Reading Goals

The Sunday Salon: 2010 Reading in Numbers & 2011 Goals

Michelle15 Comments

The Sunday Salon.comHappy New Year! (I realized I didn’t say that yesterday). Today is my final year-end wrap up post and it looks ahead to 2011 a bit at the end with some goals. This is one of my favorite posts because I love stats and figuring all of this out was really fun for me. It is my year of reading in numbers. And if you missed it, I posted my favorite books of 2010 yesterday).

Some Numbers:

Books Read: 76 (up from 42 last year)
Print: 56
Audio: 20
Pages Read: 18,214
Audio Hours: 286.7 (just under 12 whole days!)
Average Pages per Book: 325
Average Pages Read per Day: 50
Books Acquired: Somewhere between 100 and 150

Fiction: 70
Nonfiction: 6

Female Authors: 49
Male Authors: 27
New (to me) Authors: 47
Most Read Author: JK Rowling (7)

Age group:

Adult: 42
Young Adult: 28
Middle Grade: 6

Genre:

Contemporary Fiction: 32
Fantasy: 10
Paranormal: 10
Classics: 8
Dystopian: 5
Memoirs: 2
Science: 2
Short Story Collection: 2
Social Issues: 2
Graphic Novel: 1
Science Fiction: 1
Verse: 1

Rereads: 7 (Just Harry Potter)

Longest Book: The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (819 pages)
Shortest Book: The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy (134 pages)

Longest Audio: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (30 hours)
Shortest Audio: Stardust by Neil Gaiman (6.5 hours)

Library books: 43 (yikes!)
Books from my collection: 33

Average Rating: 4.18 out of 5

Published in:
2011: 2
2010: 27
2009: 13
2008: 3
2007: 0
2006: 2
2005: 3
2004: 0
2003: 5
2002: 0
2001: 1
2000: 1
1990s: 10
1900-1989: 6
1800s: 3 (*hangs head in shame*)

2010 Goals – How’d I do?:

  1. I want to read more adult literature than young adult/middle grade.  While I love YA/MG books, I felt like I got a little distracted from other books in 2009.  So it doesn’t matter if it’s one book more or 30 books more, I just want to read more adult literature than not. [Final count: 42 adult, 34 YA/MG]
  2. I’m aiming for 20% of my books to be classics.  That’s a little better than I did in 2009. [Boy did I fail this one].
  3. And I’m aiming for 15% of my books to me nonfiction/memoir v. fiction.  I’m trying to broaden my reading horizon. [Only 7% 😦 ].
  4. Specific authors: Margaret Atwood (never read); Isabelle Allende (never read); Kurt Vonnegut (haven’t read in awhile). [And Margaret Atwood remains unread once more. As well as Allende].
  5. Specific books: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld; The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein; David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (my one daunting read for the year) ; Finish the last 5 Betsy-Tacy books; The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharto. [Wow. I didn’t finish any of these. I did read two more of the Betsy-Tacy books. I think specific book goals are not good for me].

Five goals in 2011:

  1. Read more during the week. I do most of my reading on the weekend but there is no reason that I can’t read for 30 minutes or an hour every day.
  2. Keep up with Goodreads. I’m going to just start from this point on and really try to use it.
  3. Read more of my own books. I read a lot of library books this year. I’d like to balance this out a little.
  4. Along those lines, limit myself to two books on hold at once at the library. I hate when all 10 of the books I have on hold come in on the same day.
  5. Use audio mostly for nonfiction and rereads. I enjoy these audiobooks the most and I really want to focus a little more on nonfiction and rereads in general.

Do you have any reading/blogging goals this year? Were you surprised by any of your stats?

The Sunday Salon: My 2010 Goals

Michelle15 Comments

The Sunday Salon.com

It’s a new year and I’m using this turn-a-new-leaf time to write my first post for The Sunday Salon.  These are some of my favorite posts from other bloggers and I want to join in the fun.  The description of the Sunday Salon is one of a mini-readathon, but I’ve noticed that most use it as a sort of weekly recap or a place to discuss a particular idea.  So if I’m doing it wrong, let me know, but I’m taking my cue from loads of other book bloggrers.

This week has been a bad one for reading and a good one for blogging so I guess overall it’s been an average week.

