Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

I noticed we hadn't started this thread for 2024 as we wrapped up 2023, What are your plans and milestones for 2024? Share your goals with us and we can collectively chart your progress and congratulate you on reaching them over the course of 2024.

We already know that we will be tackling the remaining "trilogy" of books in the Hyperion series, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion as part of the monthly reads. Will you be participating?

Total page count
I've settled into a goal of 35K pages for the year. That gets me back to my 2022 level and puts me in the range of 110-120 books.

Monthly group books
I've done a good job of keeping up here, having read about half of the the selections before. The goal is to keep up & pick up the four that I've missed to reach 100%.

Series
1 - Participate in finishing out the Hyperion series
2 - Finish the Dorsai series by Gordon R. Dickson (one of which was an H/N nominee)
3 - Finish the Empire series of Isaac Asimov, two short books, one H/N nominee
4 - Read The Books of Blood by Clive Barker
5 - Re-read Red Mars, Green Mars & finally Blue Mars (overly ambitious?)

Miscellaneous
1 - Finish *&%$@! Cryptonomicon!!!
2 - Reach 65% of the H/N list (currently 59%); 40-45 listed books, depending on 2024 additions
3 - Read Stand on Zanzibar, the highest ranked unread book on my composite top 100 SF
4 - Read my annual Harry Potter book (#6 this year)
5 - Read 10 non-fiction or history books
6 - Read some Shakespeare
7 - Clear 35 books from my paper shelves (net)

I won't setup a page count, for over 80% of my reads on audio, so I go with 170 like the last two years. Previously, I surpassed this goal but I don't want to be pushed by a higher one. 3+ books per week seem quite an achievement, So, more important is the composition.

Like the last year, I plan for:
1. 40 non-fics
2. 40 Ukrainian books of novella+ size
3. All Polish SFF award nominees.
4. weekly Economist magazine (doesn't count to any other goal, GR don't want non-fic magazines here)
5. All monthly reads and challenges

Page count: I'm aiming for an average of 1800 pages per month. This is lower than last year (aimed for 2000) because I don't want to push as hard as I did, and free up some time for other things. That said, I've got specific goals and books I'm setting up in a month-by-month plan and those might take me higher than 1800.

Public GR groups
1. 24 H/N nominated novels (2 per month -- any 2023 books I've read that become nominees this year don't count towards this goal). With this group if I have the book, or I'll do personal catch-ups when I don't -- I've added 31 books to my TBR that have already been read by this group, which is more catch-up material than I'll read overall for this goal during the year.

2. 12 SFF in translation, (1 per month) with the SF in Translation group.

3. 1 novel-length or 2 shorter length new releases (2023/2024) per month. With SFF Hot from the Printers, if I have the book chosen.

Personal or group challenges
4. 12 non-fiction books (1 per month)*
5. Read the sequel challenge (10 in total, maybe 12 if I'm feeling inspired)*
6. 20th century year challenge 1980-2000 (21 total, overlaps with other goals/challenges)*
7. 5-to-1 Physical TBR challenge: must read 5 from my owned TBR to buy 1. I attempted this last year and failed miserably.

*I've created lists for these I can post if anyone's interested. Can't come up with a full list for the GR groups #1-3 because it's somewhat dependent on group votes.

1. I had averaged something like 2000 pages/month for several years, but last year my average was only 1200 pgs/mo. I think I will set a very modest goal of reading more than I did this year, that is, over 1200 pages/month.

2. I will renew my goal from last year, and try to read at least one book / month from H&N, SF in Translation or Hot off the Presses group.

3. I will copy Kalin's 5-to-1 TBR challenge and read 5 books from my shelf for every new book I buy.

4. I will re-read at least six books this year. I've been lousy at re-reading old favourites, but whenever I do, I always enjoy it.

5. Read at least 12 non-fics. Normally I read about 30% non-fic, but last year I was lucky to average one non-fic per month, so now I'm making sure I manage at least that much.

