Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Who's with me?!

I hit a bit of a slump in November/December with my reading, so I was a little nervous going into the new year with plans to restrict my reading to being in order. BUT I hope to read 100 books this year, so I'll be able to throw in some side reads if I'm feeling bored with the upcoming prompts.

What's your strategy? Are you sticking to the 4 or 5 per month (1 per week)? Or are you jumping the gun and reading through the list at whatever pace suits you?

Also, what are you reading for week one to start the year strong?

I’m with you Emily.
Last year I read in order, but at my own pace. My first book last year was 800+ pages, and took longer than a week, but by the middle of February everything was back on track, and I ended up finishing the challenge in early December.
I know some people find going in order difficult, but for me it was easier... sort of like wearing a uniform at school, if you don’t have to make a decision you just move a long more quickly.

Going in order this year and each month, if I finish that month early, I get a reading free-for-all. First book is Take Out because I love M. Maron's books. In fact I only figured out what to read for January and will try to do that month by month. Hope it works.

Lizzy, I'm glad to hear that! I feel like it will be the same for me... just makes it easier to pick up the next book. I'm resisting planning too far out in advance, though, and I gave myself lots of options.

Ann, I kind of thought of doing the same thing, but I have a feeling I'm going to want to get ahead on the ATY challenge rather than do side reads, especially early on. I'd hate to hit the same slump I hit in November of 2018 and then not finish the challenge.

I've always jumped around, reading whatever prompt/book caught my eye and then try to fit it in where I could. This is my first try (#4) and it will be my first attempt reading in order. I've given myself multiple options for most prompts, and left blank for now.

I will be reading at my own pace. I am not sure how i'll fare since I currently work six days a week. I will probably do two months of remote fieldwork this summer and I am going to be better prepared this year because those two months are where I really fell behind last year. My field season is probably where I will stop reading in order, if past experience tells me anything.

I've also discovered audiobooks and I am going to try and fit those in where I can.

Starting my year with a side read (crazy!) but I have a shorter book for prompt #1 and have two options ready for prompt #2, and a book already downloaded for #3. I hope to get at least two prompts finished this week before I go back to work.

MJ, I did the same thing the past two years, and I always got stuck with my least exciting prompts at the end (despite my efforts to avoid that). I'm hoping reading in order will prevent that from happening -- I'm already excited about my book for Week 52 😂

Emily wrote: "MJ, I did the same thing the past two years, and I always got stuck with my least exciting prompts at the end (despite my efforts to avoid that). I'm hoping reading in order will prevent that from ..."

I agree. And I hope you are still excited for it when the time comes to actually read it! It's a ways away!

I'm going to read in order for at least the first few weeks and then see if I'll stick to it. I really like the idea.

I'm planning on reading everything in order outside of my 500 page plus book as that might take me more than a week so I may start that one a bit early. Some larger books I get right through, some I can't seem to finish. I'm planning on reading 115 books this year so I'll have plenty of side reads. I'm starting off the year with The Astonishing Color of After. It was nominated for two good reads choice awards and its something I really wanted to read sometime this year.

I’m reading in order again this year for AtY, but have other challenges that happen along side. I also start longer books and audiobooks early so that I finish in the correct week, if they are going to take longer than 7 days.

First book of the year is already checked off, because I chose a short story: Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience, a Nebula award winner. I will also probably read Bury Your Dead if my library hold works out.

Like others, I find it eases my indecision when I have a given category up next.

Brittany wrote: "I'm planning on reading everything in order outside of my 500 page plus book as that might take me more than a week so I may start that one a bit early. Some larger books I get right through, some ..."

Your first choice is really good!

I'm trying to read in order this year and will start with The Secret Scripture which I started this morning. I don't think it will feel restrictive, since I will have side reads as well.

I'll be reading in order this year. Last year I decided to basically start over reading in order in May, so it'll be less stressful doing so from the start. I also had to find a second book for a couple of tricky categories last year, which wasn't fun!

I'll be reading at my own pace, especially since I have a few other challenges going at the same time. I'll probably start H is for Hawk later today, which won the Costa book award for biography and was strongly recommended by a friend.

Brittany wrote: "I'm planning on reading everything in order outside of my 500 page plus book as that might take me more than a week so I may start that one a bit early. Some larger books I get right through, some ..."

Ahhh The Astonishing Color of After was one of my very favorite YA books last year. I hope you enjoy it!

I just finished my first book of the year, Salt to the Sea, which won a Carnegie medal. I really, really enjoyed it.

But now I have a conundrum because the book I *actually* wanted to read for the next prompt has been on order by the library for the last two months, so I may have to find something to substitute in instead. Sigh. Already struggling with this haha! Glad I have a support thread to commiserate with!

