To reading challenge or not to reading challenge...

It’s that time of year again. That time when I ask myself the question—to reading challenge or not to reading challenge?

I’ve gone back and forth over the years with reading challenges. Some years, I’ve simply set a total number goal in the Goodreads annual challenge. That’s basically a gimme for me. I know I’ll read at least 50 books in a year. But I like setting the goal because Goodreads gives you that nice little badge at the end of the year when you complete it. So I know I’ll do that one this year as well.

In other years, I’ve gotten more creative, making up my own challenges. My most long-running challenge has been the Read Wide Challenge. I’ve really enjoyed that one over the years and missed it the year I didn’t do it (and ended up adding it back a few months into the year.) However, in 2023, I did not finish my Read Wide challenge. In fact, I bombed the romance column/category—confirming that I have definitely been in a romance reading slump. I also bombed the YA category. That’s out of character for me, but it has me reluctant to do a Read Wide challenge in 2024.

In 2023, I also tried to do a backlist challenge, focusing on reading from my enormous pile of unread books (with a specific focus on my unread Book of the Month and Aardvark book club books.) I had planned to read 12 backlist books and I only made it to 6. So another incomplete challenge. Gah.

So that has me wondering what to do this year. Reading challenges usually bring me joy, but if they didn’t last year, should I continue?

I’ve given it some thought, and I think that, for now, I need to avoid challenges that are overly prescriptive. I don’t need challenges that assign genre since my reading moods have been all over the place.

However, I really do still have a backlist problem. I have SO MANY books in ebook, audio, and physical format that are sitting there untouched and ignored. I know there are wonderful, amazing stories just waiting for me to discover them. Plus, good money has been spent on those books. I hate feeling like it was wasted money.

So, my main reading goal for 2024 is going to be tackling the books that I already own. This will be a challenge because every time I listen to a bookish podcast or open a bookish email, I want all the new, new, new!

However, I’m going to try to find a book “like” whatever new book I heard about on my own shelves—because I guarantee there’s something I already have that fits the bill. My TBR on Goodreads is over 1000 books—no joke. Some date back 10 years.

Does that mean I’ll buy no new books this year? No, of course not. Let’s not talk crazy. :) But I do plan to give this backlist issue some focus.

Here are some gentle guidelines I’m hoping will help me:

1. When I’m in the mood for a certain genre or vibe, I’ll shop my shelves first.

2. If I need a book for writing research that I don’t have, I will “shop” by library sources first before purchasing.

3. When I get excited about a new book, I will add it to my wishlist instead of immediately buying it. That way I don’t forget about it and can get it in the future but it doesn’t add to the towering pile.

4. I will do random searches and sorting on my Kindle (like sorting by title or author or publication date) so that I can “see” the older books that I may have forgotten about—because many times I’ve just forgotten what’s there.

5. I will feature backlist books that I like here on the blog and in my newsletter so that you can benefit too!

6. I will remind myself why backlist is awesome:

   • usually easier to find with no holds at the library

   • you know if it’s survived the “new release buzz” and stood the test of time (meaning, the reviews are more representative of the general reading public than the early excitement reviews)

   • you get more variety instead of whatever is on trend in your favorite subgenre

I think that’s it for now. We’ll see how I do, but I’m excited about it!

Do you have any reading goals for 2024 or have you joined any reading challenges?

Reading Challenge Mid-Year Check-In!

Can you believe we’re at the halfway point of 2021? Maybe it’s because 2020 seemed to drag on forever, but this year seems like it just started. However, here we are, and I thought what better time to do a check-in on our reading challenges.

Or, if you didn’t sign up for any at the beginning of the year and now might want to, it’s the perfect time to join one!

This year I’m doing three challenges:

• The TBR Backlog Reading Challenge - (You can get all the details here.)

• The Read Wide 2021 Challenge - (Grab the details and a downloadable chart here.)

• The Goodreads challenge

So, how is it going so far? Let’s see! I did MATH, y’all.

TBR Backlog Reading Challenge

Let’s start with the new challenge I created this year—The TBR Backlog Reading Challenge. For this one, I wanted to tackle books based on what year I purchased them in (which I can see on Goodreads) because usually I’m just picking up the newest things in my stack. I also wanted to whittle down my Book of the Month club stack so I made a section for that.