6. Read at least six books written before the year 1900.

So far:

1. 60 books (GR challenge)
2. 20 female authors
3. 12 new BIPOC/LGBTQIA authors
4. 12 short works
5. and the hardest one: finish the books in my TBR :((

In terms of quantity, I’ve been tracking books read in a notebook since 2005, before beginning to use Goodreads regularly in 2018. Total books read in a year peaked at 168 and I believe bottomed out at 115. I’ll be disappointed if I read fewer than 130 in the coming year. I haven’t tracked page counts.

I won’t be reading the later books in the Hyperion series.

I want to read at least one short fiction collection, or the equivalent, per month, hopefully more.

For challenges in another Goodreads group I’ve listed a total of 32 physical books from my TBR shelves. Reading these will be a priority.

Those lists include 5 books by KSR, not including The High Sierra, which I’m currently reading. (The Memory of Whiteness, The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge, Galileo's Dream, Stan's Kitchen).

I’ll continue to participate in monthly reads for this group, as well as the Hot From the Press group and others, but will probably be more selective about which books I commit to. It’s always tempting to take on another but I really want to prioritize the TBR.

I have a few big reads in mind, such as Don Quixote (started last year but not yet finished) and will try to read at least one or two of those.

I also want to read/reread more Gene Wolfe, a project I’ve been putting off.

Allan wrote: "5 - Re-read Red Mars, Green Mars & finally Blue Mars (overly ambitious?)"

I very VERY much want to finally tackle Blue. I would love to vote it up as a group (it almost won the trilogy poll for the spring) but not sure how to get past the hurdle of also reading Green. I'm also waiting to read 2312 until Blue is crossed off, because I've heard they're set in the same universe and don't want to jump ahead.

In the absence of this, for KSR I'm going to nominate Years of Rice and Salt again for August's long book, though I know you (Allan) have already read it so not helpful to you. I'm also going to catch up on The Wild Shore at some point this year.

I might not be averse to a reread of the Mars trilogy. I started Red last summer but didn’t get too far; however I might happily pick it up again and continue, in the right circumstances. I read the trilogy in 2018 and was blown away, and I found when I started the Red Mars reread that I remembered it fairly well, but I think I’d still enjoy it.

Kalin wrote: "I very VERY much want to finally tackle Blue..."

I've read both Red and Green, but have never got around to reading Blue. I do remember a lot of Red, and some of Green, but they were a long time ago, so I'm really debating about the re-read of those. In the meantime, the siren call of my copy of Blue on the bookshelf is difficult to withstand. However, I'd be willing to join into a full read if we have a few companions.

I've done a pretty good job of keeping up with the Hot Off Printer group, which has helped me knock out recent H/N books at a good clip. I completed 2022 & I'm only 1 away from finishing 2023. On the other hand, it's led me to neglect earlier decades to a degree. Refocusing on H/N books is a goal & I'll target those periods I read least.

The Evolution of SF group is similar to the H/N group for me in that I've generally read about half the selections. Given that, it's fairly easy to keep up. I learn a lot from book choices that I might not have known much about.

I don't really keep up with the Translation group because the monthly books have been very difficult to find.

Putting in my annual plug for Worlds Without End, note that a number of challenges listed above can be tracked in a neat way there. I don't go too crazy to fulfill challenges, but it helps me plan and guide my books choices. Nearly all group books fit into one or more of these challenges. My challenges this year:

First Off the Post - winners of the 29 awards on the site (4)
Second Best - nominees of the 29 awards (1)
Women of Genre Fiction - 48 titles by woman authors (1)
Apocalypse 2024 - 12 end of the world (1)
David Drake Memorial - 12 military SF books (0)
Speculative Fiction Thru the Decades - 30 books across 9 decades (5)
Intimidating Books - books of 800+ pages (2)
SF Grand Master - 16 books by GM Award winners (1)
Space Opera - 12 books (0)
Novellas - 16
Anthologies -6
Collections - 6
(only SF, Fantasy, Horror books on the site)

Read 80 books I own

Since it's the end of June, halfway through the year, I thought I'd see where I am relative to my goals.

Total page count
I've settled into a goal of 35K pages for the year. That gets me back to my 2022 level and puts me in the range of 110-120 books. Very close to this rate, 61 books, around 17K pages.

