Romance Lovers for the Challenge-Impaired discussion

I know it may be too soon for some of us, but I thought it would be fun to keep track of our reading goals for 2011, and discuss how plan to reach those goals. I'm always looking for ideas to increase the amount of books that I read as long it doesn't include spending less time on goodreads, and getting rid of cable TV, LOL!

I'm sure I'll have a goal though it ain't set yet. A lot will depend on how I do with this year's goal whether I raise the bar or keep it level.

Kelley wrote: "I'm sure I'll have a goal though it ain't set yet. A lot will depend on how I do with this year's goal whether I raise the bar or keep it level."

I've fallen so far off from my 2010 reading goal that I doubt I'll be raising the bar at all for 2011.

I aimed for 200 in 2010 - I will probably fall somewhere between 150 - 160, I aimed a wee bit high. I am expecting fewer in 2011 due to starting school in January while still working full time and moving - and whatever other random bits that life throws at me! If I had to mark a goal out, I would go with 90 - 100 for 2011 just because I will still be listening to audio in the car while I am driving and I plan to keep up with my favorite authors.

Carla wrote: "I aimed for 200 in 2010 - I will probably fall somewhere between 150 - 160, I aimed a wee bit high. I am expecting fewer in 2011 due to starting school in January while still working full time and..."

Wow Carla! You have a lot on your plate! It's a great thing more books are available in audio format. I wish you all the best with everything you are doing!

One reading goal that I'll definitely work on is more reading variety. I feel as if I've read more pnr than anything else for the last few years, and I definitely want to get in more contemporary romance.

I have a personal goal that I've set for myself (another group I'm in does them).

It's 52 books for 2011.

I've divided them into 4 categories:
12 books for classics/1001 books list
12 books for group reads (I chose which group I list the book from)
12 books for new/recent releases (2010-2011 releases)
16 books from TBR pile (published 2009 or earlier).

Kristi wrote: "I have a personal goal that I've set for myself (another group I'm in does them).

It's 52 books for 2011.

I've divided them into 4 categories:
12 books for classics/1001 books list
12 b..."

That a great personal goal Kristi. It's all nice and neat too!

Michelle wrote: "That a great personal goal Kristi. It's all nice and neat too!"

It has to be, or I'd get confused, change my mind a million times, let myself slide on a harder book, etc. I know me, and I has to keep me in check. LOL.

Kristi wrote: "Michelle wrote: "That a great personal goal Kristi. It's all nice and neat too!"

It has to be, or I'd get confused, change my mind a million times, let myself slide on a harder book, etc. I know..."

LOL! Well, you've inspired me to tidy of my reading goal for 2011. That said, I need still think about it for another day or two.

Michelle wrote: "Kristi wrote: "Michelle wrote: "That a great personal goal Kristi. It's all nice and neat too!"

It has to be, or I'd get confused, change my mind a million times, let myself slide on a harder bo..."

If I inspired that's great. But if it's anything else, please don't follow. I'm known to be off my rocker, so.... you know, forewarned and all that. hee hee.

This is what I'm thinking so far:

For 2011, I'd like to read 100 books, of which I already own. I'm still working out just how I want to break that down, so I'll post an update closer to the end of the month.

100? Wow. Okay I didn't mean to inspire THAT much! LOL.

Kristi wrote: "100? Wow. Okay I didn't mean to inspire THAT much! LOL."

I know, right! I thought I could read 144 books for 2010, puhleeze! I haven't even come close. I think that by setting a goal of 100 books, it'll be a challenge, but possible (if I spend less time on gr!). The harder part is breaking them down into categories, and making sure they come from the books I already own.

Since I think I own way too many books that I haven't read yet, I've decided to copy Kristi, and break my goal of 100 books down into 4 categories as well:

25 SFR (science-fiction romance)
15 authors that are new to me
20 historical romance
40 that depends on my mood

*all books have to be books that I already own by January 1, 2011; and if I read more than that, great!!

