This Week's Topic
Challenge Accepted! 2024
It's that time of year! Time to declare our reading goals.
A few years ago, I declared that I would read less ARCs, and I have been sticking with that. I did not seem to stick to my other plans. I read five books a week, steady, and I swore it would be two ARCs, one library book, one shelf book, and one from KU. I found the breakdown to be:
A few years ago, I declared that I would read less ARCs, and I have been sticking with that. I did not seem to stick to my other plans. I read five books a week, steady, and I swore it would be two ARCs, one library book, one shelf book, and one from KU. I found the breakdown to be:
- ARCs - 90, about 27%
- Shelf - 20, about 6%
- Library - 192, about 57%
- KU - 33, about 10%
I know I swore I would read more shelf books, but I am really ashamed by that number. I swore it was more. I didn't even stick to my one a week. I will just have to try harder in 2024. I did find that I kept to reading more backlist with the distribution leaning slightly towards new releases, but I am lucky enough to get so many new releases from the library.
- Published in 2023 - 52%
- Other - 48%
It's a new year, and I can work towards those goals. A fun way to do it is via reading challenges. I am pretty much sticking to the ones I always do. I am cutting back to leave time for monthly and seasonal challenges as well as one I made up for myself.
Sloth's Cover Lover Challenge
You all know I am a cover-ho, and though many of the challenges I have participated in had prompts related to covers, I wanted an all cover challenge. I honestly did not seek one out, opting instead to put my own together. As this is Sloth's challenge, I have made the prompts pretty easy going.
Each month has a theme or a color. I can choose which works best for me. I go crazy and find as many books as I can to meet all the options that month. I just want to have fun with it. Feel free to join me and Sloth should you want to add an easy going challenge this year.
Goodreads Challenge
I am sticking with my goal of five books a week but setting my challenge to 250 books just in case I have a low week for any reason.
Literary Escapes
Literary Escapes Challenge is a year long challenge that is fun. I will forever lament those middle states, so share any great books you read there with me.
Alphabet Soup
The Alphabet Soup Challenge is another year long challenge that is fairly easy going except when it comes to Q, X, and Z. I always have to search for those books.
Monthly Motif
I have been doing Monthly Motif for years. It's a monthly prompt. I fulfill it with one book, but you could go crazy and try to read as many books as you can for a prompt too. Why not?
Keyword Challenge
I decided to cutback to one keyword challenge. This is the one I had been doing for years, so I am sticking with it. I personally pick one word, but I suppose one could do as many words as they like should you have the ambition.
The Discussion Challenge
I am forever grateful that Nicole and Shannon host The Discussion Challenge. It helps keep me accountable for my one discussion a month. I was just looking at this graphic. I know Nicole is the fox, but Shannon is the BIRD???? Shannon - please explain.
Monthly Challenges
Right now, I am working on the Bookish First bingo challenge. I love these and have missed doing them.
Now it's your turn!
Are you joining any challenges?
Let us know in the comments!
Let us know in the comments!
I'm not officially going to do any challenges, except Goodreads I guess! My sister and I like to challenge each other in the Literary Escapes one, though, so we'll see how I do this year. Looking forward to your discussion posts! Good luck with all your goals!
ReplyDeleteHey, if you or your sister find any good books for those middle states, let me know. Always looking
DeleteOh, that cover challenge sounds fun! I'm a sucker for a good cover, too.
ReplyDeleteI know I shouldn't let them sway me, but covers really get me to take a closer look. Especially when I am not familiar with the author. I had to honor those covers in some way
DeleteGreat challenges you have there. They look so much fun. Mostly I am just doing the Romanceopoly and will probably participate in some readalongs throughout the year on bookstagram. Hope these all bring you some great books.
ReplyDeleteI always think read-a-longs look fun, but I know I don't want to read at anyone else's pace. LOL. I hope you have a great reading year
DeleteI used to do challenges but have been kind of skipping them last few years. They're fun though. I love the prompts for the Cover Love challenge. And yeah, I want to know why Shannon is the bird too!!!!