Monthly group books
I've done a good job of keeping up here, having read about half of the the selections before. The goal is to keep up & pick up the four that I've missed to reach 100%. Keeping up but haven't gone back to the missing four.

Series
1 - Participate in finishing out the Hyperion series Yes!
2 - Finish the Dorsai series by Gordon R. Dickson Haven't touched it yet.
3 - Finish the Empire series of Isaac Asimov, two short books, one H/N nominee Haven't touched it yet.
4 - Read The Books of Blood by Clive Barker Haven't touched it yet.
5 - Re-read Red Mars, Green Mars & finally Blue Mars (overly ambitious?) Too ambitious, no chance this year.

Miscellaneous
1 - Finish *&%$@! Cryptonomicon!!! DONE!
2 - Reach 65% of the H/N list (currently 59%); with 2024 additions, I need to finish 39 listed books. Slightly behind target at 17 through half the year.
3 - Read Stand on Zanzibar, the highest ranked unread book on my composite top 100 SF. DONE!
4 - Read my annual Harry Potter book (#6 this year) Started but haven't devoted time to it
5 - Read 10 non-fiction or history books Three completed, two in the works.
6 - Read some Shakespeare Not yet
7 - Clear 35 books from my paper shelves (net) FAIL. A visit to the flagship Half Price Book store & family giving us books have crashed this one. Up about a dozen despite eliminating some.

I’ll do a similar exercise on the weekend.

Good stats, Allan! Even on failed parts :)

My progress
0. 170 book. Now 94, exceded
1. 40 non-fics, 13 now
2. 40 Ukrainian books of novella+ size, 12 now
3. All Polish SFF award nominees, they were announced this month, 2 of 5 novels, 0 stories
4. weekly Economist magazine (doesn't count to any other goal, GR don't want non-fic magazines here) - on track
5. All monthly reads and challenges - on track


So I need to hit 1-2 harder

Ok, I’ll do it this morning.

“I’ll be disappointed if I read fewer than 130…”

— As of this morning I’m at 59 books completed this year. 50% would be 65, so I’m about 10% behind. Not an insurmountable shortfall, but significant.

“I want to read at least one short fiction collection, or the equivalent, per month…”

— I’m there easily as an average, but June has been a slow month for short fiction for me. I think I’ll finish a collection in the next few days though.

“I’ve listed a total of 32 physical books from my TBR shelves. Reading these will be a priority.”

— I’ve finished 13 of these books, and may get another 1 or 2 read in the next few days. So I’m a little behind but again, not hopelessly so.

5 books by KSR on these lists.

— I’ve read 2 of them (The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance and Stan's Kitchen) and I’m optimistic about reading the others this year.

Monthly reads.

— I think I’ve read 3 from this group: Immortality Inc., The Uninvited, and The Shadow of the Torturer. From the Hot From the Printers group I’ve read Starling House, Thornhedge, TheTusks of Extinction, and The Saint of Bright Doors. From the Evolution of Science Fiction group I’ve read Anathem, Startide Rising, and Lord of Light.

Big reads including Don Quixote.

— I haven’t picked up Don Quixote. I did “unexpectedly” read a couple of Dostoyevsky classics, The House of the Dead and the novella-length The Double.

More Gene Wolfe.

— Doing well with this, with the collection The Wolfe at the Door and the current Book of the New Sun project.

So all in all I’m a little behind quantitatively, but it has been a good half year of reading.

Stephen wrote: "So all in all I’m a little behind quantitatively, but it has been a good half year of reading."

It never seems to go down the path we lay out, but in the end, it's reading, so in my view, it's impossible to have a "bad" time doing it.

Can't believe the year is already half over. When will time slow down for me?!?!