Michelle wrote: "Since I think I own way too many books that I haven't read yet, I've decided to copy Kristi, and break my goal down decided to break my goal of 100 books down into 4 categories as well:

25 SFR ..."

I think those are great categories, and it leaves room for whims. We all have days where we think we can't handle (fill in blank), but could really go for (fill in blank). I think it's great!

Wellllllllllllllllllll --
After 314 books and over 112,000 pages in 2010(and December isn't over).
I have decided to read less in 2011 and pretend I have a life! I do plan to do RLCI challenges.

I have read 107 books in 2010 (so far). But, I am going to AT LEAST read 100 books in 2011 and I want to try to read more classics. However I don't want to put a number to that and get tied down! LOL!

Ruth wrote: "Wellllllllllllllllllll --
After 314 books and over 112,000 pages in 2010(and December isn't over).
I have decided to read less in 2011 and pretend I have a life! I do plan to do RLCI challenges."

Who needs a life when you have books?! LOL!!!

Michelle wrote: "Ruth wrote: "Wellllllllllllllllllll --
After 314 books and over 112,000 pages in 2010(and December isn't over).
I have decided to read less in 2011 and pretend I have a life! I do plan to do RLC..."

lol!!!!!

Is anyone interested in keeping track of our progress throughout the year in a seperate thread?

Michelle wrote: "Is anyone interested in keeping track of our progress throughout the year in a seperate thread?"

yes.

Kelley wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Is anyone interested in keeping track of our progress throughout the year in a seperate thread?"

yes."

I'll create a new folder and thread when I can get on my laptop. Happy Holidays everybody!!!!

Ok I came up with some challenges for myself this year. Calling them challenges rather than goals though. :-) Almost all of these are challenges I've done in the past at other sites or even groups on GR. But I liked some of them so using again.

Alphabet Soup:
A-Z Authors (first or last name) to begin with every letter of the alphabet. For the really hard letters like Q or X for example, they just have to be IN a word of the title. But I'm only going to do that if absolutely necessary.

A-Z titles (any word in the title) to begin with every letter of the alphabet. For the really hard letters like Q or X for example, they just have to be IN a word of the title. But I'm only going to do that if absolutely necessary.

TBR Series challenge: As many series as I can that I already own in their entirety or have been buying over the years, I'm going to try to make tracks through them.

This last one is a monster and one I actually did in another GR group this past year. But I decided I really hate the group after a few too many incidents of extreme rudeness by moderators or other members so I quit the group. But I'm using this challenge of theirs because I LOVED this one and it is a very good (and hard) one to do but fun. So yes I AM copying it but I don't care. I'm using different names for each one though. LOL

SERIAL READER CHALLENGE

In order to complete it officially, you'll have to read: 27+ books and 15+ different series.

1) Serial countdown:
Take 5 series, read:
5 books from 1st series
4 from 2nd
3 from 3rd
2 from 4th
1 from the last

2) Serial Genre Challenge(5 books):
Read one book from each of the genres. It must be a series book, not a stand-alone:

chick-lit
romance
mystery
pnr/urban-fantasy/fantasy/sci-fi
young adult

3) New series challenge (1+ book):
Try out a totally new author. If the book turns out to be bad, you have to TRY AGAIN. Repeat until you find a series that you like.

4) Author Challenge (1 book)
Try a book from the author you've "given up" on - call it one more try.

5)Rave Reviews Challenge (1 book):
Start on that series that everybody is praising so much but you keep postponing it for later.

6) Single series challenge (1+ books):
Read a whole series from the beginning to the end (or to the last published book). You choose whether it's going to be a 15-book-long-monster or a 1-book-long-freshly-started-baby series...

7) Trilogy Challenge (3 books):
Read a trilogy. An old fashioned trilogy that wraps up at book 3.

BONUS: Strong Female Challenge (1 book):
A series with a strong female protagonist

Kelley wrote: "Ok I came up with some challenges for myself this year. Calling them challenges rather than goals though. :-) Almost all of these are challenges I've done in the past at other sites or even groups ..."

