# Goodreads Reading Challenge for the year -- how are you doing?



## Jill Nojack (Mar 7, 2014)

I set a hefty goal of 75 books for the Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, and I just crossed the finish line last night around 1:30 AM while propping my eyelids open with some toothpicks  

I had a lot of fun doing it, and I may even get a few more books read before the year is done. I was afraid I was going to end up resenting reading all of those books because of some artificial deadline I'd set, but it actually made it more fun as I watched the goal get closer. 

I think I will probably set a goal of fewer books next year because I have some other goals that will need a little extra of my time, but overall, I think it's a great way to remember that reading is one of the best ways I know to spend my leisure time.

Anyone else do the challenge this year? How are you doing, and did you enjoy it, too?

Jill


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I hit my goal some time last week.  I'm at book 142 of a 140 goal.  

I do like having the numeric goal as an annual measurement to keep myself going against.  However, the only downside is I pick and choose when to start a larger novel .... or I read a couple short books first so I don't 'fall behind' .....


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## Jill Nojack (Mar 7, 2014)

Geoffrey said:


> I hit my goal some time last week. I'm at book 142 of a 140 goal.
> 
> I do like having the numeric goal as an annual measurement to keep myself going against. However, the only downside is I pick and choose when to start a larger novel .... or I read a couple short books first so I don't 'fall behind' .....


Dang! That is some fine reading statistic there. I'm jealous.

I did actually intentionally choose a series toward the end where the books are novella length to get caught up. I picked up BE Priest's Southwind series at the end of my KU free trial. And I'm glad that I was forced to pick some shorter books, because I love that series! I probably wouldn't have read them if I didn't need to make up some ground because I am trying to read less YA Fantasy after a long binge on it. So, for me, it was a good thing having to keep the pace going.

Jill


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## MichelleB675 (May 27, 2012)

Last year I set my goal for 100 and read 109. But this year I only set my goal at 50, since I'm now a full time caregiver to my mother-in-law. I met my goal and now I'm at 62. Currently reading a short, and The Walking Dead Compendium One.. and I really want to read Prince Lestat before the year is out, so I'm guessing I'll finish up at 65.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I set my goal at 50 this year to keep the pressure off, but I never was very good at recording so I'm only at 37 though I know I've read more.  I'll probably get to 40 with a combination of finishing reading and digging throough my books to find a couple others that I've read.

Next year, 75!  Because it's easy for me to log them with Goodreads now.

Betsy


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## KindleGirl (Nov 11, 2008)

I set my goal for 60 this year and as soon as I finish the book I am currently reading I will meet it. I like to set a goal each year just to see where I'm at and it gives me a push to keep up if I start getting behind.  I think this is the 3rd year I've done the Goodreads challlenge and I will do it again next year.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I set it lower this year as I had some issues going on in 2014. Set it at 100 , read 120 I think.

I figured, I can always go higher as I go on. Used to be fine with 150, but this year was not a good year for me as far as reading goes. Way lower than usual.

Its really fun to see all the cover of the books I read though. Sometimes I forget the stuff I read early in the year.


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## cagnes (Oct 13, 2009)

My goal was 120 books & I just recently met it. I sort of cheated though, I had originally set the number much higher and lowered it when I fell way behind... I think I lowered it twice.   I've read much less this year than the previous years that I did the goodreads challenges. Last year I read 149 books, 220 in 2012 & 222 in 2011. I'm hoping to read more next year!


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

You too cagnes? Was there something in the water this year then? Lets hope we can get back to a more usual reading amount in the new year.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I'm not interested in goals at this point in my life.  I just read what I want.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

My goal was 75 books, and I've currently got 76 logged. The one I am reading now should definitely be finished before the year is out, and probably the next one up as well. I'll probably keep my 2015 goal at 75, but I may up it to 80 or 85 as a "stretch goal."


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## LaraAmber (Feb 24, 2009)

I completed the challenge at 83 of 80 books.  I wish there was a pages read version, I feel like the book challenge encourages people to pick shorter books so they can have a more impressive number of books (I fell victim to it myself when I was falling behind).  Of course this is from the person who has four books going and refusing to finish them yet so they count in January.  

I did give Amazon/GoodReads feedback that people should be able to set up personal sub challenges to track or explain.  For me I had in 2014 a personal challenge of each month having a non-fiction title, a classic lit title, and a play.  That also got completed.  I think it would be cool if people could in addition to their number of books challenge could sign up for the "War and Peace in 2015" challenge or the "All of Austen" challenge and have a way for people in the same challenges to talk to each other.  Come on Amazon, sink some money into this property you acquired!


