The 2019 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

Fourteen of my target of seventy-eight completed, I'll be at 16/78 by tomorrow. That gives me a small buffer for the non-English books in my list, which will take a lot more than 4.5 days each to read.

[Wearever]

Originally Posted by Wearever

I chose my first book for my science fiction 2019 challenge. Friday by Robert Heinlein. So far I'm enjoying it.

Not off to a good start. I abandoned this book , just not my cup of tea. I did find another Science fiction book for my challenge. Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by Wearever

Not off to a good start. I abandoned this book , just not my cup of tea. I did find another Science fiction book for my challenge. Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill.

But at least you dropped it quickly! Good luck with the second try!

[Wearever]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

But at least you dropped it quickly! Good luck with the second try!

Thanks , that's true. I'll start this one tonight.

[Tarana]

I'm on book 6 now, Return of the King by J R R Tolkien. I'm focusing on series this year and for two of these series, the books are shorter than my typical hence a lot of quick finishes. As I get back to doing normal things (I'm currently still laid up from fall on Halloween), I'll have less time to read or listen to audiobooks.

Current series are Murder She Wrote (Jessica Fletcher/Donald Bain) and 87th Precinct by Ed Mcbain. I have all the MSW, most in audiobook, but taking advantage of the .99 Kindle Unlimited deal to listen/read to a bunch of 87th Precinct that I don't have so that I can read in order. For both, I'm up to about book 12. After reading a couple of these, I then move to a longer book in another genre. Otherwise, all the stories gel together instead of being enjoyed individually.

[radbaddude]

I am on my third book of the year. I would like to complete 52 books but since I read longer books, I am going to go by page count this year. Looking at the previous 5 years, I've managed around 15k pages read per year. This year I would like to hit over 18k pages read so I will need to at least read 50 pages per day. I tend to obsess with goals and trying to hit number of books read in a year, and failing to meet my GR goal the last two, has demotivated me. I think the page count will be a nice change this year. Much needed actually.

[Wearever]

Finished my first Science fiction book for my 2019 challenge. Sea of Rust by C Robert Cargill. An interesting story of life without humans ,only Robots left. Although some of them acted very human.

[latepaul]

One ahead but conscious that a couple of them are quite short. We'll see but if I start to feel I'm pushing myself to short books just to hit the challenge target I might reduce it.

Originally Posted by latepaul

One ahead but conscious that a couple of them are quite short. We'll see but if I start to feel I'm pushing myself to short books just to hit the challenge target I might reduce it.

Out of interest, what do you consider short? I've decide I want to end the year with a minimum mean of 300 pages - the complete works of Christina Rosetti, and Tom Jones should take care of that. But I'd rather read a well-written appropriately short book than some oversized paperweight written by and for people who define a book by its size.

[latepaul]

The two I was thinking of were Star Trap which is 62,654 words (284 pages) and Convenience Store Woman at 32,157 words (176 pages). My current read is < 50,000 words.

I tend to mostly read books in the 80,000-120,000 word range. Around 150,000 and I start to feel like it might be an effort to get through. But like you I'd rather read a well-written book than one the right length, whether that's short or long.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by latepaul

One ahead but conscious that a couple of them are quite short. We'll see but if I start to feel I'm pushing myself to short books just to hit the challenge target I might reduce it.

As a strategy, it might not be a bad thing to get in a couple of shorter works to have a "cushion." I always feel a bit frantic in January, as if I'm starting behind. Once I get a bit ahead, I forget about it. Of course if you feel that length is starting to drive your choices, then it needs a rethink. The challenge is supposed to make reading more fun and not less.

Originally Posted by latepaul

The two I was thinking of were Star Trap which is 62,654 words (284 pages) and Convenience Store Woman at 32,157 words (176 pages). My current read is < 50,000 words.

I tend to mostly read books in the 80,000-120,000 word range. Around 150,000 and I start to feel like it might be an effort to get through. But like you I'd rather read a well-written book than one the right length, whether that's short or long.

How do you find the word count? I can't find that information for any of the books Ive bought for my Kobo.

[Dazrin]

If you use Calibre there is a word count plugin (I'm not at my personal computer so I don't have a link right now.)

For library books, I use two locations for word counts: https://www.bookshout.com/ or http://www.arbookfind.com/ (select parent and then search)

Neither is perfect but they work.

Originally Posted by Dazrin

If you use Calibre there is a word count plugin (I'm not at my personal computer so I don't have a link right now.)

For library books, I use two locations for word counts: https://www.bookshout.com/ or http://www.arbookfind.com/ (select parent and then search)

Neither is perfect but they work.

Thank. I do use Calibre, and had looked through plugins before posting here. Obviously I didn't look well enough, I will try again. Thanks

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by stuartjmz

How do you find the word count? I can't find that information for any of the books Ive bought for my Kobo.

If you look up the book on the Kobo website, there is an "About this book" panel below the synopsis that shows the word count.