I'm planning to read in order, sort of. I'm not doing all 52 prompts because I'm doing half prompts - half rejects so that will throw off the "in order" thing a bit. Plus there are a few books that I want to read earlier or later in the year, for whatever reasons.

I totally read out of order in 2018 and regretted it because it made me feel disconnected from the group and the discussions about topics.

Emily wrote: "I just finished my first book of the year, Salt to the Sea, which won a Carnegie medal. I really, really enjoyed it.

But now I have a conundrum because the book I *actually* wante..." I think I will solve that by reading in monthly order. If one isn't in yet read the next in line, but not cross over months. Fair?

Last year I actually thought we were required to read in order, so I did that automatically. :) Nice to see there is a group for it this time, since I am so OCD I would do it anyway.

Unrelated topic - how do I get the challenge tracker at the top of the page to switch to 2019 and start tracking the number of books I have read THIS year?

I think the mods have to reset it!

I'm doing this whole challenge for the first time this year and I've decided to read in order-ish. I'll choose my next book to read by looking at the next 2-3 prompts, preferably in order but also taking into account what works for other challenges I'm doing.

I'm definitely reading in order! It's too difficult for me to decide what prompt/book I want to do next, so this takes the guess work out of it.
In general, I'll keep the pace of 4-5 ATY books/month, but my pace may vary throughout the individual weeks depending on lengths if that makes sense.

I'm going to read in order as much as I can, but if I find that a book I've read would fill a prompt that I find more challenging, I'll use it for the challenging prompt and find another book for the original prompt. I'm hoping to knock out some prompts I find more difficult by sheer luck.
I'm already off track, by the way. I finished Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café today. I had planned to use it for the first prompt, but I think it would meet the "sense of place" prompt, as well. Since I've been having trouble deciding what to do with the ""sense of place" prompt, I'm putting it there. I've found another book for the first prompt.

I plan to read in order but at my own pace. I actually started early because work let out on the 20th so I changed my days around. I have already finished my first ten books and have the next 4 planned out. I may slow down for prompt 15, I want to read a book in Arabic and it is not my strong suit.

I plan on reading in order"ish", assuming that the library will cooperate with me. I plan on reading the 4 for the month at my pace own pace. Then read other side reads for the rest of the month. If I have some hard books coming up in the next month I might start them early.

Yea I plan on counting when I finish the book as in order.. there will be a few I have to start out of order, but I plan to finish them in order.

I'm going to attempt to go in order this year. Not sure what I'll do if I DNF a book though. It could derail the whole thing!

As last year, I’m going to read more or less in order. I always have multiple books on the go on my Kindle, my phone (for library books) and an audiobook, so I’m just going to start the next one on my list on the medium I just finished (I hope that makes sense). I like that it structures my reading, but allowing for the flexibility of library holds and audiobooks taking longer to finish.

To help me choose my next book, I set myself a few criteria, like books I put on my tbr when I first joined goodreads in 2014, diverse books, books by women and classics. I read far too many white hetero male authors last year!

I am joining the in order group this year. In previous years I have only planned one or two prompts in advance by checking to see what was available at the library for those upcoming weeks.

This year I have planned the majority of my books because of the restriction that I put on the list. All of my books have to be Canadian authors. It has been a little difficult to find books for each prompt but really fun so far. The best thing is that between the 3 libraries that I frequent all of the books are available. 😁

Sophie, I just looked back at my 2018 stats, and there were 4 months out of the year that I read only women authors! I guess I just gravitate to them?

I'm trying to read one nonfiction, one LGBT, and one POC book each month. Most months they will fit into the ATY prompts, but some months I'll probably have to side read them (for example, Educated will be my nonfiction this month, but it doesn't fit in this month's categories). I chose When Dimple Met Rishi for prompt 2 because it is POC and fits the prompt.

I'm prioritizing those goals first, then the ATY in order, then everything else, so... fingers crossed that it all works out!

That moment you finish your first "reject"/side read of the year, then realize how perfectly it would fit in an ATY category that isn't until the Week 39.

Wahhhhhhh already second guessing this thing haha!

lol. Know that feeling so well, but then keep telling myself that there are lots of books for each category, so that means I will read two books instead of one.

Monkiecat wrote: "...also, I'm doing a few challenges at once, so anything I read now is still pretty easy to slot into one of those. Come October or so, things will start getting hairy :D"

That's how I feel! I do a lot of challenges in the Wacky Challenges group, but I overlap them with ATY... some of them work, some of them don't. So these fit those challenges, but I'm already itching to make them fit ATY too.

I am planning on reading in order too, but at my own pace. I hope to get ahead in my reading a bit, as I have some chunky books that I want to read. I know some of these books will definitely slow me down.

I did plan ahead. My physical TBR consists of about 70 books. I want to get this number down, so I listed as many of these in the prompts as I could. There is 1 category that I have nothing for, and 2 categories that I only have 1 book for. I plan on saving those 2 books for those prompts so I won't have to find something else.

