2025 Reading Challenge discussion

David wrote: "What I feel comfortable calling 'books'.

Graphic novels but not comic books. I would definite count something like Maus, a volume of Neil Gaimen's Sandman or Arkham Asylum as a book. A fifteen to ..."

I agree that The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce is a short story. I have an "exclusive shelf" for short stories, meaning that they aren't counted as Read or To-Read or Currently Reading so they don't get added to my yearly challenge. When I have read them, I enter only the date for Started Reading but never add a Finished date, because that way Goodreads doesn't count them, but I can still sort them and know what year I read them.

I DO count the preview copies of children's books of only a few pages because I spend a fair bit of time selecting, copying and adding illustrations for my reviews. By then, I think I've "earned" it!

Whatever works for you!

p.s. Audio books take me longer to listen to than it does to read them, so I think counting them certainly isn't cheating. Doing something else while you listen is no worse than listening to music while you read, which presumably would be hard for your sister. : )

Anything long enough to be 150 pages or more in print, although naturally the word count varies, so not children's novels unless they are longer and the challenge fits for that for some reason.

That could be in print or on audio. I have used graphic novels for certain things, but personally because the word count is so low, I rarely use those.

#David -- interesting. I have always equated reading Braille with reading in print, but then that is for people who know how to read that way. Not everyone legally blind started off that way so not all do.

I am quite generous when it comes to what I consider a book / reading activity. Whatever is released as a separate piece of literature anywhere, I'm going to consider as a book (even for my personal challenges). Even 10-page long sequel/prequel novellas for series, children's books, short picture books, theatre plays. Also audiobooks that have been released as books (so I am not going to count theatre plays that I saw performed but did not actually read). I try not to do too many of these per year, though, that would feel like cheating a bit.

I count anything a book, except some. Those ones are the shortest ones that I revisit. Anything else is counted towards my personal challenge.

i count everything a book

The definition at the start of this discussion works for me – If I feel like I've read a book then it counts.

Personally I wouldn't count audio books as reading, but that's because I find it difficult to keep paying attention and get involved with the story. For those who give the audio book their full attention then it's probably a very similar experience to reading.

I do not count graphic novels unless it's my last resort for a challenge prompt. Otherwise, I count any book that has its own book page on Goodreads.
I don't care about the page length. I read over a dozen 500+ page books a year as well as some novellas. As long as my average book length for the year ranges between 320-350 pages, I'm happy.

I did buy a large-print book on sale from Amazon this year. Whenever I get around to reading/finishing it, I will list its page count based on the "normal-print" hardcover edition by the same publisher.

And I agree with everyone who feels that what or what not to count as a book for your Goodreads Reading Challenge is entirely a personal decision.

With the new year starting in a few hours for us on the East Coast of the US. How do you all count the book you're reading at midnight? Do you count it for the previous year or the new year? I'm about 2/3 of a way thru a book and not sure which way to count it.

Holly wrote: "With the new year starting in a few hours for us on the East Coast of the US. How do you all count the book you're reading at midnight? Do you count it for the previous year or the new year? I'm ab..."

I would go by the date I read the last page so January 1st 2022.

I count all format as a book. Even other indie online writing- those are often not listed on GoodReads or Amazon (some are actually listed on GoodReads o.O). I generally add anything found on GoodReads to my challenges as books read. I wish there was a way to add other online published books/graphic novels/manga to GoodReads so that I can proudly say I read them.

I know that for indie online writing (Wattpads, Dreame, etc) doesn't really count but I do invest a large amount of time on reading those stories. I wish they can be counted on Goodreads for challenges. But since they are indie writers and not officially publish, I do understand why.

This has literally been one of the biggest questions on my mind, I'm glad a post was already made about it.

If you finished an audiobook in 2022 and listened to it again in 2023. Would you count it towards your yearly reading challenge?

Boukman wrote: "This has literally been one of the biggest questions on my mind, I'm glad a post was already made about it.

If you finished an audiobook in 2022 and listened to it again in 2023. Would you count i..."

The short answer, yes.
But to answer your question with another question: Why would you not?

Audiobooks definitely count for me. It's one of my favorite ways to read. I can recall audios much better than most books I read in print.

Joy D wrote: "Audiobooks definitely count for me. It's one of my favorite ways to read. I can recall audios much better than most books I read in print."

My son is the same and so is my voice teacher. Audio "books" are the oldest form of story telling, so I count it.

Since I can no longer actually read a book ( I do miss holding them and reading the words) I've learned to love and appreciate audio books. I'd be lost without them. I'm not blind but my eyes can't follow words for long so audio is the only way for me and I do count them.

any literature published is a book in my opinion🤷

including audiobooks, and actual published fanfics (like it has a cover and spine)

Shawne wrote: "Since I can no longer actually read a book ( I do miss holding them and reading the words) I've learned to love and appreciate audio books. I'd be lost without them."

Me, too. I got new glasses a few months ago to correct binocular vision disorder, so I may be able to actually eyeball read again, but I'm so spoiled by audio that I haven't really tried yet.

Imagine my surprise when I clicked your profile and found that we're practically neighbors! I'm just a couple of towns south of you, Shawne! 👋🏻

For the record, I count everything, even short stories. It helps me know which Agatha Christie collections I still need to pursue. 😉

I don't count a short short as a book. If it's part of an anthology, I read and count the anthology as a whole.

