Cover to Cover Challenge discussion

Thank you for joining everyone! You are probably all wondering, why 144? I was thinking there are usually groups for 50, 75, 100, 150, 200 books a year. And I didn't want to have the same group as someone else, so I figured 144 was a neat number. 12 books a month, 12 months. Of course, you don't have to set a goal to read 12 a month, if you read 15 one month, 10 the next, that is alright.

I am curious. By challenging yourself to read 144 books in 2010, is this a larger goal than what you usually set for yourself?

I've never set a reading goal for myself before, so I'm really excited about this one. It's definitely a much higher number than I've averaged in the past couple of years (50-60 or so per year), so I'm really gonna have to pick up the pace! This is a great challenge, because we all have such huuggge TBR lists that this will hopefully help us read everything that we really want to read.

Yes, it most definitely is for me! But I'm excited to try it! :)

This year, I set myself the goal of reading 75 books because I thought that would be a challenge, and I surprised myself by being able to read that many books in less than a year. So, I challeneged myself to see if I could get to 90 in the same year, and I'm hoping I'll be able to make it lol :P

So 144 might be tough, but I'll see if I can get somewhere in the 100s! :)

I have never set a goal before but I have always been curious to know how many I have read. This will help me to figure that out. Thanks for inviting me.

This is meant to be fun, no pressure, so I hope nobody gets discouraged or anything if you don't get to the goal of 144. We all have work, home, kids, sleep, stuff comes up. I get in reading ruts sometimes, and I'm just not in the mood to read.

Last year, I read around 157 books....I cannot recall the excact number, but it was over 155 and under 160.

This year, completely different story. I'm at 113 right now. I'm away behind. I got into two reading ruts this year that lasted almost a month, as I said above. I just wasn't in the mood to read.

I'm hoping for next year I can get back on track and try to read at least 144.

Crystal - how many books do you normally read per week? Do you read more than one at the same time, or finish one before starting another? Any tips on meeting the goal? :) I myself waste a lot of time, so if I filled that with reading, I'd probably triple my #'s.

With school this year my reading has been way down. I'm hoping to be done in a couple of months and get back to my reading. I'm hoping to make this goal but if I don't at least I will have fun trying!

Kelly R wrote: "Crystal - how many books do you normally read per week? Do you read more than one at the same time, or finish one before starting another? Any tips on meeting the goal? :) I myself waste a lot of..."

It's hard for me to come up with an amount per week. If work isn't busy, and I am really in the mood to read, I can read 5 books a week. Other times, I struggle to finish 2 a week. I usually read one at a time, just so I don't get plots and characters mixed up. I can read more then others because I have a desk job and if the phone doesn't ring and no customers come in, I get a lot of reading done. I don't have kids, and am sort of a homebody type person. So I get more reading done because of that.

Crystal wrote: "Thank you for joining everyone! You are probably all wondering, why 144? I was thinking there are usually groups for 50, 75, 100, 150, 200 books a year. And I didn't want to have the same group as ..."

What a GREAT idea ... I love it! Thank you for the invite, Crystal. In all my years of reading, I have never challenged myself or kept a count of how many books I read. This is my first time ... wooohooo!

R.

Glad to know that I can read more one month and less the next. I read about 15 books a month in the summer. Kids have baseball games and practices that give me 4 nights to read. And they love to swim, so they swim, I relax and read. Now in the winter it is more like 8 since I watch a lot of tv, and life is more hetic with school functions and boy and girl scouts. I didnt keep count this year.

I have never really set a target of amount of books

Was always reading pre marriage . Then got married and my hubby didn't like me reading when he was there so got out of the habit. After getting rid of him 2 yrs back been slowly working my way back to reading after a stint of watching dvd's

In sept read 18 books thirteen last month and am on my 4th book this month so hopefully should be able to hit target esp as it doesn't conflict with my other challenges

This will be a very difficult challenge for me, but I'm willing to give this try.

Hello everyone. Thank you for inviting me Crystal. This will be a very difficult challenge for me, but I'm up for it as I've decided it's very important for me to slow down, relax and start doing more of the things I love.

Thanks for the invite, Crystal!!

I also don't normally set a goal for the year & this will be a difficult challenge for me. However, I love to read & hope that I can accomplish it!

