The 2020 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[Dazrin]

I have been able to read only one book since the middle of March and it was one I've read several times before.

I was first in line for the new Murderbot book from my library and had to return it unread (I returned it early since I knew I wasn't going to be able to get to it.)

Oh well, much more snuggle time with my 3 y.o.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I have been able to read only one book since the middle of March and it was one I've read several times before.

I was first in line for the new Murderbot book from my library and had to return it unread (I returned it early since I knew I wasn't going to be able to get to it.)

Oh well, much more snuggle time with my 3 y.o.

I am seeing this from a lot of avid readers. Either kids are cutting out the reading time or anxiety is.

[HLS]

I am on track with my goal. I want to read 40-50 books and I am on book 19 for the year. If it Bleeds. So far I am lucky I had not had readers block. As I read I have books floating in my brain that I want to read soon and in general, I know what I want to read next by the time a book is finished.

All so far were very good except for Devoted and Life Expectancy both by Dean Koontz. They were so boring it was painful to read. The best so far I highly recommend is Enter Night, Genius Plague and Carrion Comfort

Books read so far this year.

1) The Guardian by John Grisham (started around Christmas 2019 finished 2020)

2. Genius Plague by David Walton

3. The Exorcist.

4. The Dead Zone-Stephen King

5. Sunburn by Laura Lippman

6. Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons

7. The Secret Commonwealth by Phillip Pullman

8. Life Expectancy- Dean Koontz I quit at 52% for it was a horrible book

9. 4th of July- Womans Murder Club -James Patterson

10. Little Fires Everywhere- Celeste Ng

11. The Girl Who Played With Fire- Stieg Larsson

12. The Deep- Alma Katsu

13. Enter Night - Michael Rowe ( wow a great book!)

14. Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo ( now reading)

15. Gutshot- Amelia Gray

16. Texas Outlaw- James Patterson

17. Devoted- Dean Koontz Started 05/01/2020 finished 05/07/2020 God awful book.

18. The Shining- Stephen King. Started 05/07/2020 finished 05/15/2020

19. If it Bleeds-Stephen King. Started 05/15/2020

[Tarana]

I've continued to meet my 3,000 pages read monthly including this month. I'm still behind on the other 3 goals (way behind on TBR for ebooks!).

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

A few days into May, my TBR is at 979!

That's 20 down on the start of the year. I've managed to get my buying under control. For a couple of months, anyway.

My TBR is now 30 down on the start of the year. But the big jump is because I've put off some purchases of magazines. So I don't expect to do so well this month.

[Luffy]

I've been reading a book with 920 pages. It slowed me down for the Month of May. I need only two days to finish said book.

[Byrdie]

Spent a week without internet, I am now ahead of my goal by 8 books. Officially ... I also binged on Harry Potter fan fiction so if they counted it'd probably be twice that many. But I am behind on other goals, such as finishing the Miss Marple books, buying fewer books, and decreasing the TBR stack. :sigh: Win some, lose some I guess.

[Rumpelteazer]

The first three weeks of May were good reading weeks. I was averaging 100 pages a day. Which is great compared to the last eight months. But during the last week life happened and I was reading a slow book. So I didn't manage to keep up the 100 pages a day.

I am very happy with my recent reading choices. Except for that last book I really liked all of them. That last book was still okay.

I did manage to finish the four series I wanted to. So now I'm going to focus on all the series I need to catch up on and other recent releases.

[astrangerhere]

Through the end of May 2020:

Goals:

Length Goals:
Total Books: 50 (stretch goal of 75) | Total Pages: 25,000 | ETBR Reduction: 25 | PTBR 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 of the New Leaf Book Club/Literary Book Club selections

Cumulative 2020 Totals:

51 books - 102% of my goal (68% of stretch) - GOAL MET / Stretch Goal On Target
32 short stories - 75% of my goal - On Target
16301 pages - 65% of my goal - On Target
57% female/nonbinary authors / 43% male authors - On Target and 6% better than Jan-April
33% US authors / 67% non-US authors - On Target
ETBR Reduction: Reduced by 15 - 60% of my goal - On Target
PTBR Reduction: Reduced by -14 - 10% of my goal - Way off target - my wife has been buying a few books a week from our local independent bookstore to support them while they are closed due to Covid-19. Good reason to be behind here. I am being a little unfair to myself counting all her purchases as mine, but we read together, so I will get to them... eventually.