Here’s how it’s going:

As you can see, I’m doing pretty well! I’ve filled in all the circles for the years purchased except for one, and I’m almost halfway through the Book of the Month number.

So, what have I learned so far and is the challenge accomplishing what I intended?

Well, I’m definitely learning things! I’ll talk more about that below. And yes, it’s accomplishing the main goal—thinning out my TBR—but if I was hoping to discover books that I’ll love that I forgot about…well, that’s been a little less successful.

Let’s look at some stats (because I don’t like math but I get super nerdy about book math!)

I have read 21 books so far for the challenge (you’ll only see 20 recorded in the chart because I’m writing down backlist books even after I’ve filled in those circles just to keep track of how much TBR I tackled.)

Of the 17 books that I’ve read based on the year purchased, 53% have been either DNFs, one, or two star ratings. Ouch. 18% have been 4 or 5 stars.

Of the 5 Book of the Month club books, I only rated one 2 stars. The rest were 3 or above. So, better luck there!

What are my takeaways from those numbers?

1. Reading taste changes over time.

   I can see the evolution of my reading taste over the ten years I’ve been keeping track on Goodreads. Not only do I have another decade of reading under my belt (and life experience) but I have another decade of WRITING. My critical eye is…highly critical these days. I’m much pickier and much less patient now.

2. Book of the Month usually gives me solid books.

   There’s a reason I’ve been a member for a number of years now. BOTM introduces me to books I may not have sought out on my own. Sometimes those risks don’t pay off, but more often than not, they do. (If you’d like to try BOTM, I believe this referral link will get you a discount or free book or something. :) )

3. Book trends are real and sometimes older books just don’t hold up.

   Partly, this may be because I can burn out on genres that were the big thing a few years ago. This also is because some books are written in a way that can stand the test of time—and some just feel dated.

4. I can clean up my TBR by aggressive use of the DNF (did not finish) because some books are clearly going to fall prey to #1 and #3 above.

So far, I’m calling this challenge a success.

The Read Wide Challenge

Next up is the challenge I created a few years ago and have been doing ever since—The Read Wide Challenge. The point of the challenge is to make sure I’m reading from a wide number of genres and subgenres (good for writing inspiration!) and I add some categories for fun as well. I’m almost done with this one!

So let’s look at the numbers on this one so far…

I’ve read 37 books for this challenge so far.

51% of the books have gotten 4 or 5 ratings. Nine have gotten 5 stars, which is a very high bar for me.

19% have gotten 2 stars or below.

It’s almost the exact opposite of the other challenge!

So, what does that teach me about the Read Wide challenge?

1. Reading widely and diversely is a much more effective way for me to find books I love.

   This may be partly because it keeps my reading fresh. I don’t get stuck in one kind of book very long.

2. Pushing myself out of my comfort zone genres pays off.

   I find things I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise, and it also helps me learn what genres I don’t like.

3. The only downside is that it means I have read less of the genre I actually write in because I’m spending time reading many different kinds of things.

   This isn’t all negative. Often my book ideas have come from reading books very much outside of my genre—non-fiction especially.

4. This challenge helps with the dreaded “What Should I Read Next?” question.

   Looking at the squares I still have to fill in gives me a direction.

So this challenge is definitely one I’ll be keeping in the future. I’m even considering creating a new chart for the second half of the year since I’m almost done with this one!

The Goodreads Challenge

This one is a straightforward number to hit. When I started the year, I chose a number to go easy on myself. I chose 50 books because I still had a book deadline looming, and I didn’t want this number stressing me out. However, I’ve now turned in my book and have been reading like crazy. So…I moved the bar, which is something that is nice about the GR challenge. You can adjust it.

Now, please don’t be too impressed with my current number. That 72 is inflated because I added a bunch of cookbooks I bought to the list. My actual number read right now is 55. But that’s still very high for me at the halfway point of the year. In 2020, I read 73 books total, so I’m on track to be higher than that if my pace continues.

No lessons from this one, but it is satisfying to look at that number!

How are your challenges going?

So, how are your reading challenges going? Now’s the time to make adjustments!

