2015 reading challenges

[calissa]

I love the New Year. I love the feeling of possibility, of all the exciting new projects awaiting me. I want to dive into all of them straightaway and it’s a challenge not to go overboard. This goes just as much for my reading as it does for any other aspect of my life. There are many great reading challenges getting underway and quite a few have tempted me. However, in the interest of keeping my workload manageable, I have decided I’m sticking to just two this year.

The first is the ubiquitous Goodreads reading challenge. I’ve committed to 52 books. Considering I’ll be reviewing one book here most weeks, this should be achievable (now watch me jinx myself).

The other challenge is the 2015 Australian Women Writers Challenge. I’ve signed up for the Miles level: read 6 books and review at least 4. Judging from 2014’s stats, I should easily manage this. However, I’m mindful of my tendency to over-commit. If I do well this year, I’ll definitely consider pushing harder in 2016.

I was sorely tempted by Shaheen’s Sequel Challenge. In her own words:

In 2014 I thought I’d try to get up to speed with all the series I’m currently reading, so I did this challenge as a way to reward myself every time I finished a book. The point system worked like this:

• 1 point for Book Two of a series;
• 2 points for Book Three of a series; and
• 3 points for any additional books in longer series.

Tempting as it is, I think I’ll be leaving that one until next year.

I’m probably also in dire need of No Book Buying Challenge but I suspect foregoing both buying new books and borrowing library books is beyond my willpower.

What reading challenges have you signed up for this year?

Mirrored from Earl Grey Editing.

Comments

[clare_dragonfly]

I'm just doing the Goodreads challenge, for 52 books, which is far lower than usual but I figure with a wedding and a full-time job starting soon, I shouldn't be too ambitious!

I am intrigued by this series-finishing one. Of course, the problem there is I don't want to spend any money, and there are only two series (that I can think of) that I've started but not finished and that I own the rest of. I'll check it out anyway.

I'm also using Beeminder to track my reading and sort of challenge me. I have my reading beeminder set to half a book per week, apparently, but rereads don't count (and I certainly plan to reread the Harry Potter series this year), and books that are on my paper TBR count for 1.5. You can see it here if you're interested. I've been reading one very long book for a while! ETA: I forgot to mention that I am considering giving myself negative points for books purchased to get myself to get through my TBR. Probably not a whole point per book--maybe half a point per ebook and more than that per paper book.

[davidgillon]

The problem with the series reading challenge is when you're up to date with the series and the writer isn't! I re-read the earlier books in a series last summer, intending to pick up the next when I'd finished, and only on finishing book 3 and going looking for book 4 on Amazon did I realise that yes, it had a page, but it was a pre-order page for a book not due to release until this Easter.