Beyond that, I count everything: graphic novels, ebooks, physical books, audiobooks.

I don't read comic books or webcomics, so I don't have anything to base an opinion on.

Beth wrote: "I don't count a short short as a book. If it's part of an anthology, I read and count the anthology as a whole....."

That's a good point. I usually say that if the title was published in a volume of its own, I will usually count it as a book. If it is only available as part of a collection, then I will count it as part of the collection.

TerryJane wrote: "Shawne wrote: "Since I can no longer actually read a book ( I do miss holding them and reading the words) I've learned to love and appreciate audio books. I'd be lost without them."

Me, too. I got..."

My son had vision therapy as a child due to his lack of binocular worked. It's like Occupational Therapy for eyes, BUT vision therapy isn't a cure-all and he happened to end up with an excellent one. Apparently it's hit and miss, or so I heard back then.

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "I actually wrote this already on another thread when someone asked about challenges, but I should have put it here, I think. Just what I do.

I made myself an exclusive shelf for DNF-abandoned (did..."

I tried a DNF shelf but it started counting it as read!

Veronica wrote: "I tried a DNF shelf but it started counting it as read!"

As long as you've marked the shelf as exclusive, and don't add a a read date, it shouldn't count forwards your goal on Goodreads.

Goodreads sometimes automatically sets a read date. That would happen everytime I changed tags until it was fixed. maybe it's happening again with certain users.

https://help.goodreads.com/s/announce...

Veronica wrote: "PattyMacDotComma wrote: "I actually wrote this already on another thread when someone asked about challenges, but I should have put it here, I think. Just what I do.

I made myself an exclusive she..."

Lisa's correct about setting up an exclusive shelf :) I have one now for DNF plus one for delete. The last one is because sometimes I want to clean up my enormous want to read shelf and that's faster than deleting books one at at time. AurorainBookland has given you the link to how to do this :)

I don’t count if it under 100 and I really don’t call them books. They reminds me of cliff notes.

Karin wrote: "Veronica wrote: "PattyMacDotComma wrote: "I actually wrote this already on another thread when someone asked about challenges, but I should have put it here, I think. Just what I do.

I made myself..."

Karin, I have one with the same concept named "unhaul". In my case it's mainly all the YA's I added left and right, with no restrictions, back when I first got into watching Booktube :D

Shannon wrote: "I don’t count if it under 100 and I really don’t call them books. They reminds me of cliff notes."

I do this as well.
Anything under 100 and I feel like I'm cheating if I count it haha

Lisa wrote: "Karin wrote: "Veronica wrote: "PattyMacDotComma wrote: "I actually wrote this already on another thread when someone asked about challenges, but I should have put it here, I think. Just what I do.
..."

I'm glad I'm not the only one :)

Shannon wrote: "I don’t count if it under 100 and I really don’t call them books. They reminds me of cliff notes."

For me it depends on the context. In some groups books have to be 150 pages or over to count, but for me if it's bound in book form it's a book, eg many children's books.

That said, I'm not big on short stories or most novellas. Most of what I post is at least 150 pages as a result of many years in a group where that's the minimum page numbers.

What counts as a book.
This year was really my first year trying the reading challenge, and what counts as a book, was/is something I struggle with.
I read a lot of short-shorts (15-35 pages IMO), that eventually get put into a collection that ties them together. If I find a listing for the anthology on goodreads I review the shorts "in the past (2020)" to have the collection only count as one book for the year's challenge.
What I would like to see is for Goodreads to put an individual 'book weight' option in the reviews (default value 1). So if a group of say 5 short-shorts is collected together I could weight each of the Short-Shorts as I read them as a 0, and the whole collection as 1 - thus giving a review to all of them, but only having 1 count towards the challenge (vs 6 if I don't backdate), and if there isn't a collection then weigh each as part of a book - in this example 0.2 each.
I guess I estimated pretty good being at count of 307 towards a guess of 310 but I read a lot of short-shorts that weren't collected.

As others have said--this is a personal goal--so you have to decide what you count as a book.

Personally, if it has an ISBN, I count it for my challenge. This means I count children's picture books, but I would not personally count individual short stories or web-based fiction. If I read a book for editing prior to its publication, I do not count it until it is published (unless it isn't published until a different year--then I just don't count it). I also don't count the books I write and publish myself or traditionally publish.

If you are listing the books (or links) on your challenge page, those who are interested can see what you are reading.

I am one of those who likes to do 100+ per year, but reading is a part of my profession. I think if you can commit to 20 books (of whatever you consider a book), and you complete that commitment, you have done just as good a job as someone who commits to 100. You understood your time commitments and ability and were able to meet your goal.

How would you count Bible books? As one whole book or do you count each book in the Bible as its own?

Anna Rachel wrote: "How would you count Bible books? As one whole book or do you count each book in the Bible as its own?"

I don't count each book of the Bible as its own book, but at times I count certain sections, such as NT, OT or even the Torah/Pentateuch (same books) if I'm reading only that. This is especially helpful for me since sometimes I read the NT translated from the Aramaic Peshitta text, or the JPS Tanakh for variety because I've read the Bible so very many times in different versions that a. it's good to have a fresh one to keep my attention and b. I am interested in the Peshitta vs Greek since neither has texts prior to the same time. That's the long answer to your question :).