Now in 2009, 2010 and 2011 I just read to read and kept track all on my own and on my blog.
In 2012 I signed up for Goodreads and they kept track for me. Not only did they keep track, but they also let me set a goal of how many books I wanted to try to read and how many I actually did read.
You can see I was sadly lacking in 2012 and 2013 and didn't reach my goal, so in 2014 I played it safe and only set a goal to read 20 books and far exceeded that amount! I'm an overachiever and they love overachievers!
Here are the books I read in 2014. I credit my online book club, From Left to Write in helping me to exceed my goal!
If I had to choose my three favorite books of the year I would choose The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, The Divorce Papers and The Underground Girls of Kabul.
So for 2015 it's time to set a new goal. Seeing as my goal before was always 30 books and I read 33 in 2014 I'm going to shoot for 35!
Can I do it? We shall see. Regardless I love reading, I love my online book club and I can't wait to see what great books I will read this year.
What about you? Have you set your challenge?
Happy New Year!
May 2015 be filled with books that take you on amazing journeys!
Well done Alicia! While I have been a member of Goodreads since 2010, I have never set a goal until last year which was fifty two books, I read 51. What I don't like about the Challenge is that I started doing stupid things to make the goal rather than just the sheer pleasure of reading. For instance I read a 30 page book to try to make the goal (that is OK though because I also read several that had a hell of lot of pages like Goldfinch or Outlander). Ordinarily I wouldn't mess around with a 30 page book, so it was cheating of sorts--but who the hell am I cheating? So the last week of December I read like a mad man and still didn't make the goal and I don't even care about the stupid goal. Am I any less of a human being because I only made 51 books instead of 52? Does my 51 make me a better human being than you because you only read 33? Or does it say something like this old fart has a lot more time on his hands because he is retired and Alicia still works? Yes I am vastly complicating this.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do like about the goals is that, as you mentioned, it keeps track of how many books you read and displays them in an attractive display. Unfortunately the challenge is not displayed on your home page if you don't make your goal. It is still available but not handily so, it is something of a PIA, you have to do some arcane clicking and search for it. So I set my goal for 45 this year which I would have easily met in 2014. Also I will edit the damned goal to make sure I make it so that it is displayed next year and avoid the stupid rush at the end of the year. One's goal should be quality reading not doing dumb things to make some arbitrary number.
My top three books? Hmmm. I am not good with picking favorites. But one of them was certainly The Goddess of Small Victories to which you pointed me. The Brothers, Goldfinch, Soul To Take, When Dreams Are Calling, All the Light We Can Not See, This is Your Brain On Sex, Prayer for Owen Meany, Jane Eyre, The Martian, Perfume Collector, The Ship Of Brides, The Wind is Not a River, The Rosie Project....oh you said three. I can't pick three. I would be absolutely worthless on a literary prize committee.
Wow, I never thought about cheating to try to meet my goal or reading like a mad man...lol. I can see that you are definitely much more competitive than I am.
DeleteI just set the goal for fun and then just used Goodreads to keep track of my books. But I would definitely give you way more points than I would give myself because you do fabulous reviews of your books and I only write 5 or 6 words.
It was pretty difficult to get the stats, and no way to print the list of books, I had to print screen then edit by cropping.
Let's see how we both do in the new year, good luck!