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!

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2017.

Last year 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 on line (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 sixty books in 2017 (I read fifty seven in 2015 and sixty three in 2016). I'm going to aim to read fifty two books again in 2018 when I set up my current challenge.

I love the statistics that Goodreads provide you with when you complete your year's reading. This year I read 19,038 pages! The most popular book I read was Into The Water by Paula Hawkins which 229,901 other people read and the average rating out of five that I awarded to my books was 3.6.

I read a whole variety of types of books. This year the most popular genres that I read were General Fiction (twenty one), Thrillers (fifteen) and Biography/Autobiography (twelve).

I also read six non fiction books, four of which were to do with society/sociology, three volumes of short stories, three volumes of essays and two coffee table type books.

It was very hard for me to pick a 'Book of the Year' as I read so many outstanding books this year but I think it would have to be Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life. My favourite biography of the year was Lonely Boy by Steve Jones and my Favourite thriller was Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough. I also loved Caitlin Moran's Moranifesto.

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 Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, Eggshells by Caitriona Lally and Marc Levy's P.S. From Paris.

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!

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2016.

Last year I signed myself up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge. It's a great idea if you wish to increase the number of books that you read and it also means that you can keep a list of what you have read which I find nice to look back at. 

In 2015 I set myself the challenge of reading fifty two books. I knew that I could realistically read this amount (I read during my daily commute) and i didn't want to challenge myself to read an unobtainable amount of books that would make my reading become a chore. Last year I read 57 books which I was very pleased about. 

For my 2016 challenge I again decided to read fifty two books and was ecstatic to realise that at the end of the year I had managed to read sixty three books!  

This year Goodreads provided me with some nerdy figures (which I love!)

Apparently I read some 20,638 pages. The shortest book that I read was just 160 pages long and the longest book had 512 pages.

The most popular book that I read was Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty which was read by 425,821 other people.  The least popular was All that Glitters by Pearl Lowe which was read by 154 others.

The majority of the books that I read were general fiction, I read thirty four. I also read eleven thrillers and three volumes of short stories. Non fiction books that I read numbered seventeen in all and comprised ten biographies (or auto biographies), two books of photo essays, two manuals, two social studies books and one travel book.

Of course there were a few books that I didn't enjoy all that much but mostly I was happy with the books I chose to read. My favourite book of the year has to be Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, it was so well written and so atmospheric, I simply loved it! 

If you would like to take part in the Goodreads Challenge it's not too late to join in. Visit goodreads.com and sign up, not only is it a nice way to record and review what you have read it is also a great motivator.

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2016.

Last year was the first year that I signed up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge and I found that it  not only motivated me to read more it also made me think about what I had read and consider what I wanted to read from my book list. I signed up again this year and think that it is something that I will continue to do in the future.

Now that we are midway through the year (already, how frightening!) I took a look at my numbers to see how I was doing.

I set myself the goal of reading 52 books in 2016 and I have read 35 so far. I'm  very happy to see that I am 9 books ahead of my schedule and well on my way to completing this year's challenge. 

If I continue at this pace as I should reach my goal by October and then I can either tackle the huge pile of magazines at the side of my bed or choose a couple of big fat lengthy books to finish up the year.

Did you set yourself a reading challenge this year? If not and you would like to it's not to late to sign up.  Why not take a look at goodreads.com?

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2015 - Completed!

I don't really make resolutions but at the beginning of 2015 I did decide that I wanted to read more books. I enrolled myself in the Goodreads Reading Challenge and set myself the goal of reading 52 books in 2015. 

I do most of my reading whilst commuting and traveling for work and over the course of the year I managed to read 57 books. I actually finished reading my 52nd book on November 4th and since then I have been working my way through a heap of saved blog posts and the huge pile of backdated magazines next to my bed!

General Fiction was the most popular category of book that I read, I finished 23 but I also read plenty of Women's Fiction (10) and Biographies (8). This year I also discovered thrillers and really got into reading them (I read seven). I read a lot of good books but the best book I read all year was Viv Albertine's Clothes, Music, Boys. 

I'm going to sign myself up for another challenge next year. I'm happy to have completed last year's challenge and will set the target at  52 again, I think it is attainable and I do love reading but don't want to turn it into a chore!

Why not join in the challenge yourself? Take a look at goodreads.com and sign up if you are interested, I found it to be a great motivator.

Good Reads Reading Challenge 2015.

I consider myself to be 'a reader' but at the end of last year I was surprised to find that I had read less than I thought. 

I subscribe to Goodreads and receive their news letters, so when I saw they had a yearly reading challenge I decided to sign up for it as a way of monitoring and keeping a record of what I read.

Initially I decided to read 50 books but then upped it to 52, figuring that a book a week wasn't too much of a stretch and it seemed more logical ( to me anyway!)

I wanted to set a challenge that wasn't too challenging - too many books and I may find myself choosing shorter or easier books just to meet my quota - but I wanted something that would make me put the Candy Crush down and do something a little more cerebral!

...

Halfway through the year, I'm ahead of schedule. I've read 31 books so far - that's 60% of my total and I'm 7 books ahead of schedule according to Goodreads. (The nerdy part of me just loves that they give you these breakdowns!)

So far I'm really happy with my progress. I've definitely made more of an effort to read rather than, say, watching TV or messing around online. I'm keeping on top of my 'want to read' list and I haven't deviated from the type of books that I usually read. There's a good mix of light reading, essays and biographies, and I've taken to reading psychological thrillers which is a new genre for me.

 As usual there have been a few things that I started and couldn't get into that got cast aside and aren't pictured above. Equally, there are a couple of books pictured that I should have cast aside!

I'm going to continue with the Challenge until the end of the year and plan to do another next year. I'll check in with a final report at the end of the year - I'm pretty confident I will complete 52 books.

Wish me luck!