The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

A lot of people seem to have specific goals in mind, so what is yours?

To better your score from last time? To only read books you own? To earn a certain number of points? To finish?

Share. :)

This is my first seasonal challenge, so I am looking at it as my "set the bar challenge". While I would love to finish the entire challenge, I don't see that happening, so I would like to at least get through half of the books that I have picked.

I am too much of a perfectionist to say anything but this- I plan to read them ALL! I did not have a specific reading goal in mind but I have little goals that occur to me- like I worked in books everyone says you should read that I never read (even though I am a lit major and ELA teacher). Also books I have had for a while and never touched. The more I look at my shelves, the less I see books I have not read and that is good!

I'd like to finish too. At first I thought it would be impossible because of real life interferences, like having a baby this fall.

But I'd completely forgotten about the evening continuing ed classes my husband started last week: three nights a week from 6-9 p.m. He's one of the main reasons I can't read at home--his family called him "the Pester Master" when he was a kid and that has not changed over the years! He sees me reading a book and cannot and will not leave me alone. It's like he's genetically programmed to pester.

So now that he's out of the house 3 evenings a week, that buys me several more hours of reading time that I didn't think I'd have. So now I'm determined to finish this one too. But if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen--I won't beat myself up over it.

I guess my real goal is to read all the books I own from my list before I start checking things out from the library (although I did already put myself on the waiting list for a couple of the more popular titles--I'll have to read those if/when they come in regardless of how big a dent I've made in the massive stack of "owned and unread" books).

And to finish.

If I can. :)

I want to finish! I knew I wouldn't get through summer challenge, so fall challenge will be my comeback! And so far I've managed to find books for all the tasks (and only bought books I really want to read anyway), so it looks good so far!

I'm attempting my first challenge and I my goal is to be adding a task to the next one! My planning for this one has been rather tricky. I've been trying to incorporate books from my 4 GR groups, which I'm very active in and my F2F book club. I've also tried to use as many of my own, but unread books as possible. Since I have about 200+ of those, I should make a dent in my TBR. The problem is I add books as fast as I read them. I can't help myself.

My goal is to complete the challenge. It seems more doable this time around, compared to the summer challenge.

I'd like to say that I'm going to try to finish, mostly because I really like the sound of most of the books I picked from the task, but I know that's not going to happen (well, I guess not unless I drop my fall TV, which I'm not going to do). I read 38 books for 500 points in the summer challenge, but I don't think that I'm going to be reading as much in the fall.

I think I'm setting my goal at 25 books - don't want to focus too much on the points this time, because I really want to read some of the books I have set for the smaller point tasks.

Editing to test my ticker - I resisted for the summer challenge, but I can resist no more.


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My goal is to finish :). I finished the last one and since this one is shorter, I want to finish it too! It'll be a little more difficult, as I'm slightly busier outside of work this time of year, but darn it... I want to make another task! :) Good luck everybody!!! Happy reading!

I'd like to better my score from the Summer Challenge, which was 325 points. I'm hoping for 400, but we'll see how that goes. I'd really like to finish, but that's probably a little unrealistic. :)

My goal is to ultimately finish..however I'm not sure that it will actually happen! I did horrible in the Summer Challenge because life was so busy but I'm hoping this time around I'll double my score!

My goal is to finish! I have finished two other challenges, but the last one had so many books. I was quite surprised by how many people actually did finish. I planned on finishing the summer challenge (only 10 books away), but life issues got in the way. Oh well, moving on :)

I'm unemployed right now, so I don't see any reason why I couldn't finish. I'm job hunting, so I plan to read as many books as possible before I get a job. But my biggest goal is to read BOOKS and not the forums all day long... ;)

I would love to finish, but I don't think I will be able to for this challenge. During the summer challenge, I only got 255 points, so I am aiming for more than that. I am also only reading books that I currently own. I don't plan on buying books or getting any books from the library. (Ok, the only one I will need to get is Shutter Island, but it won't be expensive). All of the other tasks must be books I own.
My boyfriend gets mad when I come home with more books and don't read the ones I have. So if I read them, I can get more. :)

My first goal was to actually pick books that I am interesting and really wanting to read. That was my pitfall last time. I didn't take enough time to think.. "would i really like this?" and it held me back a bit. That is in prep for my second goal of finishing.

