Anyone done the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge?

Cafe Society
#1

Next year, I’m going to try the read a book a week challenge as a New Year’s Resolution. Anyone done this? I’ve seen some YouTube videos with people discussing this as well as reviewing some of the books they’ve read. I plan to stick to mainly non fiction, primarily history and politics. However, I’m also planning on job hunting and moving next year as well so I guess I can include some career development and self help books as well. I’ll also occasionally dive into fiction, I’ve got a decent amount of historical fiction and sci fi books on my Kindle as well as some mysteries and the Ian Fleming James Bond novels (which I haven’t been impressed with so far.)

Is it fair to include books I’ve started but didn’t finish in 2018? I’ve got about 5 that I’m about halfway through. I also realize there might be weeks that I’ll read more than one book, but also some of the lengthy political and history tomes may take longer than a week. I’m going to try not to reread anything, unless it’s been over ten years.

Anyway, feel free to share your experiences if you did the challenge in 2018 or if you’re also going to try to do it for 2019.

#2

Nah. I don’t feel like slowing down my reading that much.
:smiley:

#3

This.

#4

Years ago I did a 50 book challenge, but it ended up taking me longer than a year.

My favorite book challenge was an alphabetical one - I read 26 books, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet. I tried to include a lot of very large classics that I hadn’t read, so “A” was Anna Karenina, “L” was Les Miserables, “V” was Vanity Fair and “W” was War and Peace.

As of right now, I have 196 book samples on my Kindle (I started this morning with 194), so just getting through all of those will be a challenge.

I vote that you can definitely include books you haven’t finished - sometimes those are the hardest ones to get through, and including them will give you more incentive.

Good luck and happy reading!

#5

Nope. My wife did an interesting spin on that, though. She decided to read 18 books from the 1800s in 2018. She did that by reading most of Dickens, the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. She’s going to do the same thing for 2019.

#6

It’s just me being lazy and getting sucked into YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that’s preventing me from finishing the books I’ve started. Well, Live and Let Die has been quite a slog, the horribly outdated racial overtones in the book make it quite hard to read.

#7

Does it count if you do the Sue Grafton alphabet books and then round it out with some other book for the letter Z? :smiley:

#8

Only counts if you write the perfect “Z is for Zucchini” book.
~~

Is there a series that has 52 books?

Ooh, I know, but it’d be too easy. When my kids were little, I read Animorph books at bedtime. It was their first taste of sci-fi, and “delicious yuckiness”*

The kids outgrew them by book 40 or so, but I was hooked, and went on to finish all 54 books. The other day I spotted one at an antique store, spent a whole dollar and took it over to an artsy cafe where I polished it off in an hour (while also polishing off a brandy cortada… yummmm…).

*The aliens are taking over the minds of earthlings by literally climbing in their ears and spreading over their brains… ewww!

#9

The Hardy Boys canon has 56 books. I have reread a few as an adult, but I think I need something a bit more challenging for 2019.

#10

:smiley: I have read all of the Sue Grafton books, and am devasted that there will never be a “Z”. My original “Z” was the 1911 classic Zuleika Dobson. I didn’t understand it.

#11

Yeah, this is me pretty much–for over 50 years. It helps that I can’t go to sleep without reading at least a little bit.

#12

I read about this much, but I’m not going to do it officially. I am going to read a book each month that follows a book challenge I enjoyed last year (with different books, of course) and read the book the SF book club I’m in has chosen.

#13

I am up to forty-seven this year. I cannot see the point of pushing my reading beyond its natural point. Besides, subscribing to the Failing New York Times slows me down.

#14

I do about twice that, but I like having an annual goal, whether it’s content/genre, number, or pages.

#15

I don’t mind exceeding my goal either, I’m hoping by having a doable goal, I’ll get back into the reading habit. I’m deleting some games off my phone and trying to access social media and YouTube a bit less.

#16

I hear you. After chemo, I had a hard time reading. It was helpful to set a goal to improve my focus and get back to normal.

#17

I’ve never heard about this, but I read all the books by one author every year. This year was Mary Higgins Clark. So I’ve pretty much done it every year for decades.

#18

Hmmm…got to agree with some other posters. I would have to slow down to do this. I read at least four books a week (on average). A really dense book takes me about 8 days, but I mix them up and knock out popular novels at 5/week or so. For example, I read all of the Jack Reacher series in 10 days earlier this year.

It’s 50% reading skills and 50% time allocation. There are few activities I rate more highly than reading, so it gets a lot of attention.

#19

I’m rereading the entire set of Nero Wolfe stories (by Rex Stout), together with the Robert Goldsborough ones.
That makes more than 52 - and I’m reading more than 2 a week.

Of course it helps that I’m retired. :cool:

#20

I like Nero Wolfe as an organizing principle. Thanks!

I’m working on my last book of 2018. Depending on where I am and what I’m doing, it could be The Color of All the Cattle (audiobook), Outside the Box Cancer Therapies (ebook), or Embassytown (hardback). My guess is the latter since I have only about 100 pages to go.