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Can I Beat My Goodreads Challenge?

I've usually had a good track record with my Goodreads challenges. It was a little bit of a struggle last year, but in other years, I've made it with time to spare and actually increased my challenge in a couple of cases. I was so sure that last year was just a fluke and I'd be back to breezing through my challenges without making any special effort.

Not so much.

I honestly don't remember what I set my challenge as at the beginning of the year. I had to lower it pretty quickly when I got horribly behind, and as of right now, my Goodreads challenge is to read 100 books. I know that's a lot for some people, but I haven't set it this low since 2013. And every year since then, I've ended up reading at least 140 books. My highest goal was 170 in in 2015, which I broke by reading 174 books. My highest number was actually the next year, when I set my goal lower but wound up reading 180 books.

And now, when my goal has been lowered to 100 and we are (at the time of writing this post - maybe I'll have read another book in the meantime) 76% of the way through with the year. I've only read 49 books. That is, for me...not great.

So, what are my chances of meeting my reading goal? I'm not overly optimistic. I haven't yet decided whether I'll give myself a break and lower the challenge again. I think I'll see how the next couple of weeks of reading go, because, believe it or not, my reading has picked up over the past month or so.

In any case, it's definitely made me think about my reading challenge for next year. The plan right now is to set it at something very low (for me), like 50 or 60, and then increase it as I go along (hopefully). And yes, I know there is an option to not meet my challenge. I'm just not going to let that be a real option.

A side note - I've basically dropped out of all of my other reading challenges for this year. They're just not going to happen. And really, that's fine.
How are your reading challenges going? Tell me in the comments!

Comments

  1. I always use a low number and raise it as I get closer. It eliminates not meeting expectations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's looking like a really good strategy for next year! I think it's going to be better for me to have a lot of little pushes throughout the year like that than to have one big thing all at the beginning.

      Delete
  2. This whole post is such a mood. My Goodreads Challenge isn't quite as behind as yours, but all my other challenges? They might as well never have existed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I was SO ambitious with all of those, and I'm nowhere close to being done with any of them. Oops!

      Delete

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