Has anyone had a bad experience with the Goodreads reading challenge? I’ve been doing it for the past 8 years but I think it’s time to call it quits. I know it’s totally inconsequential and no one cares if you succeed or not, but the constant reminder of “You’re X books behind schedule” is starting to feel tiring. Lately I’ve been reading short books instead of the big bricks I really want to read, just to complete the challenge. Makes me feel dumb.
I wish they would bring more diversity to the challenge instead of just a number. Read books from 5 different genres, read a book on astrophysics, read X books written by women authors, write 1 review, start a new series, read a book that my wife rated 5 stars, etc.
Anyone has thoughts or suggestions on a reading challenge that would be more engaging?
I do the goodreads challenge because it’s just a goal for x number of books read in the year. Like others are saying, you can create a challenge within the book count that you would be interested in.
Here’s what I try to do every year:
-I try to have a page number goal in addition to book number goal. That way I don’t read like 10 novellas, and make sure I get some longer, denser books in there too. If I really want to focus on page count, I might lower the number of books I plan to read to compensate.
-I try to read a certain number of books in translation, and a certain number of languages. I just got a book translated from Indonesian, and that will be my first book translated from that language, which is cool!
-In March, I try to read only books by women. In February I try to read only Black authors. Sometimes the urge to read books by white men hits me during these months lol, and if that happens I just go with it, but make a note to come back to books by people who aren’t white men at some point elsewhere in the year. I also read books by Asian-American writers, Native/Indigenous writers throughout the year. (To be clear, I read PLENTY by white men lol, I’m not like, completely avoiding books by them or anything, it’s just that their works are already ubiquitous and if you’re not paying attention, or going mostly from 1000 Books to Read Before You Die lists, that’s gonna be most of what you read).
-I try to read both fiction and non-fiction throughout the year. Some years are more fiction heavy, some are more non-fiction heavy, but whatever mood I happen to be in, I do try to make sure it’s a little balanced. I also incorporate poetry.
Not so much a challenge, but more like a food pyramid for books. What do I consider part of a healthy intellectual literary diet? What will feed my mind, and my spirit the most this year? I try to stay flexible otherwise I will just stop reading entirely (I’m prone to a “if you can’t do it perfect, don’t do it at all” mindset) but yeah, you can totally take your own self knowledge and goals and make your own challenge!