Here's my updates looking back so far:


Public GR groups
1. 24 H/N nominated novels (2 per month) - on track, but mostly catch-ups I think:
1. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein - 2024-01-04
2. Timescape by Gregory Benford - 2024-01-20
3. Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie - 2024-02-02
4. Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress - 2024-03-17
5. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis - 2024-03-27
6. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie - 2024-04-10
7. The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson - 2024-05-01
8. The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons - 2024-05-11
9. The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera - 2024-05-29
10. Starter Villain by John Scalzi - 2024-06-11
11. Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh - 2024-06-19
12. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - 2024-06-24

2. 12 SFF in translation, (1 per month) with the SF in Translation group.
1. Ten Planets: Stories by Yuri Herrera - 2024-01-13
2. A Legend of the Future by Agustín de Rojas - 2024-02-22
3. Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes by Jacqueline Harpman - 2024-04-04 (read in original French)
4. Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo - 2024-04-16
5. Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov - DNF

So I'm a little behind on this goal, I am hoping to read The Anomaly but can't imagine I'll finish it off before end of June.

3. 1 novel-length or 2 shorter length new releases (2023/2024) per month. With SFF Hot from the Printers, if I have the book chosen.
1. Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo - 2024-01-10
2. Ten Planets: Stories by Yuri Herrera - 2024-01-13
3. Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee - 2024-02-05
4. Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher - 2024-02-11
5. Starling House by Alix E. Harrow - 2024-02-26
6. Monstress, Vol. 8: Inferno by Marjorie M. Liu - 2024-02-28
7. Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo - 2024-02-29
8. Saga, Volume 11 by Brian K. Vaughan - 2024-02-29
9. Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden - 2024-03-02
10. The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe - 2024-03-06
11. The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler - 2024-04-14
12. The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill - 2024-05-19
13. Atana and the Firebird by Vivian Zhou - 2024-05-20
14. The Secret of the Ravens by Joanna Cacao - 2024-05-20
15. The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera - 2024-05-29
16. Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - 2024-05-31
17. The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older - 2024-06-03
18. Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris - 2024-06-05
19. I Am AI: A Novelette by Ai Jiang - 2024-06-10
20. Starter Villain by John Scalzi - 2024-06-11
21. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - 2024-06-24

In short, I have blown past this goal because I randomly decided to try to read the award shortlists more comprehensively this year...

Personal or group challenges
4. 12 non-fiction books (1 per month)*
I'm ahead at 8 read so far.
5. Read the sequel challenge (10 in total, maybe 12 if I'm feeling inspired)*
On track at 6 read so far.
6. 20th century year challenge 1980-2000 (21 total, overlaps with other goals/challenges)*
More or less on track at 10 of 21 so far.
7. 5-to-1 Physical TBR challenge: must read 5 from my owned TBR to buy 1. I attempted this last year and failed miserably.
I've read 38 from my physical TBR and added 174 new books to my TBR... so that's no going well, lol.

Kalin wrote: "Can't believe the year is already half over. When will time slow down for me?!?!..."

It only goes faster!

Kalin wrote: "20th century year challenge 1980-2000..."

Interesting. Is this reading one book for each year? Do you go by year first published or something else? I keep track of H/N books by year just to keep my reading spread across the decades. (*** = planned)
1980 - The Shadow of the Torturer
1981 - *** Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
1982 - The Claw of the Conciliator
1983 - No Enemy But Time
1984 - *** The Citadel of the Autarch

1988 - The Forge of God
1989 - *** Prentice Alvin
1990 - Grass
1991 - The Fall of Hyperion

1994 - Beggars in Spain
1995 - Beggars and Choosers

1998 - The Rise of Endymion

2000 - Cryptonomicon
2004 - *** Chindi
2006 - Accelerando
2007 - Farthing

2011 - *** The Native Star
2014 - *** Parasite
2015 - The Dark Between the Stars
2018 - Provenance

Kalin wrote: "I've read 38 from my physical TBR and added 174 new books to my TBR... so that's no going well, lol...."

The most difficult of ALL challenges!

Yeah, it's one book per year from 1980-2000, taken from my TBR.
I did a 2000-2023 challenge last year and found it a lot of fun.

