Back in February this year I wrote a post about my goals for the 2014 Goodreads Reading Challenge. As part of that post I speculated that, despite 2013 showing a great uptick in how much I was reading, 2014 might not maintain the pace.
Well, the year is almost finished and I think it’s fair to say that I pretty solidly surpassed my goal. The initial reading target was 20 books. This was admittedly a number I thought I shouldn’t have any trouble reading. I just wasn’t sure if I would end up reading at the same pace this year and it seemed like a sensible target. So I made it to 20 some months back, and decided to raise the target to 22. At the time I wasn’t reading as fast as I had been at the start of the year, so a small increase felt reasonable. I hit that target as well before too long.
As I write this there are less than ten days left in 2014. I’ve “finished” 29 books so far this year, and there is a good chance I’ll finish another before the year is done. I put quotes around the word finished because one of those book I’d read part of in 2013. It still counts as far as I’m concerned. Including that book this year is fine because next year I’ll no doubt include one or more that I read part of this year. It all works out in the end. I think I’ve read more words this year than last year but I’m not sure it would be by a whole lot, as a few of this years books were on the small side.
Has the Kindle still got it?
Absolutely. I read a few physical books this year because they were manga that I couldn’t get digitally, but everything else was digital, and on the Kindle. I even spent $17 of my own money to read a book for work that I could have read for free if I’d been willing to read the hard cover book work was offering. I just don’t want to read physical books anymore. I’m currently using a first generation Kindle Paperwhite but I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the new Kindle Voyage when it becomes available in Australia. It will be pricey and unnecessary, but it think it will make for a slightly nicer experience and iron out couple of small issue I have with the Paperwhite.
Reading on the Kindle is still enjoyable and “cool”. I’m not sure I’ll ever entirely lose the feeling I get when I stop and think about having a digital book reader and all that it brings with it. That is probably the result of growing up and doing a lot of reading prior to such a thing existing. I image that most kids growing up with these devices won’t tend to see them in quite the same way. Like smart phones and tablets, it will just be the way things have always been.
Next Years Target?
At this point I feel similarly about next year as I did about this year, so I’m planning to set my target at 20 books again. I don’t look at the challenge as a way to stretched myself, but rather as a way to look back at the year and be happy with how much I read. If I can read another 20 books this year then I won’t be disappointed.
