The 2020 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I suspect that some of the differences in the list are due to the availability of other forms of entertainment in the respective countries. And some will be because of literacy rates.

Yes, I think the NZ article showed the impact of other forms of entertainment quite clearly. That India topped the list made me wonder about the literacy issue, given that literacy rates vary quite a bit by state.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Yes, I think the NZ article showed the impact of other forms of entertainment quite clearly. That India topped the list made me wonder about the literacy issue, given that literacy rates vary quite a bit by state.

I beleive India has an overall 78% Adult literacy rate, while the UK's is 99%. (Although it's only 83% if you don't count those adults with literacy below Level 1. Adults with skills below Level 1 may not be able to read bus or train timetables or understand their pay slip.)

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I beleive India has an overall 78% Adult literacy rate,

I had acquaintances from Maharashtra who were dismissive of Kerala's high 90s literacy rate, saying "that doesn't count, it's only in Malayalam". Such a sad mindset. Apropos of the "other entertainment" though, from my outsider's perspective Malayali cinema seems to be a bit more diverse than its globally-famous Hindi sibling.

[Paperbackstash]

September Recap - 6 Read Total

E-books: 6
Kindle Unlimited: 2
Scribd Audiobook: 0
Audible Audiobooks: 0
Paperback: 0
Hardback: 0

Not much to say about this month. I read a few horror and some re-reads of romance. A slow reading month but I loved the books I read. Scribd was a loss of money this month, and KU was as well since I read only 2 from the series, but it about evened out.

[Tarana]

October Wrapup:

3,000 pages per month : Met again this month!
Ebooks - TBR Reduced by 10; Current: +98 Not so good. I did terrible this month, although most of the books were discounts on series that I read.
Audiobooks - TBR Reduced by 10; Current: +1 Not bad on this one. Some sales, but most were for wishlist books.
Magazines - TBR Reduced by 10; Current: -2 Since I am not buying any more and my Kickstart subscription is done, I'm making progress on this.

Standalone Short stories and Novellas: 86 read! My goal was 100 of these and I have 14 left. Most of these are audiobooks. Some were outstanding, some part of series I read, the rest will likely get deleted out of library.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Another month gone, 15 books read.

My TBR now stands at just 911!

I slipped up a bit this month. Only 8 books read (one was 1183 pages, and another was 829 pages!), but 10 books bought. Add in a little adjustment for previous errors in numbers, and my TBR is now 914.

I firmly expect to do better this month. I was lead astray by an Amazon special offer. And that offer does mean I now have £5 to spend on ebooks by the 11th...

...but I shall endeavour to be restrained for the rest of the month.

I'm hoping to end the year with under 900 books on my TBR pile.

[EDIT]
With one more book finished and 11 other books discarded this morning, that now seems very achievable. I should probably aim for under 890.

[DrNefario]

October was my slowest month in years for books read, with only 3 (one of which was a novella), but not very far off the pace in pages. Two long and not particularly fast-paced books took up most of the month.

I've fallen slightly behind on my read vs bought target as a result, even though I didn't buy much. It's going to be tricky to catch up as long as I'm taking part in this Crown of Stars readalong where I need to buy the next book each month and they take up most of my reading time. Everything else is still on target, I think.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

It's going to be tricky to catch up as long as I'm taking part in this Crown of Stars readalong where I need to buy the next book each month and they take up most of my reading time.

I think the most important thing is to enjoy what you're reading, even if it means that you miss a target set at the start of the year.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I think the most important thing is to enjoy what you're reading, even if it means that you miss a target set at the start of the year.

We've decided to take two months for the next book, since it's a thousand-pager.

[Paperbackstash]

October Update

I participated in several Twitter related reading challenges and Dewey's 24 hour readathon. Had a fun reading month.

Total Read: 29
E-books: 19
Kindle Unlimited: 8
Scribd Usage: 10
Audible Audiobooks: 0
Paperback: 0
Hardback: 1

Scribd was used a lot - I even had my first time throttle. 9 Audio and 1 Ebook rental read. The audio were mainly kids type for fun Halloween mood and read-a-thons.

KU got a great workout as well, so both of the subscription services worth the price in October.

I read all e-books, audio, and only one physical (Hardback), so low on reducing my physical collection.

Most of the books read this month were horror, thrillers, a few romance and mystery - mainly for the October Fall season theme. Didn't reduce many of the goals I had on the yearly list this month.

[astrangerhere]

First time I've had a moment to pull data from my spreadsheet...

Through the end of October 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:

98 books - 160% of my goal (110% of stretch) - GOAL MET / STRETCH GOAL MET
43 short stories - 82% of my goal - On Target
31201 pages - 124% of my goal - GOAL MET
62% female/nonbinary authors / 38% male authors - On Target
31% US authors / 68% non-US authors - On Target
ETBR Reduction: Reduced by 33 - 132% of my goal - GOAL MET
PTBR Reduction: Reduced by stopped couting - ABANDONED - 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. She plans to keep this up until they are able to re-open, so my print TBR goal may just be shot for the year. Still, worthy cause.

Overall TBR Reduction 43 - reduction of Ebook TBR and Audiobook TBR. I have removed paper books from the calculation for the reasons above.

[xversion1]

Amazing! I saw people's list in the listing thread. How is it possible to read more than 100 books per year. Is it natural or you apply some tricks to read fast?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by xversion1

Amazing! I saw people's list in the listing thread. How is it possible to read more than 100 books per year. Is it natural or you apply some tricks to read fast?

There are so many factors. Some have a lot of free time to read; some have next to none. Some use their free time exclusively or almost exclusively for reading; some have other pursuits as well. Some read Kant, some read Cartland. And yes, some read faster than others, but I suspect those are the super outliers and that reading speed is less a factor than others.

In other words, it’s not a contest! The point of goals is to make reading more interesting and to act as a personal goad. Goals are individual and the point is to achieve your own and cheer other people on theirs.

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by xversion1

Amazing! I saw people's list in the listing thread. How is it possible to read more than 100 books per year. Is it natural or you apply some tricks to read fast?

I usually read over 300 a year but due to mood read much less this year, will break 200 but not by much. It depends on many factors - types of books read, length of the books, and time are main factors. I don't read many large tome classics, which makes a big difference.

But as issybird said, it's quality over quantity so reading (as one example) 12 books is as worthy as reading 500 as long as you're enjoying them and reaching personal goals.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by xversion1

Amazing! I saw people's list in the listing thread. How is it possible to read more than 100 books per year. Is it natural or you apply some tricks to read fast?

Welcome to MobileRead!


As others have said, it's a combination of factors.

Some of it is reading speed. Although I don't do anything to 'speed read', my reading speed for fiction is about 400 words/min. This is just how fast I read when I'm reading for enjoyment.

Most of it is time spent. I think I spend two hours a day reading on average. So I will finish a 250 page book in a couple of days usually.

So two to three books a week adds up to over 100 books a year.

But if I read more slowly or didn't read so much and only finished 20 books a year, I'd still be getting great enjoyment from my reading.

But it can also be fun to challenge oneself. And I've certainly found it fascinating to actually track how much I read.