Hurray for reading challenges!
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1Cecrow
Canadian news article, focussed on Goodreads but suggests a trend that we may be seeing here on LT groups as well:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/reading-challenges-books-1.7077257
Quote: "As another new year begins, the options for joining challenges that promote reading seem endless, and they have become a popular way to encourage people to consume more books. Nearly eight million people around the world participated in the 2023 Goodreads challenge, for instance, and they had an average pledge of 43 books per person.
"So far, just a week into January, over 4.4 million have signed up for the 2024 challenge. Suzanne Skyvara, vice-president of marketing and editorial at Amazon-owned Goodreads, a website and app for readers and book recommendations, says that's the most they've ever had sign up in the first week of the year."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/reading-challenges-books-1.7077257
Quote: "As another new year begins, the options for joining challenges that promote reading seem endless, and they have become a popular way to encourage people to consume more books. Nearly eight million people around the world participated in the 2023 Goodreads challenge, for instance, and they had an average pledge of 43 books per person.
"So far, just a week into January, over 4.4 million have signed up for the 2024 challenge. Suzanne Skyvara, vice-president of marketing and editorial at Amazon-owned Goodreads, a website and app for readers and book recommendations, says that's the most they've ever had sign up in the first week of the year."
2Cecrow
And now I'll use this opportunity to plug a group I administer, the TBR Challenge. If this is something you want to ease into, it's probably the smallest target of all LT challenge groups: somewhere between 12 and 24 for the year, and your picks are entirely up to you: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/3801/TBR-Challenge
3lilithcat
they have become a popular way to encourage people to consume more books.
This isn't a hot dog eating contest.
Frankly, I'm with John Warner on this: https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-ent-biblioracle-read-fewer...
This isn't a hot dog eating contest.
Frankly, I'm with John Warner on this: https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-ent-biblioracle-read-fewer...
4Bookmarque
So they're not for you, did you have to pop in just to say that? Seems spoilsporty to me. If people enjoy them, so what? Nothing to you.
6norabelle414
>4 Bookmarque: Agreed
7AnnieMod
>2 Cecrow: And I will use the opportunity to plug-in another group (and challenge) here: Alphabet Challenges: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/7369/Alphabet-Challenges - build your own alphabets any way you want (titles, authors, mix and match or anything you want). It does not even need to happen within a year. It can be another fun way to get to the books you never get around to :)
>1 Cecrow: I have a GR challenge, had had one since I registered there a few years back - not because I consider reading a competition but because I like numbers and I find it fun to track against something. I also set the number high enough to make it a challenge (so I often fail at it) - it is all about the journey, not the destination for me. Goodreads wording annoys me a bit (challenge and pledge are somewhat opposite in my view) but I just use it for what it is useful to me for and ignore the rest.
Plus... there are people who do not read or read a book a year - sometimes by choice, sometimes just because they cannot make time in their lives for it. Anything that will make them read a book (or read one more book) this year is worth it - even if it is a game, even if it looks by the numbers - I am all for it...
>1 Cecrow: I have a GR challenge, had had one since I registered there a few years back - not because I consider reading a competition but because I like numbers and I find it fun to track against something. I also set the number high enough to make it a challenge (so I often fail at it) - it is all about the journey, not the destination for me. Goodreads wording annoys me a bit (challenge and pledge are somewhat opposite in my view) but I just use it for what it is useful to me for and ignore the rest.
Plus... there are people who do not read or read a book a year - sometimes by choice, sometimes just because they cannot make time in their lives for it. Anything that will make them read a book (or read one more book) this year is worth it - even if it is a game, even if it looks by the numbers - I am all for it...
8antqueen
I like reading challenges. I also like to know how many books I've read, though the challenges I like are the prompt/category-based ones rather than the numeric ones. None of this keeps me from enjoying reading... I just get to enjoy several things at once.
9Cecrow
There's many reasons why people join a reading challenge. Doing it because it's trendy is probably the worst of them, I have to admit, and there seems to be an element of that going on in this article.
Some better reasons I've heard: applying a practical approach to reducing that ever-growing pile of unread books in the house; finding motivation to tackle those "I'll read it someday" titles; or (in my case) doing the math and realizing I'm only going to read a fraction of all the books in the world before time is up, so how should I prioritize and what will motivate me to keep it up? There's other valid reasons, I'm sure, that have nothing to do with making a contest out of it.
It might easily happen that watching the numbers would get in the way of enjoying what you're reading, or you might start measuring your progress against that of other readers, or you could wind up feeling like a failure if you fell short of your goal (and I often have fallen short, lol). If you feel like any of those are likely to happen, then a challenge will only get in the way of your reading pleasure. But many of us are able to reap the benefits without experiencing those downsides, generally by picking a right-sized challenge and not taking it too seriously.
Even in that worst case of doing-what's-trending, maybe someone will discover/rediscover a moment's pleasure in the activity that outlives their frustration with doing a challenge. It's always nice to see more people with books in their hands instead of cellphones (although ... they MIGHT be reading a book on their cellphone ... hmmm ....)
Some better reasons I've heard: applying a practical approach to reducing that ever-growing pile of unread books in the house; finding motivation to tackle those "I'll read it someday" titles; or (in my case) doing the math and realizing I'm only going to read a fraction of all the books in the world before time is up, so how should I prioritize and what will motivate me to keep it up? There's other valid reasons, I'm sure, that have nothing to do with making a contest out of it.
It might easily happen that watching the numbers would get in the way of enjoying what you're reading, or you might start measuring your progress against that of other readers, or you could wind up feeling like a failure if you fell short of your goal (and I often have fallen short, lol). If you feel like any of those are likely to happen, then a challenge will only get in the way of your reading pleasure. But many of us are able to reap the benefits without experiencing those downsides, generally by picking a right-sized challenge and not taking it too seriously.
Even in that worst case of doing-what's-trending, maybe someone will discover/rediscover a moment's pleasure in the activity that outlives their frustration with doing a challenge. It's always nice to see more people with books in their hands instead of cellphones (although ... they MIGHT be reading a book on their cellphone ... hmmm ....)
