The 2015 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[elaysee]

I finished The Three Musketeers with 4 days to spare! I've read The Count of Monte Cristo numerous times, but a paper copy of TTM was my airplane book for years. Several books in my 2014 reading referenced TTM, so I bought the excellent Pevear translation as an ebook and started it at Thanksgiving. d'Artagnan didn't do much for me, but Athos was more fun and Milady clearly escaped authorial control.

I read one series that had languished on my physical TBR shelf for 15 years, but didn't make as much of a dent as hoped beyond that.

Of my new 2015 reading, my favorite book was probably Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, which I re-read twice, then read two of her excellent short story collections (Addison is a pen name for Sarah Monette). Favorite non-fiction: Jordan Ellenberg's How Not to Be Wrong.

[CRussel]

Well, I almost made it to my stretch goal of 150 books, coming in at 143 for the year, finishing up with an excellent Miss Silver book. I also managed to do quite well at keeping track of what I spent and how many books were bought. While I wasn't perfect, I definitely did better at it, and am encouraged going into the new year.

[sun surfer]

Time to take stock. I had three challenge areas for 2015.


-My first was to read 50 books in 2015. I did that! I was very far behind heading into mid-December - I was at 40 out of 50 read. But I battened down the hatches and even pulled a partial all-nighter on the 30th because I was on my 50th book and determined to finish it out.

So, I read a fifth of my year's books in the last half month, heh. It's not quite as grand as it sounds though. I read some really long books earlier in the year and I'd focused on the longer subchallenge books first and purposely left many of the shorter and easier ones for the end knowing I could go through them quicker. After finally finishing Les Miserables midway through December everything went much faster. Still though, they weren't all short and easy reads the last few weeks and I had to really focus and put in time and effort at the end to complete it. I do now know that, judging by my pace the last few weeks, it's theoretically possible for me to have a 100+ year.


-My second was January-June subchallenges. I outlined my final progress on those mid-year but suffice to say that I completed them all.


-My third was July-December subchallenges. This included reading 8,000 pages, which I'm almost positive I did even though I haven't tallied it all up yet. This also included a variety of specific books and themes:

6 Partially Read.

Spoiler:

This sounds open-ended; however, I only have six books listed as partially read on Goodreads, so really it's a set list, and I am excited at the prospect of it being emptied out. As the title implies, these are books I'd begun but never finished for whatever reason and that I'd still like to read. This list consists of Madame Bovary (which I've already started on), Cold Comfort Farm, The Satanic Verses, A Canticle for Leibowitz, A Brief History of Time and an Osho (philosophy/spirituality) book called Love, Freedom and Aloneness: The Koan of Relationships.

Status: 5/6 completed. Everything but A Brief History of Time. I'd even already newly bought the special illustrated version in pbook in preparation but alas, I just ran out of time. It would've been the very next one. I purposely benched it though when on my final mad reading dash because, though short, I knew I might get bogged down in it as I did the first time I tried to read it years ago.

3 Young Adult.

Spoiler:

It's time for me to catch up on some books in this genre that I've been meaning to read for awhile! However, this is also a set list that I've lumped together so that they take up less room in my subchallenge listings. The three books are Holes, If I Stay and The Maze Runner.

Status: 3/3 completed! When I said above that I saved easier ones for the end, that included these and so I breezed through all three in the last week or so. The Maze Runner was my 50th book and the one I pulled the partial all-nighter for on the 30th.

2 Print Pile.

Spoiler:

Again, a set list - I only have TWO books left on my old print pile! After they are gone, I am done (probably forever) with having a physical stack of books waiting to be read and I can't wait. Of course, this only means the similar enjoyment (and possible feelings of frustration) will transfer to my online tbr list (my GR list is over 300!) but I've gotten much better ever since going digital with my reading about not actually buying books until I'm about to read them. I know that's not the case for many of you, but I think I'm the outlier - when I had to go out and buy books, if I saw something interesting, I wanted to snatch it up to have at home for whenever. Now, I know that most books are just clicks away at my fingertips at any time and so I can wait until I'm exactly ready to read a book until I buy it. So once I complete this subchallenge it will be the end of an era for me. Of course, the final two books are nothing to write home about; there's a reason that they're the final two. On the other hand, they've survived the print pile purges I've done so I do still have some interest in them. They're both non-fiction and both business/money related - The Road to Wealth by Suze Orman (Includes 2003 U.S. Tax Law Changes! lol) and Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Your Own Business. I should also mention that I don't necessarily have to read these straight through for this subchallenge - these are both the type where a skimming and skipping and jumping around may suffice. Also, I don't even necessarily have to read them - I either need to read them or get rid of them. And, there's a possibility that I may buy updated and digital versions to read instead, although I understand that by going that route I run the risk of never finding out those 2003 tax law changes...

Status: 1/2 completed. I never got to Start Your Own Business and I didn't decide to nix it without reading which I'd allowed myself the possibility of. I almost started it a few weeks ago but, it being long and dry, decided that I needed put it off to better my chances of reaching my main goal of 50 books read.

