Reading Glasses - Fan Group discussion

Anyone doing any reader challenges?

Brea wrote: "Anyone doing any reader challenges?"

I've been trying to hit my stretch goal of 100 books for 3 years in a row. I haven't hit it yet, but I keep getting close. So far, all I manage to do is read 1 more book than I read the year before. Trying not to judge myself for falling short and just celebrate what I have read already.

Mine is more of a personal challenge, which is at the moment to finish off the unfinished books 😊

My Goodreads challenge is 150 and I'm doing the PopSugar challenge and maybe Read Harder. I'll admit to being a bit put off by all the comics in the Read Harder list! But we'll see...there are definitely some books I can use for both, and some that I'm planning to read anyway that would fit, so it may not be too ambitious a goal.

Challenging myself to 12 for the year. I haven't made much time for reading the last couple of years, but with a bunch of time off coming in April, along with a new baby, I should have lots of time in the middle of the night for reading.

Chrissy wrote: "Mine is more of a personal challenge, which is at the moment to finish off the unfinished books 😊"

You are not alone with this one.

Roland wrote: "Challenging myself to 12 for the year. I haven't made much time for reading the last couple of years, but with a bunch of time off coming in April, along with a new baby, I should have lots of time..."

I did that two years ago! I wasn't reading at all and it totally helped and got me looking forward to reading again :)

Kelsey wrote: "Brea wrote: "Anyone doing any reader challenges?"

I've been trying to hit my stretch goal of 100 books for 3 years in a row. I haven't hit it yet, but I keep getting close. So far, all I manage to..."

I think one more book is amazing!

Chrissy wrote: "Mine is more of a personal challenge, which is at the moment to finish off the unfinished books 😊"

ALL of them?

Sarah wrote: "My Goodreads challenge is 150 and I'm doing the PopSugar challenge and maybe Read Harder. I'll admit to being a bit put off by all the comics in the Read Harder list! But we'll see...there are defi..."

I have a read a few people put off by the comic aspect of the Read Harder Challenge but I actually feel like I've stopped reading as many comics as I would like to. But I could see if you aren't that into comics that it wouldn't be exciting.

Roland wrote: "Challenging myself to 12 for the year. I haven't made much time for reading the last couple of years, but with a bunch of time off coming in April, along with a new baby, I should have lots of time..."

I think 12 is great because then you know if you get through 1 a month you will make it!

Brea wrote: "Chrissy wrote: "Mine is more of a personal challenge, which is at the moment to finish off the unfinished books 😊"

ALL of them?"

I didn’t actually have that many (reading slump) so it’s pretty achievable for me 😊 I should clarify that it’s just a list of unfinished books from last year.

Personal goal of 45 this year
And using the Popsugar challenge for ideas

I also started doing the Murderino 2018 challenge someone created, based around My Favorite Murder. Definitely has more of a leaning towards True Crime though 😊

Cara wrote: "I've been a lazy reader for a bit too long so I'm doing a combination of challenges:

- Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge (book count goal)
- Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge (expand my range)
- Pa..."

I'm also doing the Book Riot Reading Harder Challenge this year! While it's not "page" challenging, it is stretching my typical reading genres.

I average about 100-120 books a year and I'm doing the goodreads challenge just to keep track of where I'm at. Last year I tried to read an even split of male and female authors, still have to go through and tally up how I did in that regard.

This year I want to diversify my reading- new genres, more translations, more non-straight white male authors but I find I balk at reading something just to fill a quota (feels too much like assigned reading) so I throughout the end of 2017 I started a list of books that sounded interesting and changed things up for me and made that my 2018 list to choose from. Now I can pick from that list of books I already want to read and mix up my reading experiences a bit.

Chrissy wrote: "I also started doing the Murderino 2018 challenge someone created, based around My Favorite Murder. Definitely has more of a leaning towards True Crime though 😊"

HOW DID THIS MURDERINO NOT KNOW THIS?!

I’m trying to hit 100 this year, last year I got 41. ❤️

Chrissy wrote: "Chrissy wrote: "I also started doing the Murderino 2018 challenge someone created, based around My Favorite Murder. Definitely has more of a leaning towards True Crime though 😊"

HOW DID THIS MURDE..."

It popped up in their insta feed recently, and I thought “oh, that’s the challenge for me!”

I shall see if I can send you a picture 🙂

Chrissy wrote: "Chrissy wrote: "I also started doing the Murderino 2018 challenge someone created, based around My Favorite Murder. Definitely has more of a leaning towards True Crime though 😊"

HOW DID THIS MURDE..."

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdQkKp6nW...

Chrissy wrote: "Chrissy wrote: "I also started doing the Murderino 2018 challenge someone created, based around My Favorite Murder. Definitely has more of a leaning towards True Crime though 😊"

HOW DID THIS MURDE..."

I also didn't know about this!

