my 2012 reading goal

Are you on Goodreads? If you are, are you participating in the 2012 Goodreads Reading Challenge?  I've talked before about how much I love being able to track what I've read on Goodreads -- I think there's some kind of strange rogue statistician living in my head, since I love tracking all of Cassidy's (and her teammates, in fact) stats for track and cross-country too. Strange -- that's something that didn't develop until after college, maybe even after kids. 

Weird digression. Sorry. Back to the post at hand.

I love the sense of accomplishment that comes at the end of each month when I meet my reading goals. And even when I don't reach them, this list of books gives me a nice way to guage how busy our month was. Because reading is just a normal part of each day for me, I've set my goal pretty high. I know plenty of people who are thrilled to get one book read each month -- and that's great! I'm thrilled for you too. This is one of those things that's completely personal, I think. When other people choose to watch TV or spend time gardening or knitting or hiking, I choose to read. As a result, my reading goals reflect the amount of time that I spend doing this activity.

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at where I stand with almost six months down and six more to go. Here's a screenshot of the stats breakdown from the Goodreads site:

Here's how the numbers break down even more:

In January, I read 12 books. February was 7, March was 9, and April was 15. In May, I read 14 books, and so far I've finished 5 in June. I've read 18,316 pages. 42 of those books are YA. 20 are adult fiction. 5 were nonfiction, 3 were audio books, 2 were short story collections, 2 were graphic or illustrated novels, and 3 were digital short stories.

I've definitely had good luck with books this year; my list of 5-star reads is as long right now as it was for 2011 and 2010 at the end of each of those years. I'll do an updated post next week with my Top 10 of 2012 so far, and make some projections on what I think might end up (or more accurately, maybe, what I HOPE might end up) making that list by the end of the year.

Comments

[sarabeth burke]

awesome!!!!! i am also on good reads-i hope to have a goal as high as yours...one day :)
i must say that i'm on a roll this year so hopefully!
i have read 37 of 75 books so far :)

happy reading!

sarabeth

[Jill]

You inspired me to go look at my stats ;) The years in which I have a baby (is that every year? Sometimes it seems like I've had a baby every year, eeek), I always read more. All that feeding time. I wonder if I were using an electronic reader if I'd read more still, as I don't usually turn on a light in the middle of the night feeding.

Anyway, the point is, that my usual goal is 100 books, and as of today, I am at 40. Interesting because I feel like I've been really busy.

Just because you mentioned it, I checked five star reads... only 4. I tend to be a pretty critical judge though ;) And, I haven't been reading books with much intention, just whatever I am able to get my hands on.

Wouldn't be fun to go for coffee and talk it all over ;)

[aud neal]

I love seeing the stats. Its such a neat way to look back at a collection of books. I tend to go with my gut on rankings -- the 5-star books end up being those that I just loved reading the entire time and really didnt want to see end, even if there are some technical or style issues that I find fault with. I love my e-reader for any number of reasons -- but late-night reading is a big plus, thats for sure. And yes, I would LOVE to be able to get together with you. One of these days, my friend, well make it happen.

[Beth]

Loooove Goodreads! I have been following you (stalking you, I guess!) for a few months and even though I don't tend to read in the genres you do (exception: Divergent!), I still love seeing what you and what other people are reading.

My to-read list is a mile long and I like it that way; I remember the days before Goodreads where I'd wander aimlessly through the library stacks hoping something would magically stand out to me. Now, with recommendations from 100+ friends (plus harnessing the power of Goodreads' database) I will never run out of good books to try.

I agree with what Jill says; those years I have babies I end up reading more, since I'm reading while feeding. I'm glad I'm not the only one!

This is my first year doing the reading challenge and I just upped my goal today. I was trying for 48 books -- four per month -- but since I've already read about 40 books I decided to go for 60! I have been reading more this year than usual (last year, my highest to date, was 57 books total). (Of course, I've been scrapbooking less.) (But blogging more!)

Anyway, sorry for the random, rambling comments; you hit on one of my geeky passions. :-) I just love Goodreads too!

[aud neal]

I agree, Beth -- one of the best things about Goodreads is that it has really pushed me to read outside of my comfort zones. Before, when I had just word-of-mouth or the librarys latest releases shelf to rely on, I tended to just look for books from my go-to authors. But now, theres so much more that Ill read -- particularly nonfiction, which I never read before Goodreads!