2019 Reading Challenge discussion

Hello and how is everyone!! I hope your reading year has been fun and informative so far. It is summer time which for me means a break from school and a reading for pleasure binge!!

My updates: I am nowhere near reaching 365 books this year, but I have read a lot of good books.

Stats:
1. I currently have 51 read books, plays, longer short stories or novellas on my spreadsheet.
2. My pages read total for those texts is 10, 063. I did not count the short stories I teach each year out of the students' literature book, or 1/2 of Jane Eyre which I am in the middle of now.

It's been a happy year so far. How about you?

You’re doing great Lynn!

I’m so sorry to everyone that I’m not being as active as I should. I’ll get better this summer now that school isn’t taking up all my time. I’m nowhere close to 300 books, but I’m currently participating in Buzzwordathon (hosted by booksandlala on YouTube) as well as the page chaser summer reading challenge.

I’m so excited to finish up this year strong.

Good luck everybody.

Happy reading,
Amelia

I’m doing Buzzwordathon as well!

I’m currently at 230 books. I’m on track to get more books than last year, which was one of my goals, but I have had a run of low rating books lately. I don’t know if that’s my mood, that I’ve been trying to rate more realistically instead of 4 and 5 star everything I didn’t hate, or if I’ve just had bad luck picking books lately? It’s slowing me down some, but I’m well ahead, so it shouldn’t be any issue to meeting my goal.

Elizabeth wrote: "I’m doing Buzzwordathon as well!

I’m currently at 230 books. I’m on track to get more books than last year, which was one of my goals, but I have had a run of low rating books lately. I don’t kno..."

I think challenges are a double-edged sword. Yes, you can find a lot of cool books you might not have read otherwise, but you can also be pushed to read things you really don't like. I have also read a few I just couldn't stand recently to finish up challenges. Another thing, I wonder if the more I read the harder critic I become. Once you read some really great books, you just don't give out as many 4s and 5s as when you are just starting out.

I'm almost at 100 books read so far (98 - currently reading 99 & 100) so behind on the 300 goal pace, and I have some whopping thick books coming up (The Dark Artifices trilogy for a start).

Have managed to get quite a few completed from my TBR pile so am pleased about that.

Gayle wrote: "I'm almost at 100 books read so far (98 - currently reading 99 & 100) so behind on the 300 goal pace, and I have some whopping thick books coming up (The Dark Artifices trilogy for a start).

Have..."

Fantastic progress!!

Lynn wrote: "Fantastic progress!!"

Thank you!

Lynn wrote: "I think challenges are a double-edged sword. Yes, you can find a lot of cool books you might not have read otherwise, but you can also be pushed to read things you really don't like...I wonder if the more I read the harder critic I become."

I think you're right and it's all of that. One of my personal challenges was to read more variety (genre, audience, format, etc) and that combined with readathons means I sometimes pick up books I'm at least interested in that fit, but am not necessarily expecting to love. And I've had 5 stars from genres I thought I don't even like! so it has not been all bad.

I also had almost 10 years off of reading, and almost all of my first books back were 5 stars. I want to reread those soon and give them better ratings, because I know they can't have ALL been that good. Now 600 books in, I think I am just naturally getting more critical with more to compare to and having a more concrete idea of what each rating means for me.

Hello everyone, just quickly want to say sorry i totally forgot about this. Well i smashed my goal of 25 books this year and i'm at about 37. I want to try and hit 50 before the end of my summer holidays, they just started today and i go back to school on the 15th of august.

Valerie wrote: "Hello everyone, just quickly want to say sorry i totally forgot about this. Well i smashed my goal of 25 books this year and i'm at about 37. I want to try and hit 50 before the end of my summer ho..."

Way to go Valerie! Great reading and I hope you have a nice rest of your summer break.

I've read 106 books so far, just recently joined my town's library, which has a adult summer reading contest where you can win all these amazing gift cards by submitting book reviews. It's keeping me more motivated to read more.

Amy wrote: "I've read 106 books so far, just recently joined my town's library, which has a adult summer reading contest where you can win all these amazing gift cards by submitting book reviews. It's keeping ..."

That is really cool. Sounds like a great library.

I’ve read 105 at this point which is behind where I had wanted to be by now. I know by the end of the month I should hopefully have hit 150 even if that is where I had wanted to be by the end of June. I have a beach vacation coming up and those are always read-a-thons for me.

I'm at 176 books right now; got a boost in June.

Wow you are all doing so well! Quick update, I have now read 61 books. June was a good reading month. As always, I exclude short stories from my total. The page total is 11,857. Happy reading everyone!