HRC Ravenclaw Common Room discussion

Hello All and Happiest of New Years! With 2016 having just begun, I am curious: what are your 2016 reading goals? Completing the ominous 2016 Reading Challenge? Revisiting old favorites? Exploring new genres? Let us know!

I personally just want to get back into reading. I was discouraged by the 2015 reading challenge (made it about 70% of the way), so I just need to find what I can read at my own pace. I have so many unread books that I just want to dive right into, I just need to make the time :)

Hi Jesse! I was looking for a reading challenge that I was comfortable with and excited about for 2016, and while I was looking, I found mention of one that consisted of books you own, but haven't touched yet. I can try to find the link for you if you are interested?

Hi Jesse! I was looking for a reading challenge that I was comfortable with and excited about for 2016, and while I was looking, I found mention of one that consisted of books you own, but haven't touched yet. I can try to find the link for you if you are interested?

Found it! It is called the "Mount TBR Challenge". The idea is to go through the books that you own but haven't read (your TBR (To Be Read) pile), and there are different tiers, as below:

Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Blanc: Read 24 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancouver: Read 36 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 48 books from your TBR piles/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 60 books from your TBR pile/s
El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Everest: Read 100 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Olympus (Mars): Read 150+ books from your TBR pile/s

This is the reading challenge that I think I'm going to tackle for this year:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/create...

However, there's another that I'm really tempted by that was created by POPSUGAR. I like that there's a category, but you get to choose Tyne book (:

I was on track to complete my 2015 reading challenge until I had a baby in September! Naturally, my reading time has decreased substantially since then! I decreased my goal this year but I am hoping to make it through 45 books (the list of books that I want to read is about 100 deep and growing). And of course, I have to reread Harry Potter at some point!

Congratulations Kara! 45 is still a pretty impressive goal. I usually can only do about 25 books a year :P

My first goal is to make a reading goal

Thank you Jessie! I read 44 last year but almost all of those were pre-baby. My mom was teasing me because I brought 3 books to the hospital with me...needless to say I didn't end up opening a single one, haha.

Yes, that is what I should do!

In 2015, I read 63 books for fun. My goal was 52. I also work full time (active duty military), have two active boys (5 and 2), and go to school online (4 classes until my bachelors), and train for various races. What I don't do is watch TV.

Good luck to everyone and their challenges!

You are an inspiring example, Christy!

Has anyone seen Emma Watson's Goodreads reading group?

I saw a Facebook post about it but haven't looked into it. Have you?

Hi everyone! I just joined this group and look forward to catching up on all of the threads. My goal last year was 50 books and I read over 100. I love to read, and now that my littlest is 3, I find I have a bit more time to read at night. I set my goal for 100 this year, but my real goal is to try to read more of a combination of classics, new/popular, young adult, etc. books. I look forward to seeing what books this group reads, so I can branch out to new things.

I made a list of 2016 reading resolutions:
Re-read:
The HP series! I haven't revisited in FAR too long.
The Game of Thrones series. Just because it's so intricate and amazing - once wasn't enough.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. When I was younger I must've read this series 7 times and I miss it very much. It's my love of Douglas Adams that makes my reading challenge 42 books every year. =)

Also! I want to try to throw some non-fiction into the mix. At least 5-10 this year. I love to learn but I just never seem to get around to the non-fictions books.
Anyone else have this problem? -.-

I read th GoT series until. Halfway through book 4. I hated that one! I disliked the majority of the characters in it and didn't like the timeline overlap of 3. I just couldn't finish the series.

2016 Goals:
Read 50-75 books

Get through at least 2-3 Sword of Truth series, I'm on book 6 currently and want to finish the series before I read other epic fantasy (GoT, Eye of the World, etc.)

Reread the 6 star wars movie books as well as read #7

Read all books I got for Christmas (It, Marvel Comics Untold Stories, Elantris, Alloy of the Law, and Shadows of Self)

Read 4-7 non-fiction

Read books I own but have never read

Read at least 3 books each from the major genres (Romance, Mystery, Horror, Thriller, Classic, Fantasy, Sci-fi)

Same as above but for YA novels


Chris

I am not sure what my goal is for this year. I read A LOT last year since I was out of work for 3 months and reading almost a book daily. I have been putting down and walking away from a lot of books lately... I just can't get in to them. I am hoping I will read something soon that will spark my interest. I also will be doing my annual re-read of the Potter series, but will be starting with the Philosopher's Stone instead of Sorcerer's... looking forward to the minor differences and reading it in its intended form.