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

LaraAmber said:


> I completed the challenge at 83 of 80 books. I wish there was a pages read version, I feel like the book challenge encourages people to pick shorter books so they can have a more impressive number of books (I fell victim to it myself when I was falling behind). Of course this is from the person who has four books going and refusing to finish them yet so they count in January.
> 
> I did give Amazon/GoodReads feedback that people should be able to set up personal sub challenges to track or explain. For me I had in 2014 a personal challenge of each month having a non-fiction title, a classic lit title, and a play. That also got completed. I think it would be cool if people could in addition to their number of books challenge could sign up for the "War and Peace in 2015" challenge or the "All of Austen" challenge and have a way for people in the same challenges to talk to each other. Come on Amazon, sink some money into this property you acquired!


That is something I really like about booklikes. They give a few stats. They tell me how many pages I read in my yearly challenge and what book I read fastest.

So far this year I read 37945 pages. I am not doing good this year though, especially the last 3 months of the year. Having some health issues and other issues going on that make me reading less. I am not tempted though ever to "fill" in with shorter books. Its not a competition for me, just a way to track what I read each year. I am not a fan of to short books so I wouldn't read too many of them anyway.

I am keeping next years challenge on the lower side. I can always add more, but its kind of depressing when I come up short at the end of the year. And its not because I get obsessed with the number or anything, just that every year I don't read more books is another year off my lifespan and another year I am short in reading all the darn good books I need to read. I want to read ALL the darn good books out there, every one of them.

Must be a reader ailment.


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## MichelleB675 (May 27, 2012)

I thought there was a place to see pages read in the GoodReads challenge? I remember checking it last year, but the Stats feature seems to be missing this year. So I went into last year and clicked stats and it shows this year too. Last year 31439 pages, this year so far 21585.

I had several shorts and novellas in my list this year too. I like to use them to break up long series, or when switching genres as a buffer.

My sub-challenges last year were that I didn't allow myself to reread any old favorites, all my reads had to be new to me. And that I had to fit a freebie book into my reading every so often.

This year my only one was that I had to re-read all of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches books before I could read Prince Lestat (which I am just now reading because a friend bought it for me for Christmas)


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I'm not interested in goals at this point in my life. I just read what I want.


Then this might not be the right thread for you.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

LaraAmber said:


> I think it would be cool if people could in addition to their number of books challenge could sign up for the "War and Peace in 2015" challenge or the "All of Austen" challenge and have a way for people in the same challenges to talk to each other. Come on Amazon, sink some money into this property you acquired!


Could a group (or whatever they're called on Goodreads) be established to do that? I think it would be cool if the challenge idea could be extended but I think some of that could be taken care of by a group? Though publicizing the group isn't easy, I don't think. Maybe some way to combine groups and a challenge.

Betsy


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## MichelleB675 (May 27, 2012)

There is a yearly reading challenge group over there, I'm not sure it's tied to the actual challenge. I joined it last year and kept track of my books in both places just to be safe. They have groups for just about everything at GR.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do the challenge next year, or if I do I'll set a very small goal of 10-15. My main goal for 2015 is to read the Game of Thrones books.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I think I'm going to do it again...it'll be easier for me now that I'm developing a system and routine for tracking my books, which I never really did before.

As for short books (and I don't have many)--I figure if it's already in my library, it's fair game.  I won't buy/download a short book just for the challenge.

Betsy


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## cagnes (Oct 13, 2009)

MichelleB675 said:


> I thought there was a place to see pages read in the GoodReads challenge? I remember checking it last year, but the Stats feature seems to be missing this year. So I went into last year and clicked stats and it shows this year too. Last year 31439 pages, this year so far 21585.
> 
> I had several shorts and novellas in my list this year too. I like to use them to break up long series, or when switching genres as a buffer.
> 
> ...


On your profile page, right under your bookshelves there is a clickable "Stats" link. It lists each year of books read & you can view by books, pages or publication year. There has been a steady decline in my reading since 2010, but I didn't realize how much until seeing the stats in black & white. I mustn't have watched any television at all in 2010! 

