2016 Reading Challenges (Don't Call Them Goals)

Back at the beginning of the year, I saw a challenge to set a goal of reading 60 books in a year. I laughed it right off. Sorry, but as much as I like to read, I don't often get the chance. My two prime slots from reading are commuting by train and falling asleep, the latter being particularly hazardous with hardcovers and ebooks. For the first half of the year (and most of the fall), I commuted by car, losing almost 2 hours round trip daily.

So I found some other Challenges which I list in this this post. I considered them something to shoot for, and maybe to influence my choices in this past year, but calling them goals? I ruled that right out. Sorry, I'm in it for the fun. Putting a goal in front of it makes it a little more work. The journey is more important the finish line right? (With my eyesight, and age, I'll never win Indy, so yeah.)

(By the way, ignore the hashtag. It was already there, so I wasn't making a new one.)

In the first batch, I can say I caught up with a book I've been meaning to read, one given by my spouse, one published before I was born. A few of the books had been in the house for quite a while before I read them.

I don't usually get recommendations from booksellers (although I do own two such books -- I asked for opinions before getting them signed by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark). No banned books or high school/college books this year, but I have gone back to those. I can't say book intimidate me, except for math books that get really theoretical about halfway through. And with so many books to get through, revisiting old ones doesn't generally happen. (I did double-check to see if I'd read or even listened to one of the Sue Grafton books this year, but no, I hadn't.)

As to the second reading challenge, it's a little longer, so I'll just hit the highlights:

I read books under 200 pages, but not over 500 (no GRRM, Tom Clancy or Stephen King). Curious Incident won many awards, though I don't now about National Book Award. Ditto for Tuesdays. I read a couple of graphic novels (however those are defined) as well as manga, but I didn't list those -- maybe I should? Several female authors with female protagonists, particularly the aforementioned Grafton, as well as those teenage paranormal romances, all of which had protagonists with different lifestyles than I have. No essays or poetry, but a collection of short stories, which had some essays, that I put aside and didn't get back to, but will. There was science fiction to be found, but not much in the way of self-improvement this year.

Will I continue with these challenges in 2017? Maybe. It depends on what new challenges I find, and how "reasonable" I think they are.

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