My first read was The Fifth Season, and it was great. I am on my second read, What Have You Done, along with some side reads.

I’m not going to worry about reading in order, but I want to stay within 4 or 5 books of where I’m supposed to be, if that makes sense. Right now, I’m reading January’s books, but out of order. The exception for that is if I read a book and realize it is suitable a more difficult prompt farther down the list, I’ll use it for the more difficult prompt and find another book for the easier prompt.

I'm doing all graphic novels for ATY. I'm trying to read in order just because it takes some of the pressure off of what to read next. However, a lot of my graphic novels are part of a series (Sandman, Batman). So, the 2nd Sandman fills prompt 1, but I read the 1st Sandman first, which I used for prompt 21. I'm guessing by the time I get halfway through the year, most of the prompts will be filled because of stuff like this.

I'm going to do as I did last year - read in order and fill in with my other challenge (Popsugar). Last year I went wildly out of order over the last few weeks, but finished both challenges in the end. I have an unfortunate habit of picking up multiple books from charity shops as well as buying new ones inspired by our Writers Festival, so my physical tbr never seems to diminish despite my efforts to get through it. I currently have 182 books still unread! Reading in order does help me get to books I have always meant to read but tend to put off for something "easier".

Sue wrote: "I'm going to do as I did last year - read in order and fill in with my other challenge (Popsugar). Last year I went wildly out of order over the last few weeks, but finished both challenges in the ..."

That's why I'm reading in order as well! For the last two years, I've ended the year with books I wasn't excited about because they fit the only prompts I had left for the challenge... Which was a bummer! And ditto on the ever-growing physical TBR. My goal is to read every book that I owned as of December 31st but haven't read yet. It's a good thing I put that date on there, because I've already bought 4 books this year!

I wish I had the self control to read all of my unread books but my work is right next to the library and the pull of new books is too strong!

Good point Sarah. My job IS the library. The one with a little less than 500.000 items... I never get to the bottom of my tbr shelf (yes I had to dedicate a shelf for that).

Betty wrote: "I'm going to read in order as much as I can, but if I find that a book I've read would fill a prompt that I find more challenging, I'll use it for the challenging prompt and find another book for t..."

Whenever I don't know what to do for a prompt, I go to the section where people are discussing that individual question. There is usually a listopia there for books that fit in the category (which I search to see if any of my "to-read" books is on it) and I also like looking at the discussion to see what everyone else has chosen. Even this early there are people discussing all of the questions.

My plan to read in order has already been derailed by two things:
1) I'm playing "Turf Wars" and one of the books (can't say which in case you are playing) fit this week's strategy better than #1
2) I have changed my book for week 1 THREE times now after finding one choice worked better for a different week and another choice was just so, so boring when I started reading it that I had to give up. So now I am looking for a replacement yet again. Assuming I find one, I'm going to the library tomorrow to pick up week 1 AND 2. Hopefully I will actually have time to read them before Turf Wars the next.

Jennifer wrote: "My plan to read in order has already been derailed by two things:
1) I'm playing "Turf Wars" and one of the books (can't say which in case you are playing) fit this week's strategy better than #1
2..."

I live under a rock. What is "Turf Wars"?

I was going to ask the same thing MJ!

This is my first time doing the challenge, and I will be reading in order by week. I will also read non-challenge books in between as I usually read 125-150 books per year.

I've read the book for week 1 - Love and Other Scandals by Caroline Linden. Light and fluffy start :)

I finished The Astonishing Color of After for week one, it honestly took me a good while to get into, but I ended up really enjoying it. I'm next in line for The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After as an ebook from my library so fingers crossed I get it in the next couple of days. If not I'm going to just read Ms. Marvel, Vol. 2: Generation Why to fill in week 2.

Hahaha thank you Monkiecat. I love cats and tuxedo cats are my favorite, so I think your profile pic is absolutely adorable also.

Lauren, my first two books were YA because I needed those easy reads to kick off the new year too!

Emily wrote: "Lauren, my first two books were YA because I needed those easy reads to kick off the New Year too!..."


I did the same!! I read some really short books yesterday which put me ahead of my goal and ticked off a few challenge prompts. Now I have some motivation for the big fat ones sitting on my table :-)

Jennifer wrote: "My plan to read in order has already been derailed by two things:
1) I'm playing "Turf Wars" and one of the books (can't say which in case you are playing) fit this week's strategy better than #1
2..."

I've also already been derailed by Turf Wars.
Link for those interested: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
and will be further derailed once Uno starts next month.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Joanne, this seems like so much fun but also like a lot to jump into... where would you recommend starting?

Emily wrote: "Lauren, my first two books were YA because I needed those easy reads to kick off the new year too!"

Yeah, it takes me a while to get back to my reading mojo after the New Year.