need and are in the store for less than 5 minutes. We have busy days, and we have quiet days, which leave me we plenty of reading time.

I've also gotten in the habit to read around dinner time. When I'm waiting for the food to cook, during dinner itself and for a little while after dinner.

[Tarana]

I didn't meet any goals this month. Still at about half the pages of my monthly page goal. With a 3 book exception that was on my wishlist, purchases were limited to series/authors I'm already reading. FWIW, I made it to yesterday without buying any audiobooks and then that darn sale at Audible.

[Paperbackstash]

March has been my strongest reading month for years. I had a lot of time off and was trying to complete a long-term challenge on Goodreads that was set to end in March on a challenge group.

March Total Read - Variety of novels and a few short stories - 21 are free reads or subscription services, 16 purchased sources

In March I read 6,541 pages, 37 books

March Source Breakdown
13 Kindle Unlimited, 3 Scribd, 1 Library

Year-to-Date Source Breakdown Stats
Total Read 90
Pages: 23,174
ARC: 2/10
Average Rating: 3.5, Average Dates to Read: 6.62
Books Read This Year Purchase Stats - 61% purchases not this year, 25% in January, 13.9% in February
Store Sources for Read, Purchased books: Amazon 66.7%; Audible 4.4%; Library Sale 2.2%; Mob 5.6%; Scribd 7.8%; Used Bookstore 8.9%
Publishing - 48.9% Indie, 6% Small Publisher, Other 5%; 22% Large Publishers

March Format Stats - Goals met for Rental Goals (Both) - Also checked audio from library for first time (Hoopla)
E-Book - 23, Paperback - 8, Hardcover - 1, Audio - 7

Diversity Stats
March Author Gender: Female 26, Male 12, Both 1 (Yearly Female 76.7%; Male 21.1%; Both 2.2%)
March Protagonist Gender: Female 15, Male 13, Ensemble 11 (Yearly Female 48.3%; Male 32.6%; Ensemble 19.1%)

Year to Date Diversity - None 57.8%; Disability 10%; Combo 3%; LGBTQIA 20%; Foreign 1.1%; Race 6.7%

-- In March, contributed to LGBT and Race Diversity primarily, 1 Disability

Year to Date Country Settings - United States 65.5%; Scotland 2.3%; Unknown 2.3%; United Kingdom 20.7%; Germany 2.3%; Turkey 1.1%

--- In March, as is usual, main country is United States. Also read a mystery set in Ireland, a Harlequin Romance set in Spain, horror and mystery in United Kingdom, a romance in Fantasy setting (no country), and a mystery Murder On the Orient Express in Turkey

General Settings
Contemporary - 77; Historical - 5; Retro - 7; Future - 0 --- In March, added to these year to date numbers with 2 retro and one historical
Adult: 95%; Young Adult: 1.3%; Middle Grade: 2.5%; Children: 1.3% --- In March, all adult except 1 Kids, and 1 YA


I'm happy with my goals for Author Specific:
Continue Agatha Christie Project (No Set Number)
Finished Thirteen at Dinner and Murder on the Orient Express
Read More Dean Koontz (1/3)
Finished In the Heart of the Fire Novella
Read Mario Puzo (Minimum 1)
Completed The Godfather Re-read
Continue Perry Mason Goals - 6/8
In March finished The Case of the Substitute Face and The Case of the Borrowed Brunette
Read at least 1 Harlan Coben for the year to see if need to read more of author-
Completed --- Finished The Woods

Other Goals:
Finished 1 Ebook Anthology - Goal update 2/6
Finished 1 Harlequin for Goal - 2/15

Money Spent

I spent less money in March. I purchased 2 physical books, not yet read, Later by Stephen King (Amazon) and Color by Numbers (Thriftbooks)

Total for bought e-books and physical is 45.86, $18.98 for monthly services fee


The Books:

This month is mainly about the mysteries and several series.

I have fallen in love with the White House Mysteries series by Julie Hyzy and read the first five of the series. The book set in Ireland, Murder in G Major, is a good start to the series and I plan to continue reading the series in April. My monthly book club meeting (Physical) was for Escape from Happydale (Horror). I re-read a few horror - The Exorcist audiobook based on recommendations, through Scribd, well done audio. I listened to the audio of Murder on the ORient Express as a re-read as well on Hoopla. For Kids horror, I did the Haunted Mask by R.L. Stine re-read on Scribd.

I read a few older stuff --- The Case of Jennie Brice is a classic mystery, two short stories by M.R. James (both narrated by David Suchett - Oh, Whistle, and I'll come to you Lad, and Casting the Runes). I finally did the Kindle Original Series Shorts for Dean Koontz, In the Heart of the Fire, there are four left. I completed one anthology, Worst Laid Plans.

I gave up on the m/m romance cop series by Josh Lanyon with the third book in the series, Blood Heat. I love most of her books, but not this series. I did read more of this author this month, Mystery at the Masquerade as the third book, released in 2021, was enjoyable, and the standalone A Ghost of a Chance was well done as usual, and re-read The Mermaid Murders (another favorite series from this author). Other romance reads --- m/m re-read My Boss is a Grumpy Werewolf, Captive Mate m/m second in a series by a new favorite author, Deven and the Dragon (5 star beauty and the beast type retelling, m/m, dragons, excellent book!), a harlequin Deep Harbour by Sally Cook, Unicorn Mates - a short erotica for a challenge goal (awful),

Highlights was also my re-read of The Godfather, with my new physical edition as a birthday present from my best friend. Proof of Love was a great Audible Short, but the ending was frustrating and cut off - was only about a 40 min listen. My first read of Harlan Coben went well with the Woods, and I'm going to check out the show next. Finished the second from Death in Demand series, Design for Murder, 3 stars. Have more physical books to read of this series and it's cute, but not addicting. Was not impressed with the first of Black Dog series by Hailey Edwards, but will try the next book. I enjoyed both Erle Stanley Gardner reads with the Perry Mason goals very much --- especially The Case of the Substitute Face. Definitely one of my top favorite mystery authors and authors in general.

[Uncle Robin]

I've adjusted my StoryGraph goal upward to 200 books for the year, and am going to make sure most of the extra 40 or so come from the 156 unread books in my Kobo library (which means books bought since I switched 2.5 years ago). If I can bring that number down to 125 or so by the end of the year, I'll be happy with that.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Average Dates to Read: 6.62

What is this stat? I tried to read this as "average days to read a single book" but the math doesn't work out on that. 90 books over 90 days. Are you using a start date and end date but have 6-7 books going at a time?


For my goals, I'm well ahead but I also greatly reduced my goal this year. I'm still trying to figure out what my new status quo will be.