1 Tome.

Spoiler:

An open-ended subchallenge, though not really. I had the same subchallenge January-June and said I'd probably read either Les Mis or Don Quixote, and i read Don Quixote. So unless I find something more intriguing, it will probably be Hugo.

Status: 2/1 completed! I planned on it being Les Mis, but I read a tome in Dhalgren for the book club first so that's how I ended up with two. If I had taken the easy way out and skipped Les Mis entirely, I probably would've finished all my challenges completely. As it is though, I'm very glad I read Les Mis anyway.

1 Club Nominee.

Spoiler:

The only truly open-ended subchallenge this time, I've pared it from three last time to one this time because I have so many subchallenge books this time and I didn't want to overload. This is any book club nominee from June-December that doesn't win in a vote.

Status: 0/1 completed. I planned on The Martian but I preferred to work on specific subchallenge books first at the end and so didn't get to this one.

All in all, I read 10/13 of my subchallenge books for July-December. Those three unread were the only thing I missed completing for the entire year so I'm happy anyway.


Overall, as for my three challenge areas, I completed two. As a wise man once said, and I agree with him, two out of three ain't bad.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

According to Goodreads, I've met my goal of 200 books this year. But that includes 6 short works which are fewer than 50 pages each. I've read 194 full-length books. There are a couple of short ones (~100 pages or so) which are predominantly books for mid-grade (5th - 8th grade) readers. I have almost completed reading Vicky Peterwald: Target, and I expect to finish two more books by midnight on New Year's Eve. But even if I lump the 6 smaller works together and call them a "book", I'll still finish up with 198-ish books for the year. BUT ... I've read more than 56,000 "pages", so this is definitely the year in which I have read the most -- both books and pages.

I ended the year having read 199 books. And, if I lump the 6 small works together with their total of 200 pages, that's equivalent to one more book, so I'm going to call it a success! On my secondary challenges, I completed all of them except for the 42 Challenge. I had a goal of writing 42 reviews of SF items -- books, movies, TV episodes, podcasts, short stories, whatever. I didn't get 42 reviews produced, though I certainly experienced more than 42 during the year.

I read 57,588 pages toward my secondary goal of 50,000 pages. (I set the page goal to keep myself from getting to the total number of books by reading short books.)

Stats:

Total books read: 200 (100% of goal)
Total pages read: 57,588 (115.2% of goal)

Format:
eBooks: 160
audiobooks: 15
DTB: 24

By genre:
Adventure: 4
Fantasy: 21
Historical Fiction: 2
Mainstream: 22
Mystery: 79
Non-Fiction: 3
PUF: 21
Romance: 6
SciFi: 41

Library books: 100 (+ 8 KLL, + 6 KU)

Progress toward series challenge: 36 of 36 books

Eclectic Reader Challenge: 12 of 12 books/categories

[Nyssa]

I had a very good year quality-wise even though it was lacking in quantity.

The absolute best read for me this year was The Martian by Andy Weir! I absolutely loved it!

The most disappointing read was the Clover Omnibus by CLAMP. Unfortunately, the story was never completed, yet CLAMP was fine publishing the collection unfinished. It felt like a complete waste of time.

I read a lot of manga this year, which I've come to really enjoy (and that I definitely prefer to watching Anime), plus, I cemented my love of all things Ilona Andrews by being introduced to the series The Edge and by finally starting their Kate Daniels series.

All in all, despite my terrible long reading drought (about 8 months all told), I would give this year a 5/5 for what I did manage to read. So, I guess I can't complain too much about that.

I wish everyone a very Happy, Healthy, and Fulfilling New Year!

[CharredScribe]

I reached my goal a couple of months back, and good thing too, since the last two months turned out to be slow reading months.

My goal was 60 books, and I completed 65. I also had a sub-goal of 5 non-fiction, and I read 8. Overall, I am happy with my reading year. I was on a break from work in January and read lots of easy reads and books I've read before, as my mind was not in the right space for long, complex books.

Two of my favourite fiction books in 2015 were The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper and The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman, and two of my favourite non-fiction reads where Rape: A South African Nightmare by Pumla Gqola and Maria Callas: The Woman Behind the Legend by Arianna Stassinopoulos. I started reading more paper books this year than last, partly because I started using the library again and partly because I moved back home and was reunited with hundreds of paper books I had not seen for years.

For short reviews on my five favourite fiction books, go here, and for my five favourite non-fiction books, go here.

[Stephjk]

I didn't reach my goal this year. I wasn't so interested in reading and felt pressured by the goal I set, so in 2016 my only goal is to keep track of what I read.

[sun surfer]

I tallied my pages read and I ended up at 8,254 out of my goal of 8,000 for July-December. It was closer than I thought. Added to the 8,164 from January-June, I ended up reading(/listening to) 16,418 pages in 2015.

Though working toward the same 8,000 pages goal each time helps to explain it, I'm still surprised by how similar my pages read were between the two six month periods - only 90 pages difference!

Here is my full MR list of books, ratings and short reviews for what I read in 2015; it feels like I read the first book, Under Fire, years and years ago, not just last January, heh.