November 29, 2012

Questions to Ponder: Reading Goals



This is the first year I really set specific reading goals for myself. I've always set a target number, usually 100, but nothing more than that. Since 2012 was my first year as a full-time mom/book blogger, I figured I'd read more, but I stayed fairly conservative with my goals.
You can read my full goals here, or just keep reading and see my summary.

Since I only have a little more than a month left in 2012, I decided to look at my stats so far, and see where I'm lacking.

Main Goal: Read 150 books.

So far: I've finished 139. I think I'll be fine.


Sub Goal 1: Read 38 nonfiction books. (25% of my 150)

So far: 19 books. Hm. I sense this one is doomed.


Sub Goal 2: Read 6 classic novels I've never read before.

So far: The Old Man and the Sea, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park. Off to reserve things at the library...


Sub Goal 3: Read more male authors.

So far: 36%. But I did read a couple of full series by women, which skews things a bit: all the Little House books and Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James books.


Sub Goal 4: Listen to 25 audiobooks.

So far: Finished 37. I'd say I've met this one.

All these made me start pondering: is it worth keeping book goals? I mean I'm a big dork who loves spreadsheets, but maybe I should relax a bit and just read what I want when I want? Or is it good to challenge myself to read stuff out of my normal comfort zone? (*Cough* Nonfiction *Cough*)

And - that brings me to a specific book-goal related question. How do you decide which books to count? For example: I went ahead and counted The Paris Wife in my 139 total, even though I only read 3/4 of it. But I figured since I read 1/3 of The Orphan Master's Son and 1/4 of Not My Blood before bailing on them, it all added up to at least a book. But is that cheating?


How about you? Do you set reading goals?