Thank you for inviting me to this group Crystal. I am really looking forward to challenging myself in the coming year. I generally don't read as much as I like, so maybe this will give me the excuse to get moving!

Thanks for inviting me to the group. I love to read, but never thought about exactly how many books I do read in a year. It'll be interesting.

This will be fun! I've never set a reading goal for myself. I like this alot better than assigning a booklist. This way I can see what everyone else is reading, too!

Thanks for the invite, Crystal. I've never kept track of how many books I read in a week, month, or year so this should be interesting. My friends are always asking me "How many??" in tones of disbelief since I always seem to have a different book in hand each time they see me. My husband broke it down for me---3 books a week. He doesn't think I can do it---now the gauntlet has been thrown! I told him the booby prize is a basketful of kittens, lol, so he won't sabotage me.

The only goal I have ever set for myself is to read as much as possible each year and make some gaps in my bookshelf. I did keep track of the books I have read the last couple of years. In 2008 I read 120 books,and so far this year have only read 94 but that is okay also. I have also started around 29 more books this year that I didn't finish because they just did not grab me enough to go on which made for even bigger gaps on the shelves. Looking forward to seeing how many I can read this year. My biggest problem will be to not bring in more new books then I read this coming year...staying away from the book stores is hard for me to do.

This is the first year I've really kept track of how many I've read. So far I'm at 77, I think. But that is including audiobooks that I've listened to. So this challenge should be interesting...

Hi everyone! Thanks for inviting me Crystal! This is going to be a VERY difficult challenge for me. I am striving to reach 100 this year and so far am perched at 78. It is going to take a near miracle for me to reach 100. I don't work but I do have 2 young children than keep me moving at all times so I think they make a fairly reasonable excuse if I don't meet my goal, LOL!

Thanks for the invite, Crystal!

144 is way more than I've ever read in a year. But I want to touch 150 next year. Till now, it was my studies that kept me from reading as much as I wished. But since I'll be graduating next year, I want to give this a try and see how it goes! Can't wait to get started.

Thanks for the invite, Crystal. :-)

I have never really set a goal for the number of books I plan to read in a year. I've read 230 books so far this year (everything in my "read" folder here at GR). That's only since the end of January. I read a book a day most days, but sometimes it's one every two days. I do have a full time job, but I sneak in a read during lunch and whenever I have a free minute (like waiting in line at McDonalds). lol

I am excited to do this challenge as well. I have never really counted how many books I read, I just know that it is a lot as I always seem to be at the library a couple of times a week. I do think audio books count, they are still books. I love to listen to them on long car rides or if I have a big project like painting, around the house. It makes the time go so much faster and more enjoyable.

Normally my goal is to read 100 a year and for the past few years I have gone beyond that but not by much.
This is quite the challenge for me but I'm up for it :)
P.S. It's a good thing I read The Stand this year LOL

I am up to the challenge but I can't seem to make a folder for my name and the books. Can someone please help me on that.

Sure Connie you go to the discussion board and underC click to the right that says view all. You will then see a list of all the C's and you can click on new folder or topic (can't remeber which) and it will let you start a new box for yourself.
I hope that helps. It took me awhile to learn how to work my way around here too.

I am happy to say that I have successfully made a folder for myself. Thanks for the help'

And Crystal for inviting me to join. I challenged my self to read 2 books a week this year.

this will be the largest number i have personally shot for.

i was madly impressed with myself the year i read 81 books. i photographed each book i read - sometimes with me holding it (my current profile pic is one of these shots) and i summarized each one and posted them together online. on top of that, i kept a physical book journal, so that one day my kids would be able to know the inside of my mind - both the profound and the nonsense that is in it.

these extra projects took time away from actual reading, but they are both things i wanted to do at the time. this coming year, i challenge myself to read through the books i own, but have yet to read. i shall allow myself to participate in group reads, providing that i own the book or can check it out of the library. this whole idea is fun and i am delighted by it.

I think the challenge for me will be keeping track of just one years books, the number is high but I read quite a bit...it's an awesome goal too! :)

Hello to you all, I'm glad you are all up for the challenge, and if some of you don't make it, who cares! The fun part is taking a look at what everyone is reading. Heck I don't even know if I'll get to 144. With work, running two other Goodreads groups. But, I figure there won't be much to maintain this group.

