Goodreads Reading Challenge 2018.

In 2018 I once again I signed myself up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge. 

I find that it is a great inspiration and encourages me to pick up a book to read which I find feels more rewarding than simply messing around online (enjoyable as that is...) It also provides an easy way of keeping track of what I have read and I always enjoy looking back at the books that I have (mostly!) enjoyed over the course of the year.

Each year I set myself the goal of reading fifty-two books. I spend a fair amount of my time commuting so a book a week is attainable for me and I find that this is about the right amount - I want to be challenged but I don't want to feel pressured to allocate more time than I reasonably have to reading so that it becomes unenjoyable and feels like a chore.

I was happy to look back and find that I had read fifty-seven books in 2018. (I read sixty books in 2017).
I'm going to aim to read fifty-two books again in 2019.

In general, I tend to read a variety of books. This year the most popular category that I read were thrillers/domestic suspense, I read twenty-six of these. I also read a fictional book based on a true crime ('faction'?) T Greenwood's Rust and Stardust.
I also read twenty-two general fiction books. I love memoirs and autobiographies, I read six of these and I read just one non fiction book, The Secret Lives of Colours. 

I love the statistics that Goodreads provide you with when you complete your year's reading. This year I read 19,882 pages! The most popular book I read was Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman which 229,901 other people read and the average rating out of five that I awarded to my books was 3.9.

It was very hard for me to pick a 'Book of the Year' as I read so many outstanding books this year. Ones I particularly enjoyed were My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, White Fur by Jardine Libraire, The Followers by Rebecca Wait and The Only Story by Julian Barnes

My favourite biography of the year was To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine.

 Favourite thrillers/mysteries/suspense included The Perfect Nanny by Lelia Slimani, Friend Request by Laura Marshall, Sometimes I Lie by Alice Freeney, Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough and The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins.

There were a few duds in my book pile, ones that I kept on reading in the hopes that they would get better but didn't! 

The books that I least enjoyed this year were My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry, The Other Mother by Carol Goodman, Less by Andrew Sean Green and The Stylist by Rosie Nixon. I was also disappointed by Lethal White, the fourth book in Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike series which was something that I had been particularly looking forward to reading.

If you enjoy books and reading why not take a look at goodreads.com There are lots of great book reviews, an interesting newsletter that you can sign up for and it's not too late to set up your own Reading Challenge for 2019. 

If you would like to take part in the challenge simply visit goodreads.com and sign up where it says 'Reading Challenge'. It's a great motivator as well as a nice way to keep a record of what you've read.

If you are an avid reader or someone who wishes to read more go for it. 

Good Luck!