This was another year when my reading came down to the wire. 2020 will be tougher because I plan to shoot for 75 books rather than 60. I will need to be quite a bit more focused. In 2019, I was able to meet my goals. I set out with two goals: my Goodreads goal of 60 books and the Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge for a book on diversity. I was not only able to complete my reading goal, but I was also able to have all the book reviews written. That is a first.
At the beginning of 2019, I set out to accomplish two reading challenges. The first was to read 60 books. I still need to write reviews on six of the books. The other challenge was to complete the list of books outlined in the Modern Mrs. Darcy 2019 Reading Challenge. Here is how I did:
Goodreads
Most importantly, I read 60 books in 2019. This was the primary goal that I set out to achieve. But here are some other interesting numbers related to the reading challenge.
Number of books read in 2019
I appreciate the work that goes into writing a book and I seldom find a really bad book. This is reflected in my ratings.
Number of pages read in 2019
I read roughly 1,000 fewer pages in 2019 than in 2018. I will fix that in 2020.
Publication dates for books read over time
A few of the books were published well before my birth date.
Number of books read per month
Another year when December is the lead month for reading. I read eleven books in December alone.
Number of pages read over time
This naturally translated into more pages read. According to my year in books, my longest book was A Bridge Too Far with 670 pages. On average, the books were 259 pages in length.
Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge
Over the past few years, I have been participating in Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge.
Here is what we were challenged to read in 2019:
- A book you’ve been meaning to read – Put Emotional Intelligence to Work: Equip Yourself for Success
- a book about a topic that fascinates you – Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
- a book in the backlist of a favorite author – Master Content Marketing: A Simple Strategy to Cure the Blank Page Blues and Attract a Profitable Audience
- a book recommended by someone with great taste – Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future
- three books by the same author – Blueprint Your Bestseller: Organize and Revise Any Manuscript With the Book Architecture Method, Finish Your Book in Three Drafts: How to Write a Book, Revise a Book, and Complete a Book While You Still Love It, and Book Architecture: How to Plot and Outline Without Using a Formula
- a book you chose for the cover – The Boat Runner
- a book by an author who is new to you – The Compound Effect
- a book in translation – Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era
- a book outside your (genre) comfort zone – The End of Killing: How Our Newest Technologies Can Solve Humanity’s Oldest Problem
- a book published before you were born – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
If you are interested in what I have been reading you can check out my reviews or visit my monthly book lists: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December. I plan to continue to share what I am planning to read on a monthly basis. It helps to keep me on task.
How did you manage with your reading goals?
