I participate in a book club bit other then that I don't do any challenges with number of books. I prefer quality over quantity.
I joined my first book club this year. It’s been interesting; so far the books haven’t been totally to my taste, but at least I’m trying new things that way. And the discussion has been fun! I think our most fun discussion was for a book that we all ending up not liking, actually!
I've recently started setting myself goals. I used to read non-stop before university. During my undergraduate degree I slowed down to finishing only a few books per year. By the time I started my PhD, where basically my entire 9-5 is reading and analysing dense 40-page mathematical papers, I'd completely stopped reading for pleasure.
Last year I set myself a 1 book per week goal and found that I was actively factoring reading time into my daily schedule, which I really appreciated. I managed to get through a lot of my reading bucket list this way, but at the end of the year I decided I wouldn't set that kind of goal again. I ended up powering through some novels that I would've preferred to DNF purely because it was Thursday and starting a new novel would set me back.
This year I haven't set a hard goal. I've decided I am happy with one book per month, and if I'm reading properly then I blaze past that. I'm very much enjoying the ability to augment my main reading with other reading. I'm currently participating in a book club over at !lovecraft@ka.tet42.org which I find very rewarding and I wouldn't have had the spare reading time to participate in this time last year.
I’ve noticed myself completing books I would usually DNF when I’ve participated in more formal reading challenges before. I didn’t want to go through the hassle of finding another book that fit the prompt so I just stuck with them.
In my experience, external motivation kills internal motivation. I don't want to be supposed to read this or that amount - I accept any pace and any pauses.
As of challenges promoting something you may not have considered, I do like the idea, though I don't believe I've ever participated in those, except for some self-imposed ones and the one with Ulysses, which I'm not sure whether to qualify as a challenge.
Literature
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