ReplyDeleteRight? Who would have thought Shannon would be a bird. I like having a nice, not too tough challenge to add some fun to my TBR. I always have a good time (for the most part - those middle states!)
DeleteGood luck with your challenges. I am only doing Goodreads and I set my goal to 50 books this year.
ReplyDeleteGood luck. I am sure you will hit your goal!
DeleteLooks like you have a lot of great challenges going on this year. I know you will knock them out of the park like always.
ReplyDeleteMost are not too hard, but those middle states. I swear, that will be on my tombstone.
DeleteOh my gosh, I just laughed so hard at your Discussion Challenge image comment. I will confess that I created this graphic years ago without much thought - the animals were just cute images that I had from my digital scrapbooking days. But now that you have said I am the fox, it makes SO much sense, and I guess that does mean Shannon is the bird????!!!!
ReplyDeleteI obviously made a grave error all those years ago, and it has taken until now for you to show me the error of my ways!! It is a true travesty!
Your subconscious made Shannon a bird. Very interesting. LOL!
DeleteAnd here, I have been going along with being THE BIRD for close to a decade?! Ooof. 😂
DeleteAfter reading Renee's resolve to cut out ARCs it me thinking my about what I accept and request. It does feel like an added pressure to read when it's an arc. I'm feeling a little stressed with all my arc situation right now. I do a lot of library books too. I like the percentages you've aimed for. I'm not signing up for any other challenges. They end up stressing me out and take some of the fun out of reading.
ReplyDeleteA year or two ago, I set a monthly limit. I cannot request more than 8 which is two per week. I read five books per week, so it's very doable. Because I don't get every book I request, I have months with few ARCs, and that's ok. I don't officially sign up for any challenges except Goodreads and The Discussion Challenge. All the others I unofficially do. I find the monthly challenges very low key, and I mean, I made my own challenge pretty easy.
DeleteHonestly I only do the Goodreads Challenge and the Audiobook Challenge from Kimberly!
ReplyDeleteThat's something. Good luck with both!
DeleteFrom one cover-ho to another, hello, nice to mee you! lol. Randomly wondering, why did you decide not to read as many ARCs.
ReplyDeleteYes! *High Five* When I first started out, free books was great. Then, I requested too much, and I felt like I had no wiggle room to mood read. I also find there is more discussion when I read books that have already been released since more people are able to read the book. I will always be grateful for early access to titles, but I don't want that to overwhelm my weekly TBRs. I have great library resources, KU, and my own shelves.
DeleteI cannot believe I have been happily dressing this bird up for the better part of a decade, none the wiser 😂😂 I also LOVE Sloth's cover challenge, I may try to fit that in if I can! I feel you so much with the breakdown of books read. I didn't do any kind of actual stats, but I think I read two books that I owned. Out of 148. So I am in just as bad of shape as you, sigh. And I too told myself fewer ARCs but you know what? I have 20. Just in February. Maybe next year, eh? 😂
ReplyDeleteWhy do we have such an aversion to reading our own books? It's a strange phenomena in the book world. You get sent a lot of books, no? I think it's harder to turn that down. I get widgets which is my preference, but easier to ignore. Twenty ARCs in Feb? That sounds like a May/June month. I mean, it's the shortest month! Good luck getting all that reading done.
DeleteYour library must be so well stocked. I always have to wait a while for them to get in new releases, they only tend to get the really big titles in quickly. But considering you deiced to cut down on ARC reading it's impressive the number of books you managed to get through. Sloth's cover lover challenge looks so fun. You really do love a monthly reading challenge, I always enjoy the Key Word challenge but I always end up in a reading slump at some point in the year and miss a few prompts. 2024 will be the year I manage to finish it.
ReplyDeleteI will forever sing the praises of my library resources. I know I am lucky. I was impressed that I stuck with the ARC thing. I decided on 2 per week/8 per month, and doing the math - 7.5 per month. I find monthly challenges give me that push to stay on top, but it's one and done, you know. Not too stressful. I did another keyword challenge last year that I thought was a good. It had more flexibility in the prompts because they leaned towards themes instead of specific words.
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