Overall TBR Reduction - 7 - did not have a goal here, and this number took a big hit due to our paper book-buying right now.

[Paperbackstash]

I did my plan of revisiting a local used bookstore now that it reopened. It's under new ownership since the end of last years apparently and they have the layout and old sign still up but seem to be moving things over. I don't have as much confidence in the new owners, maybe they're just still getting everything together, hopefully they can keep it afloat. The original owners had it 30 years but were past retirement age and the bookstore business is rough.

[Paperbackstash]

My reading is starting to pick up slightly again. It was a chore feeling for awhile

[Paperbackstash]

Since we're at 6 months into the year, thought it would be useful to go over goals updates

Gothics
Read more of my Gothic paperbacks that have been sitting on the shelf for years. Goal: 2/5
Buy More Used Gothics from local Used Bookstore I haven't been to for years, but want to frequent more often. Sadly, it's in an inconvenient location. Progress: 1/1 - Done in May!
Re-read at least five Barbara Michaels. Progress: 0/5

JUNE UPDATE - I have several Gothics I want to read still soon, so I think I will make the first goal. Not sure on the Barbara Michaels yet but I still have six months, so we'll see. I wanted to focus on new reads versus re-reads first.

Mysteries
Get caught up on the Alex Delaware series by Jonathan Kellerman. I am on around book 11 of the re-read. Progress 1/10
Read some more Hercule Poirot / Agatha Christie in my goal to finish all of them - many to go. Will finally brave Curtain - sad times. Progress: 0/5
Get caught up on some cozy mysteries backlog. Goal: 10 Series Firsts Trials. Progress: 5/10
Read more Noir and Hardboiled crime detective fiction. Goal: 2/10
Continue the Perry Mason Audiobook Marathon on Scribd. Goal: 5/10

I am doing awful with the mystery goals since my reading slowed down the last few months. I read a Perry Mason paperback I owned, so the goal for that I switched to 5/10. I'm addicted to these on Scribd so I have no doubt I'll complete this goal. Cozy mysteries either, I have plenty of those to read. Agatha Christie, not sure, haven't read any of those this year. I have not continued the Jonathan Kellerman series reads either yet so we'll see on that.

Romance
Clear out some Harlequin backlog that's been on the bookshelf for years. Goal: 5/15
Clear out some Historical romance backlog that's been on the bookshelf for years. Goal: 0/5

I re-organized my bookshelves this year and that will help with this. Still plenty to go. Harlequins are short but 15, ugh. We'll see.

Horror
Read more Water-Themed horror backlog for eventual website feature. Goal: 0/5
Read more Sci-Fi Horror. Goal: 2/3
Read and catch up on Halloween related before October (Failed this last year big time) 0/5

Right now failing all of the horror goals hard

Other Genre Goals
Read more anthologies consistently (always fail this!) Goal: 1/10
Read Nonfiction. Goal: 1/8
Read High Fantasy or Science Fiction (Non-horror): Goal: 0/3
Christian Theology. Goal: 0/4
Classics, country or year not important. Goal: 0/5
Graphic Novel Collection/Comic Starters. Goal: 0/10

Failing all the above pretty hard for the first half of the year

ARC Backlog:
Get caught up on Backlog of horror novels that are ARC's from Silver Shamrock 2/8
Catch up on Netgalley Backlog 0/11

Another fail so far!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

My TBR is now 30 down on the start of the year. But the big jump is because I've put off some purchases of magazines. So I don't expect to do so well this month.

I've decided not to buy the magazines after all. I did intend to buy them. But then for two of the magazines I regularly buy they pulled the current issue one day early, and I missed those issues. I got no response to an email asking about obtaining back issues in ebook form, so I'll just stop getting them.

So my TBR is now 37 down on the start of the year at 960.

[Luffy]

I've read 12 books in June, my most prolific month. As opposed to February, when I didn't finish a single book. One of my aims is to keep my average pages read per book to over 300. That seems achievable for now.

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I've read 12 books in June, my most prolific month. As opposed to February, when I didn't finish a single book. One of my aims is to keep my average pages read per book to over 300. That seems achievable for now.

Geez I don't think I've even read 12 books all year.