My reading goal isn't how many just more diversity. I am a student so I was reading a lot of books about my major and work related issues. Now that I am slowing down and switched jobs I can read different things. I want to read two-three books on creative projects I can mix and match like photography and bookbinding, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, inspirational, something my daughter is reading, books I want my daughter to read to inspire her, books I want my son to read, books in another language, and books from other countries.

I just joined the group, and reloaded the app, I lost it a few months ago having phone trouble. I have set my reading goal for 2016 at 25 books. I can't wait to get started! I'm always terrible about recording my reads, and I'm hoping that being a part of this group will help with that.

I've set my goal at 26, however my main goal is to go through books I've started and either finish them or get rid of them. I've started several really good books over the last year or so that haven't had the attention they deserve as I've started reading another book alongside them which has then taken over. They're sitting on my bedside table looking all sad with a bookmark partway through and that has to stop.

I am so far behind on reading, but I am preparing for a big move (apartment to our first house!) and I am designing a library and craft area, so I can create a cozy nook to facilitate my reading goals ^_^

Last year my goal was 52 books and my total for 2015 was 71.
I'm not sure how to spice up my reading goal this year....

Wow, Rebecca! I can't imagine not buying books! (Addict here) Good luck!

Well, my first goal was to start a reading log again and I did that.

I guess my goal is to read all 12 of our club books, plus a few I got for Christmas, and get my library and my kids' library in order.

Devin wrote: "Hi Jesse! I was looking for a reading challenge that I was comfortable with and excited about for 2016, and while I was looking, I found mention of one that consisted of books you own, but haven't ..."

I love this idea! I have so many books I keep meaning to read and I just haven't. I also liked the idea that someone posted in our common room on FB (maybe in the Great Hall?) of writing down all of the books you want to read and putting them in a jar. When you are ready for a new book, choose one from the jar!

Thanks for the kick in the pants I need to get back to my books!

I posted the book jar! Glad people liked the idea :-)

I made a goals list last year, it had things like:

-Female Author
-[Insert country] author (Japan, South Africa, Russia, etc.)
-Book that your mom loves
-Indiana Jones-esc adventure
-Raunchy Romance
-Classic Romance
-Antonyms in the title
-One word title
-Color in the title

And so on and so forth. Then I added a bunch of "Pull from book jar" to get the total number of books to my goal (75). THEN lastly I used a random number generator in excel to randomly sort the list and just read top to bottom.

Chris wrote: "I posted the book jar! Glad people liked the idea :-)

I made a goals list last year, it had things like:

-Female Author
-[Insert country] author (Japan, South Africa, Russia, etc.)
-Book that you..."


Yes! I thought it was posted by someone named Chris (but I never trust my oft-faulty memory)! Thank you for sharing your awesome idea!

For those interested, Emma Watson's book for her bookclub this month is "My Life on the Road". It's only a couple hundred pages, for anyone who is interested. (:

I love book challenges & reading lists, and I'm a compulsive record-keeper, so I've been logging mine on Day Zero Project, here: https://dayzeroproject.com/user/noneo... (That list also has my 2016 movie-viewing challenge on it, but it's mostly books.)

Last year I finished the popsugar list handily, but somehow this year, the things I'm reading without caring about challenges aren't fitting into the lists' categories nearly as easily as they did in 2015. Oops.

... also resolved to finally finish a few series I've only partly read but loved for years (Aubrey-Maturin - done; Cadfael - not done) and the French translations of Harry Potter (super not done).

And yeah, I know these are fairly ambitious goals, but... hey, I'm not one to punish myself for not finishing an arbitrary self-imposed goal, especially if it encourages me to read outside my usual genre comfort zone a little, and I like the challenge. :)

Je veux lire les livres de Harry Potter en Francais aussi, mais mes capacites avec la langue francaise ne sont pas bonnes!

Mes capacités sont mauvaises aussi mais j'ai lu les livres de Harry Potter souvent en anglais, donc, j'espère et je continuer à travailler! ;)

I have a goal of 30 new books this year

Roxana wrote: "Mes capacités sont mauvaises aussi mais j'ai lu les livres de Harry Potter souvent en anglais, donc, j'espère et je continuer à travailler! ;)"

Bon Travail et Bon Chance! Je voudrais de les lire en français, mais il y a eu beaucoup d'années depuis que j'ai lu en français :P

I stumbled on the Pop Sugar 2015 challenge last year and didn't do it, but this year I am. I wasn't as excited about their 2016 version (both topic choice and that it was only 40 books). I have finished 20 of the 52 books on my list. I have found that knowing I have to finish a book a week has kept me going. I only read 30 books last year, so I am on track to blow that out of the water! My favorite books I've read so far from my challenge: The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman, Sarah's Key, The Illustrated Man, and Staked (the latest Iron Druid Novel). Moving cross country and being unemployed since January hasn't hurt in my charge toward my goal!

