2026 Reading Challenge discussion

It's a new year! We're curious about your reading style, which stats are important to you, etc.

1) How do you track your reading?

2) What types of stats do you track?

3) How do you retain what you read? Or, do you read for the moment and not worry about remembering what you read?

4) What other bookish goals do you have?

I'll go first.

1) How do you track your reading?
Main GR Challenge and my member's corner.

2) What types of stats do you track?
I like the stats that Goodreads gives in the Year in Review -- books read, pages read, and average rating. I would like a breakdown by genre, but not enough to figure out the stats on my own. Several years ago, they had a more detailed Stats page, but they discontinued it.

3) How do you retain what you read? Or, do you read for the moment and not worry about remembering what you read?
I don't retain things very well, so I mostly just read for the moment. I retain better with repetition, so have better recall on books I've read more than once.

4) What other bookish goals do you have?
I love our group's challenges, and enjoy fitting each book into as many challenges as possible. I've said it before, but it takes on a scavenger hunt sort of aspect for me. Also, I'm trying to choose as many Award Winners (not nominees) as possible for our yearly theme. That's definitely cranking up the difficulty level in my planning.

No judging, please .... 🤭🤓

1) How do you track your reading?
My Goodreads shelves, members corner here and a ridiculously huge spreadsheet in Excel that contains every hardback/paperback I own plus all audio I own, plus some kindle/nook books that I will likely read during the current year. I keep a file for each year end.

2) What types of stats do you track?
On the spreadsheet: what form I read it in, what month I plan to read it or did read it, country of birth of author (for my world challenge), age of intended audience, genre, gender, diversity category, each of the challenges that I plan to read it for or did read it for, what I purchased during the current year/what I paid for it/who I bought it from or whether I'm borrowing it from the library. (Do I need to note that I was an accountant and financial analyst for decades?)

In Goodreads "My Books", I also use shelves (tags) to track what year I read it or plan to read it, genre, subjects, age of intended audience, new-to-me author etc etc etc.

3) How do you retain what you read? Or, do you read for the moment and not worry about remembering what you read?
I retain poorly so if I'm reading it for a book club or a group read, I try to take notes, although I find that hinders my enjoyment somewhat.

4) What other bookish goals do you have?
To buy less books than I read in a year (at which I failed miserably in 2025). To use a single book for as many challenges as possible (if I didn't do this, I would have had to read over 300 books in 2026 to complete all the challenges I want to do.) To have at least 70% of my reading to be by women authors, 30% to be from authors not born in the US (which I didn't achieve until 2024), and as many new-to-me authors and translated works as possible.

1) How do you track your reading?
I just track them here, on GR. I've also imported my data from here to Storygraph and that has shown me some interesting details about my reading. To be honest, I've tried tracking my reads in google sheets but I do not upkeep that very well over time, I just forget to update them. I also wish I was as good with setting them up as Gail, so that'd I'd see diagrams etc but it just scrambles my mind 😆

2) What types of stats do you track?
I found it interesting to see (on Storygraph) what genres I'm most into, although it did not surprise me, I've always known what type of stories interest me most. However, taking part in HRCYED this year has shown me that my reading has not been very varied geographically, nor have I previously paid conscious attention as to the gender, race or any other signifiers/representations of the authors/books. I'd love to get better at that and track more of those kind of details.

3) How do you retain what you read? Or, do you read for the moment and not worry about remembering what you read?
I do read for the moment, as I am a mood reader and I also just love getting lost in a well-written story. I've always been jealous of people experiencing the "flow state" when they forget everything and get immersed in an activity for hours, as it is so rare for my brain that's always "on" and running in a million different directions at once. But when I read a tightly, brilliantly written book, I do experience that. And those kind of stories stay with me for years, their details vivid. And, I guess, I have quite a good memory.

4) What other bookish goals do you have?
For this year, my main goal is to enjoy, and to not over-plan or overextend myself. On the other hand, like I've already said, I'd like to expand my horizons and read more books written by foreign writers (translations), women, people from marginalised communities and different backgrounds.