Welcome to our 12th Annual Reading Challenge!

The Annual Reading Challenge is neither a race, contest, nor an “exclusive club”, anyone can join! This is just a fun activity that some of us have enjoyed doing in the past. Many of us have found reading challenges to be an entertaining way to set goals for ourselves, get ideas for books, and see what others are reading.

This thread is for you to keep a running tally for your chosen challenge. Please state your goals at the top of your post (in the title line if you can), and then start your list in the body of your post. As you read books, edit your post to update your list of books read, or other challenge status.

Please Remember: No discussion posts in this thread. Please use the other thread for that. Non-List posts will be deleted or moved to the other thread.

Discussions & Ideas can be found here:


Post #2 of this thread is dedicated to a Table of Contents for all participants in this thread. Names will be added to this TOC in alphabetical order with a link to that individual’s post number from this thread.

Previous threads were for 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010

1. astrangerhere - Post #5
2. bookaho!ic - Post #19
3. bs10000 - Post #14
4. Byrdie - Post #30
5. Dazrin - Post #8
6. Dngrsone - Post #22
7. DrNefario - Post #11
8. frailtyy - Post #21
9. hildea - Post #31
10. HLS - Post #25
11. Hollow Man - Post #16
12. Indio77 - Post #20
13. issybird - Post #7
14. jbcohen - Post #17
15. jselby - Post #26
16. JSWolf - Post #18
17. library addict - Post #10
18. Luffy - Post #4
19. Mikou - Post #33
20. Musicman - Post #15
21. Paperbackstash - Post #24
22. pdurrant - Post #3
23. Polarpenguin - Post #28
24. PurpleStar - Post #9
25. rfog - Post #6
26. sakura-panda - Post #23
27. sun surfer - Post #29
28. Tarana - Post #13
29. Uncle Robin - Post #12
30. Waylander - Post #27
31. Xanthe - Post #32

My goal is to buy fewer books than I read. And so end up with fewer unread books.
Last year I managed to reduce my TBR pile by 117 books!

I start 2021 with 901 books on my TBR pile.

Books removed from TBR

Read and Reading

1. December 31st, 2020: Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers - £0.33 - 4/5 - 239pp
   A collection of short mysteries. Some racial stereotypes, but on the whole good fun.
2. January 4th: Charlotte's Web by E. B. White - £0.99 - 5/5 - 111pp
   Excellent childen's book. Memorable characters, good story.
3. January 6th: Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer - £0.99 - 4/5 - 211pp
   A most enjoyable re-read, provided one remembers it is complete fantasy.
4. January 9th: Fantasy Magazine #4 edited by Wallace and Tremblay - £0.31 - 2/5 - 181pp
   My taste clearly doesn't match that of the editors. Abandoning the remaining 53 issues.
5. January 12th: James Potter and the Curse of the GateKeeper by G. Norman Lippert - Free - - ???pp

Books added to TBR

Freebies

1. January 5th: Some of the Best from Tor.com 2016 by Tor.com (unread)

Bought

• January (2/£1.98): Charlotte's Web, Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident
• February (0/£0.00):
• March (0/£0.00):
• April (0/£0.00):
• May (0/£0.00):
• June (0/£0.00):
• July (0/£0.00):
• August (0/£0.00):
• September (0/£0.00):
• October (0/£0.00):
• November (0/£0.00):
• December (0/£0.00):

Analysis
TBR: 947
Books read: 4 (including 0 freebies, 0 re-reads, 0 abandoned)
Books otherwise removed from TBR pile: 53 (0 read previously, 53 discarded)

Books removed from TBR pile: 57
Books added to TBR pile: 3 (including 1 freebies, 0 omnibus counted as 0)
Removed/Added: 19.0
Net reduction for 2021: 54

Non-free books read: 4 (including 0 re-reads)
Total cost of books read: £2.62
Average cost of books read: £0.66

Non-free books bought: 2 (including 0 omnibus counted as 0)
Total cost of books bought: £1.98
Average cost of books bought: £0.99


Rating System:
1: Bad.
2: Poor. (Or just not to my taste.)
3: Satisfactory.
4: Good.
5: Excellent.