Thanks for the invite, Crystal!

I've never set a specific goal and only just started keeping track of the books I've read this past year. I like the challenge and have already reached 144 this year -- but who knows what next year will bring?! This group will keep me on track.

A few of my GR friends are in similar groups and it always looks like fun but I would never have thought of joining. Thanks for inviting me Crystal! I've read 152 books so far this year so I'm not worried about making the target, but the motivation is always nice :)

BTW, are there any rules about updating etc. or do we maintain our reading challenge posts however we like?

There are not really any rules, Shannon...just update your own post as you finish each book. If you want to update with each book that is fine, if you want to update every two or three books that would work as well.

Rather than have any group reads, I'm going to display two books a week on our homepage. The books on displayed each week will be books the active members taking part in the challenge are currently reading or will be reading within that week they are on display. I will sort the members list by date joined and that will be the order in which the member's books are displayed. The books displayed will only be from members who are updating their posts, and taking an active part in the challenge. I figure this is a neat idea because we can visually see what everyone is reading. Nobody is required to read the books that are on display each week.

If you all think it's a good idea, we could set up a discussion and talk about the books that are on display each week.

Thanks for the invite Crystal. I've never even thought about how many books I read. I just recently started keeping track about 2 weeks ago and I'm at 22 right now.

Crystal wrote: "There are not really any rules, Shannon...just update your own post as you finish each book. If you want to update with each book that is fine, if you want to update every two or three books that w..."

That sounds like a really good idea Crystal! I'm so excited to get started! :)

That sounds great Crystal.....hopfully work will let up a little bit after the first of the year; as long as the hiring freeze is on though it's going to be crazy here at work though.... :)

Thanks for the invite Crystal!!

Next year I am hoping to make it to 100 books, but 144 would be even better!! I love the idea of 12 per month!

Thanks for the invite Crystal!

thanks for the invite to the group, crystal!

i'm thinking 144 may be a bit ambitious for me, but we'll see. i'm on #57 for the year right now, my goal was 60, which should be easy to do. i tend to go through periods where i don't read a lot, or whatever i'm reading takes some time to get through. but then i have great weeks, like this last week, i finished 3 books and am almost halfway through another.


hopefully i'll have a great reading year next year and can get close to 144!

Thanks for the invite Crystal.

This will be a challange for me because I am a slow reader, but I am definately going to try then I will get a lot of my tbr pile done.

I'd like to thank you for the invite also Crystal, sounds like a good way to make a dent in my TBR pile. I'm currently buried alive in!! I have some rather large 1000 page books I want to start soon so I don't know how I'll be able to do this challenge 12 a month sounds like a tuff pull. Unless I count all that I read to my daycare kids...lol! I've never really counted how many I read in a month hmmmm... or set reading goals I usually just read about 50 to 100 pages a day before bed but this well be fun!

Thanks for coming up with this idea Crystal!

I usually average 20 books a month but this year I have been much slower--I think it has to do with playing on the computer too much instead of reading! Darn that Farmville!! :) I'm looking forward to this challenge!

Thanks for the invite Crystal!

I haven't kept track of numbers until this year and although I've passed 100, going back to school has slowed me down. Maybe this challenge is what I need to keep me pushing through next year!

Thanks for the invite Crystal. This is really going to be a stretch for me, but you have seen my TBR list, I really need this. So far about 6 books a month is all that I have been able to do, but I am trying for 10 this month, so we'll see. I just have to stay away from the 1000 page epics!! Whether I make it or not, I am going to have fun trying.

Hey Crystal thanks for the invite to the list. his sounds like fun and something new and different to kick start the new year in reading.

Hi Crystal - Thanks for the invitation! I have absolutely no idea how many books I read. I know that I read more in the summer than any other time as I work for the school district, so summers are "free". I would think 144 is doable, but I don't know...so I'm game to find out!

Thanks for the invite into this. Yes 144 is more of a challenge. In 2008 in was able to read 97, my goal for 2009 is 125 (I am currently at 102). I don't know if I will make it, but I am so willing to give it a try.

I am new to setting reading goals, so this will be interesting!

This will be a larger challenge than I have thought to do before, but why not? Exciting!

Thanks for the invite!