I've used Goodreads for keeping track of the books I read for years and at the start of each New Year I set myself a reading challenge. I set the challenge for 50 books last year and achieved that, some books were better than others, but that's the way it goes. This year I've set my challenge to read 60 books over the year, If I make it, great, If I don't that's ok too.
I know some people see the Goodreads reading challenge as competition, people trying to read more than someone else. Well that might be the case for some but for me It's a bit of fun, I set myself challenges and goals for many things in life so why should reading be any different.
My challenge, my rules. Some might choose not to include short stories or Audible books in their challenge, I include both, If I listen to an audio book I'm as invested as I would be holding the book version, in fact I would argue that there are certain books that are better in audio, of course it helps if you get a good narrator.
I love the stats that Goodreads give you at the end of the year, this is my year in Books 2024.
My 50 books equates to 18,428 pages
My shortest book was When We Were Friends by Jane Green (44 pages)
My longest book was 11.22.63 by Steven King (740 pages)
Average book length was 368 pages
Of the books I read -
Reminders of Him by Coleen Hover was the most shelved book, 2,730,722 people also shelved it.
Glide by Alison Jean Lester was the least shelved book, 61 also people shelved it
My average star rating was 3.2
The Women, by Kristin Hannah was the highest rated book (4.60)
I've been a member of a book group held at our local library for the past couple of years and the books are really very hit and miss. This year I only read five of our choices, the best one by far was Mix Tape by Jane Sanderson, everyone enjoyed it and there was a good discussion afterwards. Everyone agreed that Glide was an awful book, started off well and then went nowhere. I inwardly groaned when we were given the Dawn French book, I've only ever read one of her's before and it was terrible, Because of You was very slightly better but so unbelievable and forced, we were in agreement that it was full of holes.
In Memoriam, A Terrible Kindness, That Bonesetter Woman and The Women were by far the best books I read in 2024 and well worth reading if you haven't already.
Some years ago I started to read Jodi Taylor's The Chronicles of St Mary's series, she has added more books since then so this year I decided I wanted to re-read the series so I ended my year of reading with the short story of how it all began.
I've already picked a few titles to start my reading year off and in the latter months of 2024 I re-discovered my kindle so some of my reading will be books I've downloaded, although my preference is still for a physical book.
What about you? how did your reading year look? Do you set yourself challenges or is that not your thing.
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