Goodreads Reading Challenge: Completed



I just completed my Goodreads reading challenge for 2015! Meaning I've read 25 books this year. I feel like this might be an odd number to a lot of people - some people have probably read twice as much, some people have probably read half as much. But 25 was a good number for me.

I initially set my target in January for 52 books, which meant I'd be reading one a week for the rest of the year. However, a few weeks in and I realised I'd set my target way too high. I was in a huge reading slump for most of this year - some months I barely read a few chapters, let alone a whole book. But then there were some months more recently where I'd be reading an entire book within a day, and would start another pretty soon afterwards. There are several reasons for my reading behaviour this year:

 

1. I now read for fun, instead of using it to escape my problems. Last year (and between the ages of 13 to.. well.. 19) I was incredibly depressed and reading was the only way that I managed to get through the day. Now, however, I'm reaching for a book purely because I enjoy reading.  Although of course there are times that I look to my books for comfort and they still 100% provide that. Over the past year I have become much better equipped to endure my dark days, and have found that I now face my problems and attempt to conquer them instead of hiding away in another world.

 

2. My reading tastes have completely changed. Contemporary books never appealed to me before this time last year - now they're essentially all I read. I go through extreme phases with reading: first there was the Twilight induced vampire phase, then the Harry Potter induced fantasy phase, then the Hunger Games induced dystopian phase... I can't quite pinpoint what book drew me into contemporary reads in the first place (although I suspect Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell) but I certainly haven't looked back. Because of this, though, I've had a very limited selection of books to read that I already owned and I've spent a lot of money this year stocking my bookcase with my new favourite kinds of reads!

 

3. *Guilty face* Netflix. I've always been more of a TV show kinda gal as opposed to someone who adores films, but this didn't really hit it's peak until I got Netflix. When I'm too tired/stressed/busy to read I like to watch a TV show, whether that's PLL, Sons of Anarchy, American Horror Story or Pokémon.

 

So yay! I reached my target! I'm not sure if I'm going to bump it up because I'm pretty happy with what I've achieved so far, and we only have a few more months to go until 2016. If I don't read any more between now and next year then it wont be such a big deal (although that will be pretty miserable) I'd just like to add - it actually says on Goodreads that I've read 24/25 books this year, but that's because I read one book twice and Goodreads wont let me log that!

 

Did you set a reading challenge this year? How are you getting on?

 

Instagram | Twitter | Bloglovin | Pinterest | Goodreads