Chrissy wrote: "Chrissy wrote: "Chrissy wrote: "I also started doing the Murderino 2018 challenge someone created, based around My Favorite Murder. Definitely has more of a leaning towards True Crime though 😊"

HO..."

*PRAISE HANDS*

Thanks for posting the Murderino challenge! I must have missed it on instagram - definitely going to do it, too!
(And i get to see them live in about 2 weeks 🤘)

Loved that podcast, but had to stop listening when I started having dreams about my kids being kidnapped. Life is stressful enough.

liz wrote: "Thanks for posting the Murderino challenge! I must have missed it on instagram - definitely going to do it, too!
(And i get to see them live in about 2 weeks 🤘)"

I saw them live when they came to Australia! It’s amazing!

My work is doing a book bingo, so my goal is to complete the entire sheet! I've found that my wheelhouse is long series (7+ books), so I'm hoping this will encourage me to read more stand alone books. I'm already done 2/26, so I may combine with another challenge later in the year :)

Reading a full year of books by women authors only. Feeling empowered already and it’s only January 😜

Leigh wrote: "Reading a full year of books by women authors only. Feeling empowered already and it’s only January 😜"

THUMBS UP FOR THIS IDEA!

I have a sliding scale of 45 this year. I’ve already read 4 so far, though, so it might increase, but 45 is the minimum.

I'm doing the Beat the Backlist challenge this year and trying to knock some books off my TBR pile, and then my usual Goodreads challenge which I've increased to 40 books this year. Most of the books on my TBR list are either diverse reads or ownvoices and I can't wait to get into them!

I’m doing a combo of Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge and the Popsugar challenge. Total goal is to read at least 100 books this year, I managed 101 in 2017.

I'm crazy, so I'm currently doing 4 challenges:
Nerd Daily (which only shows up on their website, and no one seems to have heard of it, but I like their prompts
Book Riot's Read Harder
PopSugar
A-Z

Last year I read, combining audio/ebook/physical books, 150. Other than doing Read Harder in 2018 my goal was to write down everything. This year it's to write down everything and put them on GoodReads. I'm still getting over my embarrassment of reading romances, and this is another step.

The Reading Glasses 2019 one, of course! :D Because I've combined reading with basically all aspects of my life already, I'm having a lot of fun trying to think of a new relaxing activity with which to involve reading.

I'm having some trouble getting my hands on a graphic novel, though... I think I'll just have to trawl my local used bookstore. :)

Would you like any graphic novel recommendations?

I would love some!!

Sure! I've listed some recs by genre below. I've also thrown in a webcomic which I adore and the first half has also been collected and published as a graphic novel, so I think it counts ;). Sorry for throwing so many options at you at once, but hopefully some of these sound interesting.

Nonfiction: Maus I and II (about the Holocaust), Persepolis I and II (about a girl growing up in Iran), March trilogy (about Rep. John Lewis)

Superheroes: Ms. Marvel series (Muslim teen girl who develops super powers), Runaways series (about a group of teens who find out their parents are supervillains), Hawkeye (specifically the run by Matt Fraction)

Scifi: Saga series (about a pair of star-crossed lovers and their child); On a Sunbeam (interwoven story of a found family and a boarding school romance in space)

Fantasy: The Adventure Zone (adaption of a D&D podcast, but it's pretty funny and the art is phenomenal)

Contemporary: Lucky Penny (about a girl named Penny whose life falls apart and how she puts it back together; it's pretty lighthearted though).

Horror: Sandman series (about the embodiment of Dream and his various escapades; this one is a classic, although I will warn you there are some off-page rape scenes)

Romance (also LGBT+): Check, Please! (about a gay Southern baker who places college hockey and falls in love; this one is available online for free too as a webcomic)

Thanks for all of these suggestions, Jamie! You made me realize that I've been wanting to read a ton of these and/or I didn't think they would count (Check, Please! is super cute, I've been meaning to get my hands on Saga, and I totally forgot about the TAZ graphic novel). I've heard really good things about Ms. Marvel and Sandman (thank you for the warning; I didn't realize), and of course Persepolis is a classic that I've been meaning to read for forever. Thank you!!

You're welcome!!! I love graphic novels/comics/manga, so I'm happy to share since it can be hard to decide where to start. Yeah, I re-read Sandman last year after not having read it in a long time and I had forgotten about those parts, so they really jumped out at me.

My goal this year is in number of pages read, since the books I read vary wildly in length! For the past couple of years its been 10,000 pages and I was so close to hitting it last year! It equated to ~about~ 20 books, but since they ranged from 150 to 980 pages that's an average. I'm going to keep the same goal until it hit it and then see about bumping up the number of pages!

I'm trying to read the equivalent of a book a day this year. It's actually a bit more restrained than I was last year (I read 411 books like a madman). So far, I'm about a dozen books ahead, so it's looking do-able!

The 2020 Reading Glasses challenge is up on The StoryGraph, if you like keeping track of your reading challenges there!

And the 2021 challenge will go up there too, shortly after it's announced :)