I'm new (since the beginning of 2016) to Goodreads, and really to the idea of reading goals. I put in 16 books for 2016 as an arbitrary place to start.

I work more-than-full-time as a boarding school teacher (so there is a lot of afternoon, evening, and weekend on-duty time), play in a lot of musical theatre pits. Junior League also keeps me pretty busy, and I go to NYC as often as I can to see shows and concerts and friends and the like. So my reading time is pretty much limited to school breaks and plane flights. I also live on campus = no commute, which is awesome, but if I had one I would probably get through more audiobooks.

I want to try and keep my reading balanced between four main categories:
1. Professionally important nonfiction - classical music and musical theatre
2. New-to-me fiction - historical novels, mysteries, classics, and more!
3. Repeat reads - if I loved a book once, I'll love it just as much on a subsequent time through. It has been TOO many years since I've read any of the HP series except #7 and I've never done a complete series read, which I'd really like to do.
4. Shorter-form current events - journalism/blogs/etc on politics, culture, the issues of the day

Category 4 is the easiest. #1 is probably the hardest, especially because it's expensive (these books are less likely to be in a library).

One of the things I've started doing that's working out well is, on the fairly rare nights where I'm home in the evening, to listen to audiobooks on the stereo instead of keeping the TV on in the background (as white noise to keep me company). I can still follow along with the story even if I'm walking around doing laundry or cooking - I don't have to be actually looking at a screen.

Well, I guess the post is a bit outdated, but we could talk about our 2017 goals couldn't we?

I've set the Goodreads challenge to 26 books. I have failed with 23 year as I do not count books I read for studying (that was 12). I hope to manage this year ;)

I have planned to read at least 1 in German and 1 in Spanish. The rest doesn't matter.

I have set 5 categories in my Bullet Journal :
- TBR shelf : 6 books that I have but haven't read so far (and keep thinking I should read)
- Non Fiction : 4 books
- Crime : 7 books
- Fiction : 7 books
- Classics : 2 books.

We'll see how it goes.
What are your goals for 2017?

My goal this year is 40 books! Last year's goal was 30, and I came in at 36, and I didn't count the Harry Potter series that I re-read this summer! lol! So we'll see! Happy Reading! I'm excited to read Juliet!

My goal for 2017 is 100 books, but mostly I want to read the 63 unread books on my shelf at home (I have a little self-control problem at the bookstore).

My goal is small. I want to read 20 new books this year. Between a new job, fitness goals, and my own writing I don't want to overwhelm myself with impractical and conflicting goals. Juliet is book number 1!

Hey Jessie, hey everyone.
I completed my Book Challenge last year (to read 25 books, just made it).
I'm planning on reading 30 books this year. Hopefully I get to it.

I'm aiming for 50 books this year. I'm also setting a page goal of 50 pages per day to help keep me on track. So far, going strong! :)

aiming to complete my 50 this year and doing pretty good so far with 6 down. helps to have some time off and a book series you love.

Going through the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge and reading Shakespeare in A Year. Goodreads Challenge number is 50 which is 4 or 5 books shorter than both Shakespeare's plays and the RH Challenge books combined, so it's doable.

I'm aiming for 35 books this year; I fell off the wagon a bit in 2016 and have quite a few other things going on, so have reduced my reading time a bit in the hope I'll make my target this year.

I too am aiming for 35 this year. I did 40 in 2014, 35 in 2015, 40 in 2016, so I'm continuing the pattern. If I get more in, I'll feel like I over-achieved (in a good way!) I'm on my 3rd book for the year, so I'm well on my way; although I do tend to read more in the winter. There's nothing I love more than curling up in my favorite chair under a blanket, especially if there's snow outside (which there rarely is, but I continue to hope).

Wow. You guys are ambitious! I aimed for 16 in 2016 and got through 17. And I am a fast reader. But I can really only get pleasure reading done during the breaks from school. I'm hoping that I can get through some more via audiobook, at least - when driving or running!!

My goal for 2016 was 45. I had done 40 in 2015, so I upped the ante. However, I moved, so I no longer had 45 minutes to listen to books on my commute, and I planned a wedding, so I think I only got through 36. So my goal is back at 45 for a second attempt!

I slacked in 2014-2016 since I moved and went from commuting 3 hours a day to 40 minutes, so only read 25, 17, and 21, respectively. But I just switched jobs in August 2016, so hoping the extra 20 minutes each way lets me read a few more books! I'm pushing my goal to 30 this year!