2009 = 13132 pages/21 books (just started tracking towards end of year)
2010 = 99163 pages/264 books
2011 = 85118 pages/222 books
2012 = 70990 pages/220 books
2013 = 47522 pages/149 books
2014 = 37822 pages/122 books (so far)


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

cagnes said:


> On your profile page, right under your bookshelves there is a clickable "Stats" link. It lists each year of books read & you can view by books, pages or publication year. There has been a steady decline in my reading since 2010, but I didn't realize how much until seeing the stats in black & white. I mustn't have watched any television at all in 2010!
> 
> 2009 = 13132 pages/21 books (just started tracking towards end of year)
> 2010 = 99163 pages/264 books
> ...


Ohhh, thanks, there it is. I have a similar pattern like you, just keep going down each year. My best year was 2009, my first full year with mt K1.

2008 = 1710 pages/5 books
2009 = 65496 pages/190 books
2010 = 49966 pages/136 books
2011 = 52106 pages/155 books
2012 = 45591 pages/139 books
2013 = 36623 pages/110 books
2014 = 38905 pages/121 books, still reading a couple.

Goodreads has groups for doing all kinds of challenges. I tried doing some of them, but alphabet and so on, but I don't do well with having to read specific books just to full a card so to speak. So all I count are the per year reads, no matter what they are. I never managed to finish any of my challenges and I tried doing like 6 back in 2012 I think. It just got stressful to fit certain books into it when I wasn't in the mood for those books.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

As a good list geek, I keep everything on a spreadsheet and then run various numbers as I see fit. For the purpose of my tracking, I convert pbooks to location counts instead of the other way around since I read more ebooks ... My numbers from the past few years look like this:


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

My eyes are burning, LOL!


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

LaraAmber said:


> I did give Amazon/GoodReads feedback that people should be able to set up personal sub challenges to track or explain. For me I had in 2014 a personal challenge of each month having a non-fiction title, a classic lit title, and a play. That also got completed. I think it would be cool if people could in addition to their number of books challenge could sign up for the "War and Peace in 2015" challenge or the "All of Austen" challenge and have a way for people in the same challenges to talk to each other. Come on Amazon, sink some money into this property you acquired!


Hmmmm, I could swear they had something like this last year when I was doing a challenge through one of the groups on Goodreads. You could set a goal of how many books you would read for that challenge, and you created a special shelf for those books. I don't remember exactly how I set it up because I didn't officially participate in any challenges this year, but I'm sure that this is possible.


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## cagnes (Oct 13, 2009)

marianneg said:


> Hmmmm, I could swear they had something like this last year when I was doing a challenge through one of the groups on Goodreads. You could set a goal of how many books you would read for that challenge, and you created a special shelf for those books. I don't remember exactly how I set it up because I didn't officially participate in any challenges this year, but I'm sure that this is possible.


I've done those too. I think it must be something only the mods of the groups can set up for their group.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

cagnes said:


> I've done those too. I think it must be something only the mods of the groups can set up for their group.


Oh, that makes sense. You could always start your own group, though! It might attract some like-minded readers, too, which was an aspect that LaraAmber was also looking for.


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## LaraAmber (Feb 24, 2009)

I was thinking it would be cool as something people could do without belonging to a group already.  Especially with how HORRID the current state of GR group organization and search function.  

-List of additional challenges that you could review and decide to "accept" and then automatically be put in contact with other people who also signed up for that challenge.  If it was a giant work like War and Peace or "read all of Austen" it could have a leaderboard with a percent complete.
-Set up your own additional challenges even if it's a series of check boxes under your challenge so your friends can see that you've given yourself additional rules for your challenge.  Like under my challenge for last year there could be a text block or list of check boxes for me to manually check off "12 Plays" and "12 Classic Lit" and "12 Non-Fiction".


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## Jill Nojack (Mar 7, 2014)

Atunah said:


> Ohhh, thanks, there it is. I have a similar pattern like you, just keep going down each year. My best year was 2009, my first full year with mt K1.
> 
> 2008 = 1710 pages/5 books
> 2009 = 65496 pages/190 books
> ...


Dang, all y'all have some spectacular numbers. And I really need to look at some of the group challenges.

On a high point, I added an additional two books after completing my annual goal and am about 50 minutes away from finishing another, which I can easily finish up on my lunch hour.

Although I'm not running with the big dogs yet, I am well chuffed about my final total of 78 for the year.

You all inspire me. I may have to up that for next year. Except I also plan to up my number of books written from 3 to 6, so that may not happen. Sadly, I'd have to live to be 150 to complete my TBR list at this rate.


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## MichelleB675 (May 27, 2012)

My books for this year, not a huge amount, but I enjoyed every one of them.

https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/1068010

I think I'm going to skip the challenge in 2015 but I did make a 2015 shelf.


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