Beyond Reality discussion

Did you set any reading goals for 2022? How'd you do? Do you have a reading goal for 2023?

Since GR started offering the challenge, I have set a numeric reading goal every year. Then, depending on my interests, I might set additional goals (i.e., only reading via my Kindle and Kindle app, as I did in 2022).

For 2022, I increased my numeric goal from my standard 12 titles to 24. I surpassed it much more quickly than I had anticipated (especially since I'd barely read more than that over the previous 4 or 5 years). So I raised it to 36 - and went on to have the most incredible reading year I have ever experienced! I read a total of 154 titles!! (Technically 160 since some novels and stories were parts of omnibuses).

For 2023 I took the average of the last 11 years (42 point something) and rounded it up to the following number divisible by 12, which is 48. That is my goal for this year.
Should I be successful, I think I'll continue using that method.
I will reassess in June, and if it looks like I won't meet my goal, I will decrease it (again to a number divisible by 12).

I don't really do reading goals as I consider this kind of reading is for pleasure. And once I put a goal on it, its no longer pleasure. :D

My main point of joining Goodreads many years ago was to help me find new books and authors and limit the amount of rereads I do.

So in that vein, my goal for this year is to keep discovering new authors and new books.

I set a goal and always exceed it. I only do it because I'm curious if I can ever read less, and it seems that I just can't. I need a life.

I don't set a numerical goal, but for the past few years I've participated in a challenge on FB called "Book nerds with no shelf control". There are 100 prompts for the year. I don't necessarily let it drive my reading, but it's fun to look at the list after I finish a book and see which prompt I can make it fit. In 2022 I hit 83 of the 100 so I'm pretty happy with that!

I set a numerical goal using the Goodreads annual challenge. My goal for 2022 was 75 and I read about 92. For 2023 I upped my goal to 80. Since 2016 I’ve met or exceeded my goal every year except in 2021, so I lowered it for 2022 and now I’m slowly raising it again.

This year I also am joining the 52 Book Challenge which gives a prompt for every week. I am NOT going in order, just reading what I want and seeing what prompt(s) those books might fit.

And I usually do the Better World Books challenge (1 prompt per month).

I set two goals every year, one for books read and one for pages read. I met my 2022 books goal (50... I read 85) but fell just short of my pages goal (25,000... I read 24,603, those 397 pages hurt!).*

My 2023 reading goal is again 50 books and to stick to my TBR shelves as much as possible. (Go ahead, laugh now.)

*super aware that combining those goals assumes I'm reading books that average 500 pages, which is unsustainable. One day I'll care about that. ;-)

Lindsey, yes, I'm laughing with you. I participate in challenges in other groups that I use to try to read through the books I already own or have been wanting to read for more than a year... but *shiny*! New book displays at the library, GR friends' recommendations, fresh stock in Little Free Libraries, oh goodness.

Nyssa wrote: "Since GR started offering the challenge, I have set a numeric reading goal every year. Then, depending on my interests, I might set additional goals (i.e., only reading via my Kindle and Kindle app..."

Wow! Well done, Nyssa!

And I’m laughing with you both, Lindsay and Cheryl. Every year I pledge to read only books I have on my shelves. And every year I fail. I am buying way fewer books, but that doesn’t stop me from getting the (fairly) new and shiny from the library, Audible and Scribd!

Cheryl wrote: "Lindsey, yes, I'm laughing with you. I participate in challenges in other groups that I use to try to read through the books I already own or have been wanting to read for more than a year..."

I do the same, usually via Habitica. There are some good open-ended reading challenges on there, a la Mount TBR type challenges. It's a good dopamine hit to check off "read from a TBR book" every day.

Book club is my downfall. My IRL book club is planned out through May; we break in the summer and resume in the fall, so who knows what we'll read then? And my online book club does mostly sff, which is great, but they all have such good reading taste!

DivaDiane, same... I have 3 library cards and that's a little too convenient!

Lindsey wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "Lindsey, yes, I'm laughing with you. I participate in challenges in other groups that I use to try to read through the books I already own or have been wanting to read for more than ..."

Are you a member of the Read Your Books guild on Habitica, Lindsey? That's my guild!! And yes, I love the Mount TBR challenge there. It keeps me marginally focussed on reading the books I already own.

As for my own goals (besides reading as many of the books I own), I also set a numerical goal for the year, but I'm not too stressed or motivated by it. Last year I did not achieve the number I set for myself (90), but if I'd left it at the number I started at (70) I would've overshot. I usually add 5 to my goal when GR tells me I'm 10 books ahead of schedule. I did really well the first half of the year, but got totally bogged down from October.

Other challenges I do are with other groups and mainly focus on TBR reading. Haha.