Here's my list so far this year:

1980: Timescape by Gregory Benford - 20/01/2024
1981: The Dark Between the Stars by Poul Anderson
1982: Friday by Robert A. Heinlein
1983: Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
1984: The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson - 01/05/2024
1985: Tesseracts edited by Judith Merril
1986: Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold - 28/01/2024
1987: Jack, the Giant Killer by Charles de Lint - 07/01/2024
1988: Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh - 19/06/2024
1989: West of January by Dave Duncan
1990: The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons - 11/05/2024
1991: Searoad by Ursula K. Le Guin
1992: Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy by David Ketterer - 15/05/2024
1993: Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress - 17/03/2024
1994: The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
1995: Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes by Jacqueline Harpman - 04/04/2024
1996: Endymion by Dan Simmons
1997: A Thousand Words for Stranger by Julie E. Czerneda
1998: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis - 27/03/2024
1999: A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
2000: Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach

I don’t think I want to read Earth, the selected monthly read for August, at this time, but it makes sense for me to undertake a big genre read in that month. So I think I’ll read the 2nd and 3rd volumes of Three Californias: The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, and Pacific Edge. I’ve already read The Wild Shore. The Gold Coast and Pacific Edge amount to 600 pages between them, in the Tor omnibus edition, which I have. I don’t believe either was a Hugo or Nebula finalist, but both were in the running for other genre awards and Pacific Edge won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. I’ve committed myself to read them this year and August seems like a good time.

The Wild Shore was a group read and I liked it, I want to read the remaining two books, but I ain't sure I can manage them this August, esp. bearing in mind that I wish to reach my goals in Ukrainian and non-fic after I found out I'm behind my schedule...

I caught up on The Wild Shore back in April and it was such a great debut novel. I have Pacific Edge, but not The Gold Coast. They're all pretty standalone though, as far as I know. But like Acorn, I don't have time to read them this summer -- or maybe at all this year. I'm planning to nominate Blue Mars for my "Anticipating" theme in October, but I don't expect it to win.

Like you, Stephen, I want to read through most of KSR's work at some point, it's just finding the time that's tricky. But I can buddy read more of them with you in 2025, based on what you do or don't get through.

If I get through what I’ve committed myself to this year, I’ll have just The Years of Rice and Salt among the novels, and some story collections left to read, of his books. Besides the two “Three Californias” books I haven’t read I want to read Galileo's Dream, another long one, this year. I “committed” myself to a pretty ambitious program this year; will see how it goes. Several big dense books from the TBR shelves as well.

We started talking about goals in another thread, so 3/4 through the year it's time to check again. Not as bad as I thought!

Total page count
I've settled into a goal of 35K pages for the year. That gets me back to my 2022 level and puts me in the range of 110-120 books. Still pretty close to this rate, 85 books thru Sept, around 26K pages. The long books have been kicking my butt though.

Monthly group books
On target to read them all, though Earth & Anathem might be difficult to complete. Of the 17 group selections thru October, I've read 12 this year, 5 of which were re-reads. 4 of them I've read before, and only Earth is unfinished. I haven't kept up as well in New Releases, but have read 9 selections there and 2 in Evolution, with 2 more on the horizon.

Series
1 - Participate in finishing out the Hyperion series Done!
2 - Finish the Dorsai series by Gordon R. Dickson Untouched
3 - Finish the Empire series of Isaac Asimov, two short books, one H/N nominee Untouched
4 - Read The Books of Blood by Clive Barker Untouched
5 - Re-read Red Mars, Green Mars & finally Blue Mars (overly ambitious?) Too ambitious, no chance.

Miscellaneous
1 - Finish Cryptonomicon!!! DONE!
2 - Reach 65% of the H/N list (currently 59%); with 2024 additions, I need to finish 39 listed books. At 27 thru September, should hit this target.
3 - Read Stand on Zanzibar, the highest ranked unread book on my composite top 100 SF. DONE!
4 - Read my annual Harry Potter book (#6 this year) Done!
5 - Read 10 non-fiction or history books Working on my 6th; probably 8 instead of 10
6 - Read some Shakespeare Not yet
7 - Clear 35 books from my paper shelves (net of buys). I've hit 38 currently & should add to it, after letting go of some long-held series from storage.

