Book Lair discussion

Hey, folks!

I am curious to know how you feel about this year that is now coming to an end in terms of reading.

Did you read as much as you had hoped? More? Not nearly enough?

What about the quality of the books you read?

Did you set yourself up any challenges?

Let us know your stats as well, both books and pages read, and others if you have any!

Alrighty, as for myself, there was a time, around summer, when I thought I would pass my 100 GR goal by a longshot by the time the year was over.
Then I got my new job and my reading time was drastically reduced - more each passing month, really.

I still managed to reach the goal. 103/100: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challe...

I read a total of 25791 pages and my longest was The Winter Boy at 508.

I read a total of 52 Netgalley books, which is one of the two challenges I participated on; the other was 20 Books of Summer. I had to read 20 books and ended up reading 32, though not all were on the initial list (I really suck at sticking with those) and I missed a few that were.

I read some pretty great books, a few bad ones, but overall I had a great time and only wish I had the time and brainpower to focus on more reading. I really miss being fully immersed in a story but been so tired for so long that it just hasn't happened.

So during the little pieces I do get to pick up my Kindle and read a few lines, I try to truly focus on them.

Next year I will definitely aim lower, though. Sleep is so underrated.

For my part, I was able to read much more than expected. Although not very regularly. There was periods of intense reading and periods with no reading at all.

In the end, I managed to read 64 books for a total of 16031 pages. Funnily, it gives the same average page / book as last year (approx. 250pp/book).

My longuest book was The Luminaries with 834 pages and the shortest was 青蛙1家 Qīngwā yījiā with 18 pages.

My top 10 for this year (in random order) is:

Oi, I just found this page: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i...

I clicked someone else's so not sure how to go there otherwise.

Interesting stuff here!

HIGHEST RATED ON GOODREADS
The Last Sanctuary
by P.S. Mokha

lolz. I distinctively remember having a buddy read of this book and not finding it very enjoyable. I think it was with Leigh?
Alas, to each their own!

Nice!
Here's mine:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i...

I read 117 of my 110 goal, but it wasn't steady reading throughout the year. Like Ana, there were weeks/months when life and my job got in the way. O_o

My longest was The Dark Tower Omnibus at 1480 pages.

I had 36 five star reads, which is pretty darn good!

My personal goal is to write a review for every book I read and I think I accomplished that.

Only four 1 star reads and ten 2 star reads.

I think I set a goal too high compared with last year. Now I see that I read even a bit more than last year but the goal is steady around 60-70 books per year. I also believed I would reach my goal rapidly around summer by the holidays but my plans didn't go as expected as usually. So I ended up with 66 books for this past year and a total of 12795 pages! My biggest book was Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid although the book that give me most time to read was definitely S.. I settled a goal of 70 books for this year. I have a long pile waiting but I want to find new books too. In fact am on my way to the bookshop! lol
Have a great new year 2016 folks! Read, love, be happy!

by the way here is my year in books page if you fancy looking at it:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i...

Kandice wrote: "I read 117 of my 110 goal, but it wasn't steady reading throughout the year. Like Ana, there were weeks/months when life and my job got in the way. O_o

My longest was [book:The Dark Tower Omnibus|..."

Wow Kandice, that is a huge book!!
Well done ^_^

Nice roundup Melas and Sorobai.
This highest rating feature is a bit subjective. Looks like it grabs the ones with least reviews, naturally all 5 stars because authors's friends come here and rate it.

Funny that all my books seem so short pagewise compared to yours.

Sorobai wrote: "I think I set a goal too high compared with last year. Now I see that I read even a bit more than last year but the goal is steady around 60-70 books per year. I also believed I would reach my goal..."

I got excited when I saw S. in your post, but then realized it was a different S.! I may need to read yours, but I can't recommend S. by John Updike enough. ;)

Ana wrote: "Nice roundup Melas and Sorobai.
This highest rating feature is a bit subjective. Looks like it grabs the ones with least reviews, naturally all 5 stars because authors's friends come here and rate ..."

At the end of each year I begin to feel that I am a bit too soft in my ratings. I do give out low ratings, but tend to err on the side of higher than lower. Or, maybe, I just tend to read more books I like than books that I don't!

Yeah, I am so over that.

I feel that, most of all, I need to be fair. To myself and to other authors and even to that author, providing constructive criticism.

I try not to be mean and to explain what exactly I didn't like in a book. Even then I have had subtly nasty comments from the authors so at this point I do not accept anything I have not chosen myself - from Netgalley mostly, or bought, or from authors I already know I enjoy reading, but even those I have declined 2 in the past week. If I feel I won't enjoy a book I am not going to take it.

On the other hand, if I feel I was sold something and got something else entire than you're obviously going to hear my thoughts.
An example of that is the book Awake. I have been following Aly's comments on her review, as well as taken a peek at other reviews, and boy oh boy some of them test my limits.
Alas, as I said in my last comment there, to each their own!

Kandice wrote: "Sorobai wrote: "I think I set a goal too high compared with last year. Now I see that I read even a bit more than last year but the goal is steady around 60-70 books per year. I also believed I wou..."

It does seems interesting that S. by John Updike Kandice. Updike always sounds a ring of something good I guess. But the S. am talking about here is something totally different. It is a book without any other I read so far and in fact I'm still working on it, it is not entirely finished yet.

@Ana I think we have the same average page ^^. Maybe you feel like your book are shorter because you read more books around this average, when we sometimes tend to read a bigger variety in size? From some really short to much longer books?

As for the highest rating, I totally agree. My highest rating is a booking only I have read, and to which I gave 5 stars. It's not even a "traditional" book in the sense that it's the book from an exhibition I've seen, with the pictures of the photographer, but also with some additional poems he wrote (i.e. why it's a book, and not only a catalogue). Ergo it's probably not representative at all.

I tend also to try to read more book I picked up by myself, or that have stood the test of time. That's why I haven't read that much R4R or Netgalley books this year, even though I have a huge pile waiting for me! Although I did have good (but also bad) surprises this way.

I thought so but my longest book was 508 pages, not that big a deal, eh.

Yeah, I should really dig into my Netgalley pile again but Lock In is tempting me!

You already luch better than me. You read one / week !
I read only 10 netgalley books in 2015 (+ 7 R4R).
I think I really should stop requesting for more books...

Same here but on the other hand the more time passes the more I realize there are books there I will never read, and not just the ones I cannot open. I don't know what came over me when I requested them...