Maybe you need to scoot that number down or up on Goodreads. Or maybe your current challenge isn’t working for you and you want to switch to something new to liven things up. Or maybe, like me, you’re about to complete some of the challenges and want to take on a new one. Or you didn’t sign up for one at the end of 2020 because 2020 and now you’re ready to try one.

Wherever you are with your challenges, I hope you’re having fun with them and not letting them bring you any stress. :)

I’d love to hear how yours are going and which ones you’re doing (if any). Have you leaned anything from them? Share in the comments!

What-to-Read Decision Fatigue & Why I Love Reading Challenges

A few weeks ago, I launched the TBR Backlog Reading Challenge here on the blog and talked about how I was taking a break from my normal reading challenge, the Read Wide Challenge. I had a number of reasons for this (wanted to do something new, didn’t want to feel stress at the end of the year, etc.) but one of the other reasons was because I wanted to be less restricted in picking what to read.

Well, it sounded like a good idea at the time…

But last night as I sat down with my book journal to record something I’d read, I realized I missed my Read Wide Challenge. The TBR Backlog Challenge is going well (though it’s showing me how my tastes have changed over the years because I’m getting a good number of DNFs), but I felt myself getting overwhelmed by the thought of picking what I was going to read next. My TBR list is currently 832 books long. And even narrowing down to year of purchase (the metric for my TBR Backlog challenge), it was still a lot to choose from.

That’s when it hit me—why I was missing the Read Wide challenge. I missed the guidance it offered on what to read next. Not having that more focused lens was creating decision fatigue.

What’s decision fatigue?

“Coined by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister, decision fatigue is the emotional and mental strain resulting from a burden of choices.” —Healthline

Too many choices = stress. Too few would also create stress, I imagine. For instance, I wouldn’t want a list of “these are the five books you must read next” because then I’d feel like it was homework and wouldn’t want to do it. But somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot. It’s why I prefer grocery shopping at a store like Sprouts instead of a big box grocery store. I only have three types of ketchup to pick from instead of twenty.

I realized that’s what my reading challenges do for me. They give me light guidance. “Oh look, I haven’t checked off the box for contemporary romance yet, maybe I should go look at what I have on my shelf in that category.” They allow flexibility but reduce decision fatigue.

Which means, I'm adding the Read Wide Challenge to my goals for 2021 (and keeping the TBR Backlog challenge as well.) :) I definitely am looking forward to less decision fatigue and hopefully some great reading!

So, if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed on what to read next (which can lead to reading nothing at all and turning to your phone or TV), consider giving yourself a smaller slate to pick from through a reading challenge. There are a ton out there. The ones I’ve created are here: The TBR Backlog Challenge and The Read Wide Challenge. Both are customizable.

And here are the pages I did in my journal last night for the Read Wide 2021 challenge. I changed up my categories this year to freshen it up. (Also, for those who nerd out about these things like I do, yes, I am allowing books to count for both the TBR Backlog Challenge and the Read Wide challenge.)

So have you ever felt decision fatigue over what to read next? Do you find reading challenges helpful? Which reading challenges are you doing this year?

The 2021 TBR Backlog Reading Challenge

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I love a reading challenge. Since 2014, I’ve done a challenge I created called the Read Wide Challenge (originally called the Push Your Boundaries challenge.) I’ve loved doing this challenge, and it’s worked!

My original goal for the challenge was to expand my reading horizons because I had gotten so homogeneous with my reading, only reading a select number of genres and types of books. I didn’t want to end up writing the same story over and over because I kept putting the same input in. I wanted to have a variety of fodder for my writing brain. And looking back over these last few years, I’ve really accomplished that using this challenge. Yay for it actually helping me achieve what I set out to do!

The completed challenge in my reading journal

But…I realized that I’ve now hit the point of over-correction with this goal lol. Too many years of the same challenge in a row, I think. Of the 72 books I read in 2020, only about 10-11 are romance, which is kind of not great for my favorite genre, lol. Also this year, for the first time, I felt a little stressed about finishing the challenge. (I did but by the skin of my teeth.) I blame 2020 for some of that angst, but I don’t want to be stressed by a challenge. I want it to be fun.