Pages are as given by the ADE algorithm in Calibre, or from the Amazon web page.
7/100

Currently reading

The Age of Faith (The Story of Civilization #4)

Pride and Prejudice



Read

01. 01st January 2021 Red Velvet Revenge (Cupcake Bakery Mystery, #4) 4/5 stars

02. 02nd January 2021 Going, Going, Ganache (Cupcake Bakery Mystery #5) 4/5 stars

03. 02nd January 2021 Chocolate Surprise & Murder (An Oceanside Cozy Mystery #41) 1/5 stars

04. 04th January 2021 Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4) 1/5 stars

05.08th January 2021 Fleshmarket Close (Inspector Rebus #15) 2/5 stars

06. 10th January 2021 Mardi Gras Murder (Cajun Country Mystery, #4) 2/5 stars

07. 17th January 2021 The Mysterious Benedict Society (The Mysterious Benedict Society, #1) 3/5 stars
Length Goals:

• Total Books: 75 (stretch goal of 100) (up from 50/75 last year)
• Total Pages: 25,000
• E-TBR Reduction: 25
• Print-TBR Reduction: 10

Substantive Goals:

• Read at least 51% non-American authors
• Read at least 51% female/nonbinary authors than male authors
• Read at least 52 short stories
• Read at least 10 books across all our collections that are my wife's or that she wants me to read.

BOOKS 3 of 75







1. Takekurabe by Natsu Higuchi
2. The Incindiaries by R.O. Kwon (dropped)
3. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy


SHORT STORIES 3 of 52







1. The Million Dollar Bond Robbery by Agatha Christie
2. Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
3. God's Fools by Mary Roberts Rinehart


BOOKS SELECTED BY MY WIFE 0 of 10







1.

# Listado de libros leídos en 2021

My goal: read Pratchett and some old Pulps

## January
1.

## Other


## Not read
-
I’m going to limit my objectives for 2021 in hopes that the fewer, the likelier I’ll achieve them. The past few years have been characterized by mostly fails other than total books read.

I will set my usual benchmark, not a goal, of 120 books read.

I’ll read a non-fiction book a month about the Dark Ages or the Middle Ages.

This one’s something of a stretch, but I’d like to read a play a week, rounding to 50 over the course of the year. I reserve the right to end it early with honor if I hit the wall at the half year mark, or cut it back to two per month. Because that’s a lot of plays.

I’d like to make some inroads into my GR WTR, let’s say six books, which is 20% of the current number. I’m keeping it low because the reality is that most of those titles have languished for years and while I want to read them, it seems evident I don’t want to read them, not enough.

As always I link to Goodreads because I’m lazy. I won’t bother to create a link to my WTR, as my success will be measured by absence.

And that’s it, although I reserve the right to tweak, especially if I start off the year falling into an unforeseen topic.
I'm going to reduce my goal to 6,000 pages for 2021, an average of 500 per month. With my dedicated reading time completely gone this should be possible but will be much more difficult than in past years.

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Page Goal: Read 6,000 pages in 2021.
Status as of January 17: 268 pages read, 1 books/short stories completed.

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Current and Upcoming Book(s):

• The Two Towers (LotR 2) - J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Return of the King (LotR 3) - J.R.R. Tolkien
• Network Effect (Murderbot 5) - Martha Wells
• Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre - Max Brooks
• Peace Talks (Dresden 16) - Jim Butcher
• Battle Ground (Dresden 17) - Jim Butcher
  

Completed books:






Ordered by finish date

1. The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger's Apprentice 1) - John Flanagan

Progress Charts:
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Other list posts: 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011
I guess I'll say read 20 books again and hopefully more than that! I'll keep track here as well as Goodreads. Hopefully I'll read more per month than I have been!!!!

January:

1. One by One by Ruth Ware

February:


March:


April:


May:


June:


July:


August:


September:


October:


November:


December:
I have a mix of reading goals for 2021, including:

1. Read a complete series by a new-to-me author
2. Finish reading two completed series I’ve started but let slide
3. Pick 10 “Must Read” books for the year from my huge digital TBR mountain (not including any new releases)

January 2021

February 2021

March 2021

April 2021

May 2021

June 2021

July 2021

August 2021

September 2021

October 2021

November 2021

December 2021