I’m at 91 books read to date in 2024. 20/33 on my TBR challenges in another Goodreads group, so that one’s not looking good. The 13 unread books include the 3 KSR novels I hoped to complete. I have continued to read a fair number of group monthly choices and I’ve kept up the short fiction reading.

I just try to keep up with group monthly and sometimes buddy reads every year in three groups. And I set a Goodreads goal every year, (currently 131 of 150--I just revised upward from 125.) A few are always shorts with a separate GR listing.

With our stuff--sometimes I just decide, after a few pages that I am done with some of the selections, like the Ken Liu one I am skipping in October. I won't count that towards the GR goal. I will check it off of the H/N list, though. That's why I don't tell you guys my H/N percentage anymore. It's becoming distorted because sometimes I check books off after just starting and rejecting them.

I also am in a challenge with the McHalo group to read a certain number of books on my TBR list every year, which is a great challenge for me. All of my TBR lists count. Series lists, our H/N nominated list, all the GR choice award nominees from the previous years, your definition of "list" can include whatever you want. NO rereads allowed, and nothing published in the year we're in even if it's in a series you're following. I have read 99 books out of 100 so far this year, so obviously that goal needs to be revised upward next year.

Doing pretty well all around.

I plan to check my exact figures soon, but I suppose just like the mid-year check, I'm short of non-fic and Ukrainian books

I had set six goals for this year:

1. Read over 1200 pages/month.
Success/failure By the end of September, I've averaged around 1300 pages/month. So, a success by this metric. But then again, in July I read under 1000 pages, so a failure by that metric.

2. Read at least one book / month from H&N, SF in Translation or Hot off the Presses group.
Failure July was a miss.

3. Read 5 books from my shelf for every new book I buy (AKA Kalin's 5-to-1 TBR challenge)
Failure I've bought two books and I've read only two books from my shelf. No way am I going to read eight more books from my TBR pile by the end of the year, and that's not even taking into account the fact that there's a book fair coming up next week!

4. I will re-read at least six books this year.
Failure I'd need to have re-read at least four books to be on course, but in fact I've re-read none. I seriously doubt I'll re-read six books in the two-and-a-half months there's left.

5. Read at least 12 non-fics.
Doable By the end of September, I had read eight non-fics. Not quite on course, but only one book less than planned.

6. Read at least six books written before the year 1900.
On course I've read five; only one more to go, and I've already got it lined up.

Silvana wrote: "So far:

1. 60 books (GR challenge)
2. 20 female authors
3. 12 new BIPOC/LGBTQIA authors
4. 12 short works
5. and the hardest one: finish the books in my TBR :(("

I reached these ones:
no 2 (now I have finished reading works from at least 22 female authors)
no 3 (at least 17 new BIPOC authors)
no 4 (at least 23 stories)

I am good with no 1 (now in my 52nd book) BUT since I keep buying or getting books I won't reach goal no.5. It has been my white whale for years.

Silvana wrote: "BUT since I keep buying or getting books I won't reach goal no.5. It has been my white whale for years ..."

You're not alone! We all have this goal but add to our TBR faster than we can bring it down. I settle for creating shelf space, i.e. net fewer books. I'm ahead of that goal but only because I finally disposed of some long-held collections (James Bond, Conan the Barbarian, Pellucidar).

Are you adding more space or just clearing up some?

I only have one book shelf and have no intention of expanding it since I am overwhelmed with ebooks (and read much faster with Kindle) 😫

Silvana wrote: "Are you adding more space or just clearing up some?

I only have one book shelf and have no intention of expanding it since I am overwhelmed with ebooks (and read much faster with Kindle) 😫"

I have 500+ physical SF&F books & am definitely trying to get rid of some. I used to keep some but I don't do that much now. My wife is a reader but goes thru books much faster than me, all physical books for her. She keeps a box by her bed that ebbs & flows. As long as I dispose of some, she doesn't get on my case. I don't really buy many anymore but of course I have hidden caches of Kindle & library books. I typically have 1 or 2 physical, 1 audio, 1 or 2 Kindle going at any one time.