So, I realized it was time for a fresh challenge. I love reading challenges so I don’t want to not do one this year, but I needed something new and different for 2021. I brainstormed on what that could look like and about what I wanted from my reading life this year. What goal would make me feel good and give me a satisfied feeling if I complete it by the end of the year?

I scrolled through my Goodreads account, seeking inspiration, and there it was, staring me in the face. The endlessly scrolling TBR pile. Some people have a TBR pile and some people have a TBR skyscraper. I’m one of the latter. I don’t add a book to my Goodreads TBR unless I own it. Currently, my Want to Read pile is…819 books. That seems ludicrous. At the rate of reading 70 books a year, it’d take me 11.5 years to get through it if I never bought another book. And y’all know I’m not going to stop buying books so…what to do?

Enter the 2021 TBR Backlog Reading Challenge.

When I scrolled to the bottom of my TBR and worked my way back up, I saw so many books that I really wanted to read but forgot I had. That recency effect is real. Plus, my memory is already crap so that’s working against me too. I felt bad for these neglected books just waiting to be read. Dusty and forgotten, filled with stories they want to tell and no one to listen. Yes, I’m anthropomorphizing my books, but you know what I mean.

So I decided I needed a challenge to tackle the TBR. I’ve tried this in a general, loose way before—i.e. making a goal to read more books I already own. But that didn’t stick. Loose doesn’t work for me (except in my writing process.) I need structure in a challenge. That’s why the Read Wide challenge has worked so well.

Therefore, here’s what I came up with…

The 2021 TBR Backlog Reading Challenge

Read Books Based on the Year Purchased or the Year Published to Find the Books You’ve Forgotten About

Have squares or checkboxes to fill in for the year in which you purchased a book, which is tracked on Goodreads. (You could also do this by publication year if you don’t have the record of when you purchased it. Goodreads has an option to sort by publication year.) The years are going to vary based on how far back your TBR pile goes. If it’s only a year or two, you can just have more boxes for those years. Mine starts on Goodreads in 2011, so I’m starting there and doing roughly 2 books per year purchased. That gives me flexibility to pick what I want since each year has a long list of options.

Optional Customized Columns for Whatever Part of Your TBR Needs Extra Attention

I like the idea of having a few customized columns that are specific to your TBR because often there are segments that need a little extra love. Like maybe there’s a series you’ve been meaning to finish. Or maybe you want to make sure you pay extra attention to choosing diverse reads from your TBR. Maybe you’ve purchased a ton of non-fiction but never seem to get to those books. Find those dusty corners where you can shine a spotlight.

For mine, I added columns to read at least 12 of my Book of the Month club books. I love Book of the Month club and have really enjoyed many of the books I’ve gotten through my membership over the past few years, but I buy extras from them almost every month so the backlog on those has gotten long too. I want to make sure I at least read a year’s worth in 2021 because I often discover new-to-me authors to love and are exposed to a variety of genres by the nature of their picks. So that’s what BOTM stands for in my last three columns.

This chart can be expanded for however many you want to do, but I have kept the number relatively small for myself this year on purpose. To complete the challenge, I need to read 28 books as opposed to 42 for the Read Wide challenge, so it won’t monopolize my reading for the year. Since I usually read 60-70 books a year, this leaves me enough room for all the new shiny books and for chasing whims on whatever I’m in the mood to read at the moment. This is particularly important for me because I’m definitely a mood reader and that was hampered a little this year with my Read Wide challenge. So, it’s up to you to choose how few or how many you want in your challenge.

That’s it! Pretty straighforward. I’m excited. :) So, who’s with me?

Join in!

I can’t be the only one out there with a TBR skyscraper. If you want to join in, you can grab a blank template here that you can customize in Microsoft Word. It will look like the one below and will also include a list of suggested categories if you need to brainstorm the custom columns.

Hopefully, this will help us all discover some gems hidden in the pile. I’d love to hear if you’re going to give this a try. And if you do, check in every now and then and let me know if you’ve discovered any great books! I’ll try to do the same.

Happy reading and here’s to a hopefully better year in 2021!

