HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Here’s the pic I made for my display at the library of new books for the new year.
If you celebrated, I hope you had a fun and safe New Year’s Eve. I celebrated by reading and watching Once Upon a Time, which was definitely fun. As it’s the new year, I’ve seen a lot of people posting about the challenges they’ll be participating or their reading goals (along the lines of this week’s Top Ten Tuesday on our 2015 bookish and not-so-bookish goals). I’ve been invited to A LOT of reading challenges for 2015, some of which seem fun but a lot of which are overwhelming and almost ridiculous in their complexity.
Because of that, I’m not participating in any except four.
1. My own personal challenge: I own WAY too many physical books that I haven’t read. The books I own but haven’t read currently take up THREE full shelves on one of my bookshelves. I created a Goodreads shelf for all of these and found out that I owned 61 books I haven’t read. In case you weren’t sure, this is CRAZY. Therefore, I’ve been put on a self-imposed book buying ban until I read at least one full shelf of the three. I’ve printed the shelf from Goodreads and will be crossing books off as I read them. Here’s my physical shelves and the printed shelf (yes, that does say “Read the books you own, dummy!” Gotta keep myself in check, right? 🙂
2. The Popsugar reading challenge: Popsugar has come up with a challenge of 50 (technically 52) books to read this year. I’m not going to stress to try to read all 52 or feel bad if I don’t read them. Mostly I think it sounds like a lot of fun (where am I going to find a book set in my hometown?). I’m excited to find a book that scares me or read a book that came out the year I was born. I’ve also printed this challenge at taped it onto the side of one of my bookshelves. I’ll be checking them off and writing the name of the book next to the prompt. Want to do the challenge with me? Print it and let’s keep each other accountable. Maybe we can throw in a buddy read or two?
3. The Goodreads challenge: I’ve seen several people who’ve decided they no longer want to participate in the Goodreads challenge this year. They seem to be doing it for a variety of reasons, but mostly because they feel obligated to read or it makes them anxious when Goodreads tells them they are ____ books behind schedule. I completely agree that the reminder from Goodreads that you aren’t reading as much as you “should” sucks, but personally, I like the Goodreads challenge because it helps me to keep up with what I’ve read this year. Just like the Popsugar challenge, it’s mostly just fun for me. I don’t feel stressed to complete it. I’m challenging myself to 120 books this year. For 2014, I began my challenge in March and challenged myself to read 100 books; well, I read 158 books, including a few single issue comics, some children’s books, lots of comics volumes (Saga and The Walking Dead making up the majority of those), and many, many novels. I’m pretty confident I can read 120 books, but I don’t want to make it too high – that’s when the anxiety would kick in. I think that’s why I don’t feel stressed. I make it an amount I am pretty sure I can reach. If you make it something like 300 books but you only typically read 100, that’s bound to make you feel stressed out. It’s supposed to be fun! Read and have fun. Don’t get crazy.
4. Bout of Books: This isn’t a year-long challenge, but rather a week-long challenge that happens every few months. I’ve participated in two so far, and I have loved every minute. I’ve already announced I’ll be participating in Bout of Books 12, which is kicking off this Monday. I’m currently figuring out my TBR and my own personal challenges for the week (BoB isn’t doing a link up for challenge this year but I want to have a few for myself). I’m also hosting one of the first two challenges for the week – a bookshelf scavenger hunt – on Monday! You should totally come back on Monday to participate. If you haven’t already, sign up for Bout of Books 12 and let’s have some bookish fun!
So what about you? Are you participating in any challenges this year?
Also, why not start your year off with a chance to win My True Love Gave to Me or $15 to The Book Depository by entering my giveaway?!
Caught Read Handed 
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I am doing the pop sugar challenges to and would love a buddy at some point. I agree with making your own set of challenges, and keeping it simple. Good Luck this year. I am excited to have found your blog.
Aw! Thank you! I’m definitely thinking of organizing a buddy read. Would you be interested?
Reporting in as one of the folks who gets antsy when she doesn’t meet her GR challenge. 🙂 I adore keeping track of what I’ve read on the site, but the challenge adds in a competitive dimension that just got to me in a bad way. I’m bummed because I love this year’s purple ticker!
Best of luck with your goals! Very much enjoying your printed lists and the fact that I’m not the only one who calls herself a dummy. 🙂 and I’ll definitely be joining in on the BoB fun!
I totally understand where you’re coming from! I hate that it is so off-putting for some people, but at least you can still keep track of what you’re reading on Goodreads without using the challenge.
Thank you! I am a big fan of lists so I had to print them to make it visual. 🙂 Yay! See you next week for BoB!
I LOVE your personal challenge, especially printing out a list of all of the books you own and taping it to your bookshelf- I may have to do that myself! It’s a great visual way to keep track of your TBR!
Exactly. I am a big fan of lists and visual reminders so I think it’s really going to work for me. 🙂 I’d love to see your list if you do it too!
Personally, I won’t be participating in any challenges this year as I want to read in my own rhythm for a change since I already joined some last year. But I am doing the Goodreads Challenge as I do every year! My goal is to read 100 books this year. 🙂
I totally understand that! That’s part of the reason I didn’t really sign up for any other than the Popsugar one.
Good luck with your reading!
I know the pain of the unread books… I never even thought of printing out my list of unread books like you have with your Goodreads shelf, but that’s actually a fabulous idea – I think that would really help motivate me. I’ll definitely do that once there’s ink in my printer. Otherwise, I think your challenges are great – I’m impressed at the number of books you’ve read over the last year! All the best for 2015 🙂
That’s my plan – to use the printed out books as a way to motivate myself. I have to see it every day, so it should be like a reminder. We’ll see how it works.
Same to you!
I didn’t want to sign up to too many challenges either so I don’t get overwhelmed. I’m doing the Goodreads one, but I don’t really consider it a “challenge” as the type of books to read aren’t prescribed, and I’m doing the rereads challenge to gently remind myself that I have favourites that need some attention too – but that Popsugar one looks immense… Think I might have to do it, and I’ve ticked one off already – I just finished Heir of Fire and it comes in at over 500 pages! R x
I just think the Popsugar one will be fun – to try to find books that fit each of the prompts!
I agree about the Goodreads challenge; it doesn’t really feel like a challenge, more of a way to keep up with what I’m reading.
1. 61 unread books is not crazy! 🙂 Of course I’ve been around well over twice as long as you, so that has given me more time to accumulate unread books. I’m guessing around 300 for me. My Goodreads to-read shelf was at 188 and it only has ones that are handy and I’m sure I’ll read someday. Close to two years worth right there.
3. I upped mine for 2014 to 100 because I had a lot of short ones coming up. I was going to cut back for 2015 since I seem to have a lot of really longs, but what the heck, I went ahead with 100 again.
Wooo! You can do it, Dagny! I’m looking forward to seeing the 100 books you read this year. 🙂