I have a very modest goal of reading every day this year. This is an extremely satisfying goal as the past couple of years I have had many health challenges that prevented me from reading as much as I would have liked.

I'm doing very well in terms of my numerical goal, but I've failed at another goal, which is to read all the physical books that I've had on my bookshelf for 1 - 3 years (most of my books are electronic now, and I borrow a lot from the library). I started a "one bookshelf rule," 50 books or so, that I've adhered to for about 6 years because things were ridiculous last time I moved. I love physical books, but it's no longer practical to own many :(

Silvana wrote: "Silvana wrote: "So far:

1. 60 books (GR challenge)
2. 20 female authors
3. 12 new BIPOC/LGBTQIA authors
4. 12 short works
5. and the hardest one: finish the books in my TBR :(("

I reached these ..."

Silvana wrote: "Silvana wrote: "So far:

1. 60 books (GR challenge)
2. 20 female authors
3. 12 new BIPOC/LGBTQIA authors
4. 12 short works
5. and the hardest one: finish the books in my TBR :(("

I reached these ..."
Heh! I feel better now about my TBR. Last month I had gotten it down to only 102 (Unread books in my Kindle) !!
Now i'm back up to 250...

I’m beginning to think that it’s ridiculous to list specific TBR books at the beginning of the year, as a challenge. If I just read x number of books from the TBR shelves i get just as many read, without finding myself committed to anything I don’t feel like reading.

Resonate with Stephen's latest comment. 😅 I also realized I never set any goals for myself at the start of the year. I think I was disappointed with how I made/kept to my goals in 2023 so wasn't really motivated. I'm in a different space now, so excited to have an excuse to check in!

So my goals from 2023 and my commentary:
1. Read at least 10 monthly reads in the H/N awards and Hot Off the Presses groups (so that's one a month with two months of catchup) I don't think I've kept up with this at all, especially the H/N books. I tried several this year that I ended up dnf-ing. For the Hot Off books I've done better, but I'm ok with taking these one month at a time and going with what I feel like. This works well since I'm not trying to make my way through the lists, rather just enjoying discovering "older" SFF works with all of you.

2. Read 6 monthly reads from the SFF in Translation I've gotten better about this but not up to 6 this year. But I've loved those I read. Very horizon expanding (e.g. The Devourers.

3. Finish or make progress on a few key series (Jade War nope, The Shadow Rising nope, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, yep The Bone Shard War nope, The Last Hero nope, Seven Surrenders yep, Children of Ruin nope, Vorkosigan (or decide to dnf them) yep!

4. Read more from my favorite authors: Naomi Novik, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Louis McMaster Bujold. I was able to do this a bit more, read a bunch of AT's novellas.

5. Read one of Sanderson's chunky series (I've only read Mistborn and would like to get through another in 2023) I've caught up on Stormlight and read Elantris and several of his H/N nominated novellas.

Because I started on GRs in 2021, my TBR pile is consistently growing simply because I've been building it up. I am tempted to set myself a goal of keeping it under 200 books but that's just a nice round number that I'm kina close to. Heck, I'll try it, let's see! Succeeded in doing that around mid-year, so yay!

Stephen wrote: "I’m beginning to think that it’s ridiculous to list specific TBR books at the beginning of the year, as a challenge. If I just read x number of books from the TBR shelves i get just as many read, w..."

For me, it just helps me focus. I state some goals specifically but go off where the wind takes me. Often I'll start a few but narrow into a couple that grab my attention more. So I don't worry if I stray far off the goals, the more general ones make me happy anyway.

I'm with Allan on challenges - they aren't dogmas, but help me control my reading, like if I planned at least 2 non-fic per month and run short on them (and there isn't a dearth of good non-fic!) I maybe should switch for a few of these before devouring another SFF

My problem was that in this other group I listed 32 specific titles from the TBR, some of them quite long, and then found partway through the year that I wanted to read other things instead.
I think it makes more sense to keep the lists of specific books relatively short and otherwise maybe go with more general goals, like x number of short stories or nonfiction or whatever as you suggest. But I’ve gone ahead and listed another 20 titles for 2025, mainly shorter books this time, and I do intend to gradually work my way through the 12 unread ones from 2024, but trying not to feel any pressure.