Reading

Despite the limited time spent at work, I still didn’t manage to finish a book (a feat I last accomplished on December 5 – how sad).  I am currently reading:

It is my goal of the day to get to page 600 in The Sweet Far Thing.  That’s about 125 pages and will bring me 200 pages from the end and is certainly possible if I can just sit down and do it.  I must say I’m not enjoying this book very much and only want to finish it because it’s the  last in a trilogy.

Blogging

This could very possibly be the most I’ve written in one week.  This week I told you about my Christmas goodies both in book form and reading related.  I shared my favorite books of 2009 and my reading stats for the year.  My favorite post (and most visited by you) is my husband’s guest post sharing his favorite books of 2009.  I’m glad you all enjoyed hearing from him and left encouraging comments.

I loved reading everyone’s end of the year recaps.  This might be my favorite time of the year to open my google reader.

Goals

Everyone is talking about their reading goals for the new year.  I don’t want to set myself any numeric goals because I’ve learned that I can’t predict how much time I’ll have to read.  Instead, I want to set a few guidelines that can apply no matter how much I read and list a few books/authors that I hope to get to in 2010.

  • I want to read more adult literature than young adult/middle grade.  While I love YA/MG books, I felt like I got a little distracted from other books in 2009.  So it doesn’t matter if it’s one book more or 30 books more, I just want to read more adult literature than not.
  • I’m aiming for 20% of my books to be classics.  That’s a little better than I did in 2009.
  • And I’m aiming for 15% of my books to me nonfiction/memoir v. fiction.  I’m trying to broaden my reading horizon.
  • Specific authors: Margaret Atwood (never read); Isabelle Allende (never read); Kurt Vonnegut (haven’t read in awhile)
    • Specific books: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld; The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein; David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (my one daunting read for the year) ; Finish the last 5 Betsy-Tacy books; The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

      While I didn’t meet all of last year’s goals, I did like having them as a guide, so that’s all this is: a guideline. If I don’t meet it, no worries.  I’ve also joined a few challenges so with these guidelines and the challenge requirements, I think my year is on the right track.  If only I could finish The Sweet Far Thing.

      My Year of Reading (in Numbers)

      Michelle17 Comments

      Some Numbers:

      • Books Read: 42 (1 audio)
      • Pages Read: 13,807 + 13.1 hrs audio
      • Average Pages per Book: 337
      • Books Acquired: 156
      • Fiction: 38
      • Nonfiction: 4
      • Female Authors: 26
      • Male Authors: 16
      • New (to me) Authors: 24
      • Most Read Author: Maud Hart Lovelace (5)
      • Kid’s Lit: 13
      • Contemporary Fiction: 11
      • Classics: 6
      • Young Adult: 5
      • Memoirs: 3
      • Plays: 2
      • Essays: 1
      • Short Story Collection: 1
      • Rereads: 3
      • Series Started: 4
      • Longest Book: War and Peace (1,386 pages)
      • Shortest Book: The Tales of Beedle the Bard (107 pages)
      • Library books: 10
      • Books from my collection: 32
      • Challenges finished: 1 (Maud Hart Lovelace)
      • Challenges failed: 1 (Everything Austen – will finish this year)
      • Challenges continuing: 1 (Shelf Discovery)

      2009 Goals

      • Read 48 Books (4/month) – Failed
      • Read Northanger Abbey and re-read Pride and Prejudice
      • 12 Classics (1/month) – Failed (I read 6 and was much better earlier in the year)
      • Specific Books
        The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
        Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
        Peony in Love by Lisa See
        The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
        Something Rotten and First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
        The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (I’m halfway through)
        War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

        To sum up: I thought I would read more this year since it’s the first full year that I haven’t been in school, but regular old work life turned out to be more time-consuming than expected. I also didn’t mean to read so much kid’s lit but between Betsy-Tacy, Harry Potter re-reads, and The Mysterious Benedict Society that somehow became my biggest genre. I think it was a successful year even if it wasn’t my best according to numbers.  I discovered the greater book-blogging community, reading challenges, and I participated in my first read-a-thon.  And I enjoyed almost everything that I read which has to be the most important measuring stick.

        Thank you all for listening to my ramblings this year and leaving wonderful comments for me.  I’m looking forward to seeing what 2010 brings.