P.S. Read Wide Challenge

For those of you who would like to continue doing the Read Wide Challenge instead or would like to give it a try for the first time, you can get all the info here and download last year’s template, which will work just as well this year! :)

Reading Life Upheaval: Why Your Goodreads List May Look Different in 2020

This week, in my private reader Facebook group, I asked how everyone’s reading challenges for 2020 were going. I asked because I was staring down mine, knowing I was behind. I had set a Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 70 books and had 56 read so far. Goodreads was happy to tell me I was behind. (In my Read Wide Challenge, a reading challenge I created, I’m faring better, so at least I had that to hold onto when Goodreads got judge-y.)

But my deficit on my reading goal got me thinking. A goal of 70 was reasonable for my normal reading year. Last year I read 75 without a problem. So what’s up? Well, 2020 is up. The term “normal reading year” or “normal year” in general do not apply.

I know I’m not alone. In my reader group, people either had read significantly below their normal amount or significantly above. Some had lost their audiobook time on work commutes or their lunch break reading time. Some had gained reading time because of lockdown or working from home. I know I have lost a lot of alone time, which means I’ve lost reading time. But also, I think of lot of us have struggled with energy during this time, and it takes some amount of energy to pick up a book instead of doomscrolling or watching the news or binge-watching something on Netflix.

So 2020 is to blame for much of the upheaval. But outside of that, it made me think about the evolution of a reader. I think sometimes we expect our reading life to be a static thing. We read this, this, and that genre/subgenre. We read about X number of books a year. We read in X format mostly. We love this, this, and that author.

For many, there’s comfort in that predictable rhythm—and there’s nothing wrong with that. But for others, I think we can get stuck in an older version of our reading life, trying to recreate what we had even though our tastes, habits, or lifestyles have evolved. We take it on as an identity. I’m a mystery reader. I don’t listen to audiobooks. I read three books a week.

This is one reason why I started the Read Wide Challenge, to try new things. Because what if those old labels don’t apply anymore? Or what if we would enjoy things we haven’t in the past? Or if we no longer enjoy the things we used to be obsessed with? Like you keep picking up what you always loved but just aren’t excited about it anymore?

This is why I took a step back when I got frustrated with being behind on my reading goal. It’s not a sign of being a slacker. It’s a sign that my reading life has evolved. Yes, I’ve had less reading time and have had less energy because 2020 is a dumpster fire, but also, what I’ve chosen to read has been different. I’ve tackled a few classics (Rebecca, Anna Karenina). I’ve read some literary fiction. I’ve read more horror (because I find it comforting when the world is scary.) Almost half of my reading has been non-fiction. Those genres take me longer to read than YA or romance, so it makes sense that I would’ve read less quantity this year. And that is OKAY.

Anne Bogel has an essay in her book I’d Rather Be Reading called “The Readers I Have Been” about how we are all the readers we have been throughout our lives. That middle schooler reading R.L. Stine and Babysitter’s Club. That college student reading all those difficult books our professors assigned. The parent reading all those children’s books to our kids. We carry all those versions with us, but we also create new versions, new phases, new seasons in our reading lives.

I’ve mentioned before that I wasn’t a romance reader until my mid to late twenties. Before that, I read mostly horror and suspense—and only a few books a year. I completely burnt out on reading in college and took a while to come back to it. I went through a paranormal YA phase with everyone else post-Twilight. I discovered erotic romance somewhere in my late 20s and started writing it. I’ve always loved self-help books and different flavors of non-fiction. I avoided classics and literary fiction at all costs until the last few years. Things are constantly changing.

In 2012, my reading was 88% romance. This year it’s 24% so far. (Yes, I did the math, lol.) That doesn’t mean I don’t still love romance the most. It just means that my reading life has evolved. (After writing romance and studying it for over a decade, I’ve become super picky about my romance. I want it really, really well-written or I end up putting it down because I can’t turn off my writer brain to enjoy it.)

So what’s my point? Just that evolution isn’t a bad thing. The number on your reading challenge is just a number. Be open to being a different kind of reader this year than you were last year. Maybe you’ve read more this year. Maybe you’ve read less. Maybe you’ve stuck to your comfort genres or maybe you’ve needed a break from what you would’ve normally read. It’s all part of the journey. As much as I love a reading challenge, there’s no wrong way to be a reader. Don’t let that Goodreads number judge you. ;)

Read on, my friend.

If you want to get your 2021 reading year off and running, my next book Yes & I Love You is up for pre-order!