2019 Reading Challenge

Note: This is a recap. I wrote about my reading goals AFTER the year was mostly over, but context is provided to show how/why I made the tweaks.

Number of books

The most basic of reading goals: number of books. I like to build in wins for any goal so I set this lower than what I thought I’d actually read; twenty-five to be precise. Also, it’s fun to see the goodreads progress bar tell me I’ve read more than 100% of my books for the year.

Gender

At the beginning of the year I set a mental note to pay attention to how many women writers I read. Then in February on checking in, ALL nine books I read were written by men and so I decided to change my goal to 50/50 women/men and I spent the next few months catching up. I’m fully satisfied with this change and will probably end the year having read more by women than men.

Audiobooks

Because audiobook are a format I’ve struggled to enjoy I set my goal of listening to two for the whole year, hoping that one of them would change my mind about audiobooks. I’ve reached it, and I’ll keep trying but I’m not in love with it yet.

Poetry

Poetry is enjoyable but harder for me to find something that I’m willing to commit to. Also, I read poetry collections slower than a regular book, digesting it over weeks sometimes. The goal was set to two books.

DNF(did not finish)

I’ve included this rule for a couple of years now. Life is short and too precious to waste on a book that isn’t fun.

Once the year finally comes to a close I’ll do a recap and will of course set new updated goals for 2020!