Wednesday 18 July 2018

My Goodreads Challenge Update



Hello all! Given as we are a little halfway over the year, I decided that I would take a look at my progress on my yearly goodreads challenge. I want to see how things are going so far and which books are looking to be my favourites. I'll be looking at some stats on what I have been reading so far!

My Goodreads Challenge:

My Goal: 50 books from January 1, 2018- December 31, 2018
Books read so far: 37 (13 more to go!)

Breaking Down the Books:

Out of the 37:

8 have been YA contemporary
9 have been YA fantasy
3 have been YA historical fiction
9 have been classics
4 have been adult realistic fiction
4 have been graphic novels

Five Star Reviews:

I have had twelve five-star reviews so far which seems pretty good to me! I only have one one-star review which is so awesome. To me that seems like I have established what I like and have developed a strong rhythm in my reading.

I won't decide officially until the end of the year, but it looks to me that Maus: A Survivor's Tale by: Art Spiegelman is on track to be my favourite book of the year, which is surprising considering it is a graphic novel! I would have never thought that a graphic novel would be my fave, but this book was so amazingly crafted, and I cannot wait to write my review on it.

The Main Things I've Noticed:

I read a lot more adult fiction these past few months! It seems like every other year in the past was filled with YA with a few classics sprinkled in, but I had a lot more of an even match between adult novels and YA novels as a whole. There was also a healthy amount of classics thanks to my literature class last year.

I also have been ahead of the game ever since I started the challenge, and this is probably due to me reducing my goal to fifty books instead of my usual hefty eighty. I decided to stop forcing myself to read an enormous number of books that I probably skimmed through, and instead focus on reading a smaller amount more closely and thoroughly. Reading has become a lot less stressful with this method!

Overall, over these past six months I found that I have been reading out of my comfort zone, and it has paid off! I would never have reached for as much adult fiction in times past, but I have been taking risks in my reading and the result has been that I have been enjoying books far more! In fact, most of my two-star reviews had to do with the YA's I have read. Now this is not to say that I hate YA, I just think it's good that my reading has matured over this year. I'm looking forward to the remainder of the year and hopefully reading a lot more awesome books!

How are your reading challenges going?

Emily @ Paperback Princess


14 comments:

  1. I'm thinking for next year that I'm going to reduce my challenge and just focus on having a good time reading. My goal right now is 100 books, and sometimes I have to push myself to continue reading, and it takes a lot of the fun out of it. I've also seen my tastes mature over this past year, and a lot of it is due to classes. I normally don't read adult fiction or classics, but I usually end up liking what I read!

    Good luck with the rest of your year! :)
    Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!

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    1. That is exactly what I did, and I’m so glad I did it!! Hope you get to still finish your goal, 100 books is a great feat!

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  2. I've read 71 books of my 80 book reading goal, though I'm sure I'll be consuming much more books than just 80.

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  3. I'm so far behind on my challenge that I don't even know. Lol.

    Well done for keeping on track Em! :)

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  4. I'm so glad your challenge is going well, Emily! The same sorts of patterns happened to me over time. I started out with pretty much all YA and then slowly added in more Adult and NA as I got older. I'm kind of scared to say it but I think in like five or ten years, I'll have completely switched it and will be reading mostly Adult instead of YA. Maus has been on my TBR for SO LONG and I think I'm mostly putting it off because it's a graphic novel. I've read a few GNs and while I liked the stories, I just couldn't bring myself to truly appreciate the medium it's written in. I would just speed through and not really appreciate the pictures. I think I'm just too conditioned to regular novels that it's going to take me a while to get used to the new reading style associated with GNs. Still, it's worth it! Best of luck with the second half of the year, Emily!

    Laura @BlueEyeBooks

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    1. Thanks Laura! Omg PLEASE give Maus a try! I am exactly like you, I never really love graphic novels because I speed through them but this one was so different! The story was so vivid and the illustrations just added to it. It did not read like a graphic novel at all, rather a classic book.

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  5. Congratulations on making such great progress on your reading challenge so far this year! I think it's especially awesome that you are reading out of your comfort zone, and that is something I sense myself doing more of this year as well. Junior year of high school derailed my reading more than I had assumed it would initially, so for this year, I am just striving to finish out strong with books I enjoy and get back into the swing of reading regularly. Next year, hopefully I'll attack a number goal again.

    claire @ clairefy

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    1. Whatever works for your reading is what’s best! I’m sorry that your reading kinda got derailed this year, but it’s always great to finish off strong! Thanks Claire :)

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  6. This year I decided to reduce my challenge, cause like you say it's actually more do-able then. And lol, I've ended up surpassing it, which I didn't expect!

    Congrats on your progress! I'm so glad you're enjoying Adult fiction!

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    1. Good job for surpassing your goal, Amy! Reducing mine was such a great decision!

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  7. Maus is such a brilliant graphic novel! I read that one in my uni days and is one of my favorite graphic novels. Have you read The Watchmen? It's also very good.

    Congrats on doing so well on your Goodreads challenge!

    Dinh@Arlene's Book Club

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    1. I have never read The Watchmen, although I’ve heard of it! Glad you enjoyed Maus as much as I did :)

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