I would say my minimalist goal is to do better than last time, but no. That lets the possibility of failure enter my mind. So. I will succeed. I will find time to read during school. I will complete the fall challenge. :D

This is also my first time with this challenge. I'm excited, and hoping I don't get too overwhelmed! I added a bit of flair to mine, as the plan is to use mostly library books. (There's a couple on the list already on my shelf.) :D
The only thing I'm slightly bummed about it the group reads, as none of those books were on my lists. :(

I'm with Lyn - I'm pretty sure I won't be able to finish the challenge, but I guess I want to see how well I can do so that I can try to improve my own score the next time around... I'd also really LOVE to get through a big chunk of my TBR pile. I'm trying to work them into my list now.

This is my first challenge, but I really, really want to finish it. It will be tricky though because I have 5 kids and things can get crazy busy around here. So my goal is to get at least 500 points, but my secret goal is to finish! :)

I'm a newbie, too, so I'm not sure what to aim for. So far, my goal is to read all new-to-me books (except the reread, obviously) and to force myself to try some new stuff for every other/every third book. As for points or number of books, well, we'll just have to see how it goes and then I can use this challenge to help me plan for others!

After the Summer Challenge, I am really hoping to finish the Fall Challenge. There was no way I was finishing that one! I already have all but a few of my books picked out, so I feel like I have a head start and a plan for this challenge. If I can't finish, I hope to better my summer finishes, which was 39.

This is my first challenge and as much as I'd love to say I'm going to finish, I'm not sure if that's realistic. I'm a quick reader usually but my life looks like it's going to be quite busy in the coming months so we'll see how much that talent pays off. My main goal is to read the books I own and haven't read first. There are quite a few of them and I was super excited to see how many I could fit into the challenges. Also not to get sidetracked, as I often do, by new and exciting books. I'll often be reading something and quite enjoying it, but then something catches my fancy and the book I was reading gets left half read! Sacrilege, I know! Reading with a purpose should hopefully keep me on track.

I would LOVE to finish the challenge, but as I only got 275 points in the Summer one, I really doubt that's going to happen! I did have a really bad July reading-wise though, and didn't read a single book! I just couldn't get into anything and in the end gave up trying. It was very sad.

So realistic goals: to use as many books I own as possible and to reach 300 points ....

My first challenge, so no goal : ( BUT I am making myself read books outside the mystery/thriller/crime/legal genre.

I want to beat my last score of 250 points. I am also trying to read as many books as I can from my tbr pile and some I will reserve from the library. I already have one of the group reads reserved.

I would like to at least finish all of the books that I have wanted to read for a long time. I'm not as concerned with some of the books that I have picked merely to fit a theme, but I'm going to try for those too!

Let's see...

I would like to earn a greater percentage of points than I did in the summer challenge. I also give myself permission to stop and choose another book to fit a task if I'm not enjoying the read.

I'm once again going for a pages read goal. I fell just short of 10,000 pages on the summer challenge (9,543 pages- basically one or two books). So I'm going to try for that number again...

My goal is to beat my summer score of 470. I'd like to finish the challenge, but like alot of others, I'll be much busier this season than I was in the summer.

I agree with Dionisia...I'm going to put a book down if I don't like it. That was a downfall for me in the summer with three of the challenges. They took me far longer than they should have!

This is my first challenge, so my goal is going to be to at least read half of the books on my list. I was really gung ho about reading all of them, but this is the busy season for me at work. So half will be my goal and maybe I can work the ones I don't get to into the next challenge.

My super huge "man, wouldn't that be sweet" goal is to finish. With Baby #1 due on 10/2, I'm not sure how possible that will be. My first mini-goal is to earn 500 points which would beat my Summer Challenge total by 60 points.

I had a dream last night that I was put on bed rest now (at 35 weeks) and woke up thinking it might not be all bad because I could do a ton of reading for the challenge. Horrible, I know.

My goal is to beat my summer score (225 points). Let the reading begin!

Aw, congrats, Katie! Here's hoping you get the snuggly sort of baby who likes to fall asleep in your arms such that you (ahem) "have to" sit down and read. ;) (That was my excuse with my first; doesn't work as well with the second, what with an older sibling clamoring for attention...) Good luck with your last few weeks!