I agree with that approach. I did finally get through a few specific fat books, but I pretty much failed on series goals. Hyperion wasn’t a goal but I count that one as a big win. Probably won’t set specific goals there.

I have amassed quite a large TBR which sometimes makes me feel pressured to read more and faster (which social media sites like goodreads also contributes to). So for me some of the appeal of setting up challenges is actually in setting limits on what I will focus on, so I create a sort of near-future TBR rather than worrying about the whole thing. That said, I've still struggled to keep up with the challenges I set for myself, and fall behind in the groups I'm part of on here. Now that it's the holidays I'm struggling to find time to finish remaining books for the year among all the social and family commitments, and I don't think I'll get through everything I have my sights set on, which doesn't feel great. And yet! 2024 has turned out to be the year of most books read for me, which should feel amazing! So I just need to concentrate on what I *have* accomplished. 88 and counting, maybe will hit 90 or 91 by new year's.

Congrats everyone for all the achievements and efforts!

I reached all goals except the TBR ones but that is a battle I'll never win anyway so I am feeling pretty good. Reached 20k pages this year, which is not as many as last year's but it is fine.

For me, I am missing some old favorites, so I may fail my expected 100 book TBR challenge for this year. The reason I joined Goodreads (and particularly some groups) was because I was bored with what I was reading. And I'm not any more, but now I think I need to revisit some old favorites. So we shall see what happening in 2025.

A final look at 2024!

Total page count
I've got two books in progress but should have no problem finishing them in the next few days. That puts me at 36,002 pages, surpassing my goal of 35K pages. Very happy with that, best in three years and a 19% increase over last year.

Monthly group books
Of the 22 monthly books, I read or re-read 16; chose not to re-read 5, and only Anathem was not completed. I read 10 from New Releases and 3 from Evolution (8 of 12 previously read).

Series
1 - Finished Hyperion! (unplanned)
2 - Finished The Book of the New Sun! (unplanned)
3 - Finish Dorsai - nope
4 - Finish Asimov's Empire series - nope
5 - Read The Books of Blood by Clive Barker - nope
6 - Re-read/finish KSR's Mars series - nope, too ambitious?

Miscellaneous
1 - Finished Cryptonomicon!
2 - Finished Stand On Zanzibar!
3 - Reach 65% of the H/N list - needed 39 books & will finish with 40! Total read: 410 of 629 = 65.2%.
4 - Finished Harry Potter book #6!
5 - Read 7 non-fiction or history books toward goal of 10.
6 - Read some Shakespeare!
7 - Cleared 42 books from my shelves, net of buys; goal was 35!

A successful year but for series. I'll ease off on that goal in 2025.

Apparently I’ve finished 125 books with 36,901 pages. I said I’d be disappointed if I completed less than 130, but I’m not, really.

I said I’d read at least 1 short fiction collection or equivalent per month. It turns out I’ve read 25, for a total of 398 pieces of short fiction to date, not counting a few separately published novellas. So, a good year for short fiction.

I said I wanted to prioritize 32 specific TBR books, listed in challenges for another group. I’ve addressed this in another recent comment. I read only 20 of the books, none since September.

I listed 5 books by KSR. I’ve read The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance and Stan's Kitchen and started Galileo's Dream. Call this one half completed.

Monthly reads for this group. A quick count says I’ve completed 9 to date. The library has a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five for me so I just might make it 10. My best performance to date in this category I think. Demonstrates that this group is good at picking books I want to read.

Big reads including Don Quixote — little progress on this one.

More Gene Wolfe — i read The Wolfe at the Door, The Shadow of the Torturer, and The Claw of the Conciliator, and I’ll pick up The Sword of the Lictor one of these days. I’ll give myself a passing grade on this one.

So a mixed record measured against those goals, but a great year of reading.

Totally forgot about The Book of the New Sun! Added to my list above. Like Hyperion, it wasn’t originally a goal, but I read the main four books. The fifth book, The Urth of the New Sun, just came off library hold & will be my first book of 2025.