The 2015 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

I'm coming up on the end of two years with a self-imposed book buying ban....

I don't have that kind of strength, but as 2016 is only a couple of months away, I have my first New Year's resolution decided upon: I will not buy new book until I have read at least two that I've previously bought and haven't yet read. Being as I'm not the fastest reader on the block (I just this week read my 50th for the year), that should save me quite a bit of money.

50 books—what pdurrant and some others around here would call a pretty good month.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

50 books—what pdurrant and some others around here would call a pretty good month.

Well, a pretty good quarter....

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Well, a pretty good quarter....

[Stephjk]

I've slipped back again, 7 books behind on my total goal. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Well, end of October. With two months left, I am a tiny bit over my budget, but I expect to be under budget through November and December.

It's November! I'm back inside my budget!

[Dngrsone]

I'll hit my secondary goal well ahead of the new year...

[bfisher]

October was another "Oh dear" month for me; I did get 3 TBR books read that had been there quite a long time, but I added many more than that.

[Dazrin]

I finished 1Q84 this evening and with it my primary reading goal for the year. Yay!

My secondary goals are more long-term and are on track too so I won't need to stress myself out about them either. Which is good because I have 3 trips coming up in the next few weeks and may be slowed down more than I would have otherwise liked.

[sakura-panda]

I only read two books in October and I have 25 more books to read to reach my goal, so I am going to guess that I will not reach it this year.

However, I am up to 69 books, and should finish several more before the end of the year; I'd like to get to at least 80 books (my goal is 94) and I think that is reasonable for this year. I typically go through 80+ books a year anyway (except for the one year that I reached 94).

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

I'm coming up on the end of two years with a self-imposed book buying ban.

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I don't have that kind of strength, but as 2016 is only a couple of months away, I have my first New Year's resolution decided upon: I will not buy new book until I have read at least two that I've previously bought and haven't yet read.

I've been giving these posts some thought and they've helped me to a resolution. I do, as with Tom, have to get serious about net reductions in my TBR, but I also don't have HN's discipline. I've got sufficiently better about buying ebooks that I'm not as concerned with that, but this has pushed me to resolve not to buy any paper books for the first six months of next year and then I'll take stock. I didn't think I could commit to a year, but anything less than a half-year resolution makes it seem too easy just to postpone a purchase for a bit.

While I don't love eclutter, it's still a dang sight better than the the still-accumulating physical piles of books, and I don't even like to read paper books any more. But some books I want to read aren't digital and I'm too prone to order them, so they'll be here when I get around to them. I'd hate to run out of things to read.

Enough. If it's not digital and not at the university library, I won't read it. I'd need four lifetimes to read what I'd like to read as it is.

To bring this back to topic, some of my subgoals are in increasing jeopardy of not being met by year-end. I've got a lot of reading commitments and I'm not sure I can slot everything in. I'll try.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'd need four lifetimes to read what I'd like to read as it is.

Amen to that; too many books, too little time. It's still hard to resist, though, when you see a book and think "My, that looks interesting."

[HomeInMyShoes]

My library and I are good good friends.

56 days left. Some random numbers.

66 books read, 2 on the go
50 paper books, 16 electronic books
7 new countries and 20 countries overall
35 new authors and 51 authors overall
58 library books and 8 owned or public domain books
$0 spent

I'll probably end up in the 72 to 75 book range which is pretty good. Not my best for books or pages, but a good year of reading. Lots covered. Lots of books from Canada and Japan. Overall pretty happy with the quality of books I found and I like my challenges for next year. A bit of serious, a bit of goofy and a reasonably light reading load to get through the two sub-challenges. Gearing up for another year in the life in a few years when I celebrate my 50th year on the planet.

I'll keep my $20 per month budget for books despite being in a position to think about lowering it. I want to have the guilt-free budget there if some fabulously interesting book from some obscure country needs a purchase. Looking at Oman, Mongolia, Honduras, Bolivia, The Gambia, and Papua New Guinea.

[CRussel]

So, with about a month and a half to go, I'm well over my base goal (10 books a month, or 120 books), but well short of my stretch goal of 160 books total. Not much chance I'll make that this year. In fact, I'll probably not make my last year's total of > 150 books. But I've done much better at keeping track of what I'm buying, and how much I've spent, so that's definitely a good thing.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I finally updated my actual reading challenge list post. Quite a bit of work to get that up to date. I've been in a reading lull again. Which would be the second one this year. Hopefully this lull doesn't last three months like the last one. I'm still hoping to hit 72 books, but at my current pace, that is not seeming likely.

[pdurrant]

Perhaps a re-read of an old favourite will get your reading habits going again?