Since I am a teacher, the summer challenge was nice-I had LOTS of time to read! I'm going to set my goal for the fall challenge at 200 points. This would beat my last "during the school year" total.

Heather in KS

Katie wrote: "My super huge "man, wouldn't that be sweet" goal is to finish. With Baby #1 due on 10/2, I'm not sure how possible that will be. My first mini-goal is to earn 500 points which would beat my Summer ..."

Heh, I'm guilty of that too and have had similar thoughts (I'm nearly 31 weeks). As much as I'd hate having a complication like bed rest being added to what has been a very complication-free pregnancy so far (knock on wood), I can't help but think, "gee, I'd get SO much reading done!!!!"

Well, I've found 34 books that I really want to read that fit the tasks, so that's going to be my goal this time. I read 52 books over the summer challenge but I missed some of my other hobbies so won't read as much this time, and these ones all seem to be fat and meaty!

This is my first seasonal challenge. So I guess my goals are just to see what I'm capable of. But I think I should be able to read at least 10 books a month. I really should try and read all the books I own but I'm too obsessed with the library and getting different books. But one of these days I do need to try and read just the books I own. lol.

Shanna wrote: "This is my first seasonal challenge. So I guess my goals are just to see what I'm capable of. But I think I should be able to read at least 10 books a month. I really should try and read all the bo..."

I completely understand everything you just said! Every time I go to the library and bring home more books, my husband said, "why don't you read the books you already have? I know you haven't read them all."

I never should have admitted to him that 8 out of my 10 shelves of books contain books I've never even read...my bad. :)

I joined the summer challenge about halfway through and got about 120 points by just adding books I had read. Most of what I read didn't fit into the challenge.

My goal this time is to incorporate all the books I read into the challenge in some way or another. This is my last year of undergrad so I'm not planning on being able to read more than 10 books or so... but sometimes I can never stop reading once I get started!

My goal is to beat my summer score of 205. I have most of the books I know I want to read picked out already, I will just have to pick a couple of more that interest me along the way. I did try to fill it with books on my shelves, but in some cases, could not...

I'm going to be honest here... work is taking over my life. I had to skip the Summer Challenge because I couldn't afford to distract myself from work goals. So, as my first back-in-the-saddle challenge, I am just going to read as much as I can. I'm hoping for triple digits. Isn't that sad?

Shanna wrote: "This is my first seasonal challenge. So I guess my goals are just to see what I'm capable of. But I think I should be able to read at least 10 books a month. I really should try and read all the bo..."

Welcome to the seasonal challenges, Shanna! Summer this year was my first and it's quite addicting.

I'm also trying hard to read what I already have rather than buying or borrowing from the library. I've done a pretty good job fitting those into my plan this time around.

My goal is to reach at least 250 points this season. I'm starting a master's program and I don't know if I will make my goal, but I was able to incorporate a couple of the required reading books into my challenge, so that should help! Now, if only I could use my Statistics textbook for the Math challenge. :)

To finish!

This Fall my goal is to better my score from last year and also actually read some books off of my to-read list. Ooh I'd also like to read more of my book club nominated books so I'll try to add them to this challenge too.

This is my first challenge, so I'm not really sure what to set my goal at. I did try and use only books I already own for all the tasks, and I almost did...I only have to get or borrow 3 or 4.

My goal is to read at least half of the forty-two books I pulled off of my TBR bookshelf for the challenge. It's a small shelf, and it's in the closet, and it's a pain to get to it--I do not want to have to squeeze them all back in. There's my motivation!

Not to add any books to my TBR during the challenge,

First I plan to read the books I own, especially the ones which have sat there a while. Then plan to get my book club novels underway (exception being Infidel which I need to finish before 9 Sep).

After that, I hope to divide the tasks between the library and Kindle purchases.

My goal is, first of all, to pay more attention to the cutoff time - I missed 80 points from summer due to a late post. You'd think that when the challenge is reading, I'd, you know, read? Seriously, sometimes I am such a ditz.

My true goal is to finish - I did in spring, but missed the mark in summer. I didn't even finish my own task! This go-round should be more doable, so here's to it. I've already gotten in an hour on my audiobook while kickboxing this morning.

My goal is to get at least more than 155 points, which is what I scored during the summer challenge. I'm using more "books I already own" books than during the summer, so hopefully this will help.