Wow!!! Your challenges are serious! Good luck!

Well, I kind of ( it's still in route :( ) received a Nook Color as a Christmas gift, so I'm seriously rethinking my 2011 goals already. I have to factor in my new toy somehow. I may attempt my own version of a mini serial challenge.

I set my goals tonight too, after I saw how I did on last year's goals. So here are my goals, which I'll post in a new thread in the otehr section you created for us too.

My goals for 2011:
Total 240 books
At least 67% from my TBR (to be read which include past acquired audio books)
At least 33% Print and/or eBook

My 2010 goals had been:
Total 225 books
At least 50% from my TBR (to be read which include past acquired audio books)
At least 50% Print and/or eBook

I hit the TBR goal without a problem since I buy so many more than I can read anyhow. LOL I didn't keep track of audio vs other formats after a while though since I knew no way on earth would I make 50%.

Michelle wrote: "I may borrow a small piece of Kelley's monster challenge..."

Well don't call them "my" challenges. I can see the folks in the group where I did that last year pitching a fit and accusing me of plagiarizing them of you refer to them as "my" challenges and they happen to have any members in here or anything who see it.

They had some other group earlier this year who they claimed stole ideas from them and flipped out, threatening to report them to GR etc etc.

And since I left because I thought they were rude and all in there, don't need them causing problems here.

Kelley wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I may borrow a small piece of Kelley's monster challenge..."

Well don't call them "my" challenges. I can see the folks in the group where I did that last year pitching a fit and..."

Whoops! I'm sorry, I'd like to avoid that sort of confusion too. I'll edit my earlier post :)

Michelle wrote: "Well don't call them "my" challenges. I can see the folks in the group where I did that last year pit..."

I just don't want there to be any backlash in here for you mods to have to deal with. I get the impression that group kinda looks for that sort of thing.

Last year I read 160 books... which is a drop off from 200 in 2009, but then I was studying last year.

This year my goals are simply to read 180 books, 60 of which will be my OWN books and not from the library (where I work).

How I am going to achieve this... I figure if every 3rd book I read is one of mine I should get my goals accomplished. I really really want to get some of my old TBR's read as well. I have had books on my shelf for YEARS and not read them. My husband thinks its nuts that I have close to 1200 books at home and 95% of those I haven't read AND the ones I have read I continue to re-read (hmmmm while previewing this comment perhaps I can see hubbys' pov).

I would also like to maybe do a challenge or 2 this year

Anyway those are my goals for 2011. Happy reading everyone!

LibraryLass wrote: "Last year I read 160 books... which is a drop off from 200 in 2009, but then I was studying last year.

This year my goals are simply to read 180 books, 60 of which will be my OWN books and not fro..."

Good luck!

Cheers, Michelle... I think I will need it! Like others here, I am going to try and mix it up a bit too. Not by NOT reading romance but by not binging on one genre then neglecting it but spreading the reading a bit more evenly. Hah! I will try anyway.

LibraryLass wrote: "Cheers, Michelle... I think I will need it! Like others here, I am going to try and mix it up a bit too. Not by NOT reading romance but by not binging on one genre then neglecting it but spreadin..."

That's where audio books are great for me (and eBooks). While I do listen to a lot of romance audio books, I tend to gravitate more towards those genres I love to read but never seem to fit in anymore with my review commitments since those are mostly romance.

I especially love thrillers/suspense/mystery/horror in audio. You know, the stuff that keeps you really interested because you're trying to solve the mystery, or on the edge of your seat waiting for what's going to happen next in a thriller, or having the bejeezus scared out of you with horror (not that horror usually scares me but... you know what I mean). Since I tend to do a lot of audio in the car or at work, these types of books keep me from zoning out too much without distracting me from my primary activity I'm involved in at the time.

I also have found a love for YAs over the past year but I can't imagine pohysically reading most of them myself. Probably 99.99% of the YA I do is in audio format.

Yet when it comes to print or eBook, I find myself sticking primarily to my first love of reading... romance (especially paranormal romance).