SA Book & Challenge Lovers discussion

The aim this year is to introduce more diversity in terms of authors in my reading.

20% of books to be by African authors

20% of books to be by NON British/American/African authors (still thinking about Australia and Canada, probably not)

50% of books by female authors

20% non-fiction

I'll be tracking this on a spreadsheet so I'll just give some updates on a quarterly basis.

A book published in every decade:

1800
1810 Northanger Abbey (1818)
1820
1830
1840
1850
1860
1870 The Leavenworth Case (1878)
1880 Heidi (1880)
1890 Heart of Darkness (1899)
1900 Chip of the Flying U (1907)
1910 The Happy Family of the Flying U (1912)
1920 These Old Shades (1926)
1930 A Man Lay Dead (1934)
1940 Arabella (1949)
1950 The Zimmermann Telegram
1960 Midnight Plus One (1965)
1970 The Matarese Circle (1979)
1980 Witch Week (1982)
1990 The Pilot's Wife (1999)
2000 Thirteen Hours (2008)
2010 Recipe for Love (2012)

After two months, here's my progress on the reading goals. I've read or listened to 21 books so far this year.

20% of books to be by African authors - 5 African books = 24%

20% of books to be by NON British/American/African authors (still thinking about Australia and Canada, probably not) - 1 books so far (Danish author) - 5%

50% of books by female authors - 13 books = 62%

20% non-fiction - 3 books = 14% (these were all audio books, I enjoy listening to non-fiction on audio).

8 of the books were Book of the Month in one of my groups

Your goal of reading a book published in every decade is great! I think I'm going to steal it ;)

Here's my latest stats based on 38 books read or listened to so far:

20% of books to be by African authors - 7 African books = 18%

20% of books to be by NON British/American/African authors (still thinking about Australia and Canada, probably not) - 1 books so far (Danish author) - 3% (this is not going well, but I have a few scheduled for the near future)

50% of books by female authors - 23 books = 61%

20% non-fiction - 4 books = 11% (these were all audio books, I enjoy listening to non-fiction on audio).

11 of the books were Book of the Month in one of my groups

It comes as no surprise that some of the goals went as planned and some less so:

I'm happy that I managed to read a book published in each decade again (and managed to push back to 1870 this year).

According to Goodreads I read 107 books for the year, but it includes some shorter chapter children's books that I read with my daughters which I didn't include in my reading goals.

20% of books by African authors - 10% in the end (although I also read some books set in Africa, but not by African born authors). I have no excuse, I have a bookshelf full of African books to choose from.

20% of books by NON British/American/African authors - 14% in the end, but included quite a few New Zealand authors. I suspect I should rather track translated authors here.

50% of books by female authors - 65%

20% non - fiction - 11% (mostly audio books). I need to complete a few that are in progress here, but in general should read more non-fiction

Some random other stats:

17 books were Books of the Month in one of my groups (not all read in the correct month).

33% were published prior to 1970 and 6% prior to 1900. (I want to maintain the 30% prior to 1970, but increase the prior to 1900 to 10%).

I listened to 13 audio books during the year - started of by mostly non-fiction and then included a whole lot of children's classics during a road trip in the UK with my daughters.

Book of the year: The Pale Horseman

Challenges completed:
The 2014/15 Mishmash challenge
Serial Killer Challenge
Reading the Moon Challenge
Theme Park challenge
Dungeons and Dragons 14/15 books
A-Z Title and A-Z character
Book Addicts 12 books challenge

Some great stats Carolien!

Excel is my friend!

Happy new year Lu!

To you too!