overflowing bookshelves | Caught Read Handed

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!