The 2022 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[jbcohen]

That's what I do, its easier for me if I keep the journal on Mobileread because I can modify the list where ever I am.

[spacepope]

So, thankfully, it looks like I'm starting earlier than expected on a reading goal of mine - read more literary books rather than pure escapism. Unfortunately, this was brought about because I've decided to move countries (again) and I really wanted to read some books with meaning rather than something that's purely escapist - something for my mind to chew on as anxiety ramps up. It really does help.

I know I'm going to fall behind on my page count goal due to all the prep I will need to do for moving (it's rather ambitious anyways), so focusing on short novels has helped me keep wanting to read. Maybe I can just inflate my # books read at the beginning of the year so I can move onto some longer books after I move and I have more free time.

[Fbone]

Another goal for this year is to finish a few series I previously started. More than a few would be totally awesome but let's be realistic and honest. We're among friends.

[astrangerhere]

Length Goals:

• Total Books: 50 (stretch goal of 75)
• Total Pages: 15,000
• E-TBR Reduction: 25
• Read from Print-TBR: 10

Substantive Goals:

• Read at least 51% non-American authors
• Read more female/nonbinary authors than male
• Read at least 52 short stories
• Read each Poem of the Week (52) posted by The Guardian
• Read at least 10 books across all our collections that are selected by my wife. It's a great way to read things I would not ordinarily do, and I almost always end up enjoying them.

Cumulative Totals Through End of January:

• Total Books: 6 - 12% of goal, 6% of stretch goal - ON TARGET
• Total Pages: 1494 - 10% of goal - ON TARGET
• Gender Goal: 46% Female, 1% Nonbindary, 53% Male - OFF TARGET
• Country of Origin Goal: 41% USA, 59% out of US - ON TARGET
• E-TBR Reduction: + - 1 - 4% of goal ON TARGET
• Read from Print TBR: - 3 - 30% of goal ON TARGET
• Short Stories: 8 - 15% of goal - ON TARGET
• Poems 5 - 9 % of goal - ON TARGET
• Books Recommended by my wife: 1 - 10% of goal ON TARGET (in progress)

No books purchased and 4 borrowed from the library.

[Uncle Robin]

Fairly solid progress on my 2022 goals in January.
19,603 pages (45,000)
45 books (130)

Putting me in a good position to reach my goals over the rest of the year.

The Storygraph Reads the World Challenge definitely a highlight, so many interesting and challenging books I almost certainly would not have come across without it.

[issybird]

January’s been somewhat of a mixed bag for me, but encouraging overall.

I’m ahead on my biographies goal, so much so that if I keep it up, I may decide to end it at completion or the half-year mark and do something different for the rest of the year.

I’m on target with my reading list goal. I’m going to see how it goes, but I’ve thought that by the two-thirds or three-quarters mark I may decide to eliminate the remaining many times rejected books and repopulate the list.

I’m very satisfied about these. Less good, i.e., not good at all, is that I will have finished more books than my maximum allowable, and it’s because after a strong start I fell into the shorter/easier trap by the end of the month. But I had a lot going on and my average pages per book is still far higher than it was for all of last year, and my satisfaction as measured by my average GR rating also is up, although both figures were dragged down somewhat by the junk factor. I’m not going to beat myself up over this, but try to find my resolve again.

It wouldn’t be a challenge if it didn’t chafe a bit, right?

[Dazrin]

I had a good January with 2,346 pages completed.

This is only the second time since the lockdowns started that I've actually read my "average" amount of page in a month; so that's good. February should be more of the same plus at least one longer audiobook since I'll be traveling a couple times.

My average book length is way down but that's ok. I've been enjoying more short stories than normal (via podcasts) so I don't mind that at all.

[CAFlanny]

I'm off to a good start for the year. I'm on book number thirteen at the moment. I've taken 9 books off my paid for TBR pile. At this reading rate, I'll far exceed my reading goal for the year. We'll see if I can keep it up. My reading satisfaction is up as well with the variety I'm getting from the randomizer.

[pdurrant]

An excellent January for me. Eight read and only one bought!

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

In my case, it's more a case of the updates coming faster than I can read them - either authors updating multiple times a week (if not daily!) or waking up to find 10 "this fic you've bookmarked has updated!" emails in my inbox.

Point in case -- and TBR 10, the author has been updating multiple lengthy chapters daily!





Thankfully I've been managing to keep up otherwise.

[Paperbackstash]

January started the year a bit slow for me and February so far even slower. Read 12 books total, mainly Urban Fantasy, zero diversity, all set in the US, all contemporary setting, all adult books. 10 Ebooks and 2 Audiobooks. All 10 Ebooks from Kindle Unlimited, and both audio from Audible, so my source this month was 100% Amazon. Read 0 Physical books. Scribd sub cost this month a big waste. Cost of read books for January was 25% purchased versus 75% free (rental) services. While not really diverse, 58% was self-published and 16% was small press and indie, with only 16% being big publishing. 83% Female authors, 17% Male. Protagonist mains were 17% male, 75% female, and 8% ensemble.

Re-read one book, Dolores Clairborne in audio - highly recommended in this form. Narration is great. Other audiobook was The Case of the Damaged Detective, my one comedy action/adventure and is fun, reads like a radio play

No 5 star ratings in January but several 4 stars and two started Urban Fantasy series. One cozy mystery, And Then There Were Crumbs, read as part of the Cozy Mystery Book Club. 3/5 stars. All are series books other than Dolores Claiborne.

[spacepope]

Downgrading my page goal to 25000 pages (for 30000), which is still a respectable number. It could still be too much but I might as well try!

With moving and other life stressors, my rate of reading has been really different from last year and I'm not sure where it will settle. But getting 65 pages a day would be really nice.

[issybird]

I’m hanging on to my goals, but just barely. I’m on target with my reading list goal and slightly ahead on my biography goal.

However, the reality is that after a strong January, I’ve been lying on my oars somewhat in February. I’ve plucked much of the low-hanging fruit from my lists and the junk component has gone back up; I’ve used up my slack. March looks daunting; I have to find that January resolve again.

I’m reserving the right to reconfigure my list if I must. Ultimately it’s there to serve as a goad, not as a win/lose proposition. It’s occurred to me that it might be useful either to sub in some of my 2022 purchases or to add them to the list as it is, with the same overall goal. That would give me more choice going forward and also serve to assess my buying.

[Uncle Robin]

I'm a bit ahead of my 2022 goals for pages and books



but despite the numbers, I have still made good progress on my other main goal, reducing my to read list at The StoryGraph. It was hovering around 65 at Jan 1, down to 45 now. Reasonably confident of achieving that goal as well.

[DrNefario]

February was not so good for my goals. I only finished 3 books, thanks to the 750 slow pages of The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel, the third Wolf Hall book, which took me almost 3 weeks. It was good, but long, and mostly not a page-turner. It was also something I've been meaning to get to since it came out, so I'm glad I've finally read it.

And on the other side of the scales, I bought 13 books, with a storybundle of 8 non-fiction books the worst culprit. Since my main goal is to read twice as much as I buy, this has put me months off target. On the plus side, I have more books.