Books, Interrupted: Part 1 of 3: Year in Review of 2017 Reading Challenges

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Part 1 of 3: Year in Review of 2017 Reading Challenges

This is Part 1 of a 3-part series of posts reviewing the year-long reading challenges I participated in 2017. In this post, you will see a recap of my progress on the Goodreads Reading Challenge and also My Personal Reading Challenge.

In Part 2, you will find a recap of the 2017 Audiobook Challenge, hosted by Hot Listens and Caffeinated Book Reviewer. I posted about my progress back in May, at roughly the half-way point when I first learned about this challenge.

In Part 3, you will see a recap of my progress on 2 challenges from the Goodreads group called Read Women. Those challenges are aptly called Read Women 2017 and Read Women Around the World.

In March, I participated in a challenge that was only for the month. That was the Take Control of Your TBR Pile, and won't be recapped in this series which is focused solely on my year-long challenges.

Goodreads Reading Challenge

Summary: If you remember my 2017 Reading Challenge post from January, I set myself a pretty lofty goal of reading 55 books this year on Goodreads. As much as I love to read, 55 is a high number for me.

Challenge progress: I'm at 17 books out of 55, with 9 that I'm currently reading. See below for my read list, and currently reading list. Some readers will change their goal throughout the year. I'm not changing my goal this close to the end of the year because that's just not fair and I'd feel like I'm cheating. I had a year to complete this goal or adjust it as needed and since I failed to do either, I'll do the best I can to get as close as possible to it. I also just really want to see how close I can get to reaching this 55 goal with 2 weeks left.

Goal for remainder of 2017: I'm shooting for 25 total for this year, or 8 books in the next 2 weeks!

2018 Goal: I'll set the bar a little lower to a yet to be determined number that I think will be a bit more attainable, and I also won't limit myself to specific books. Reading is supposed to be fun!

Check my Goodreads 2017 Year in Review to see my progress: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2017/

My Personal Reading Challenge

Summary: I challenged myself to read a set list of books that I currently own, plus the selections for book club. View the complete list here: 2017 Reading List Challenge. This set list ended up being a detrimental to my success because it made reading become a chore. Having "assigned" reading was like homework hanging over my head so I procrastinated on reading or didn't enjoy it.

Challenge progress: 15 out of the 17 books I've read this year were on the list, or 15 out of 55! Only 2 were unplanned. I could say that 8 were unplanned, but that 8 counts the book club ones that I knew I'd read but didn't know the titles of yet since we pick about a month ahead.

Goal for remainder of 2017: however many of my currently reading pile I can complete.

2018 Goal: Lesson learned! I won't be doing "assigned reading" any more!