So, you may have noticed that I have a slight obsession with books. Okay, obsession might be a light term here, but let's run with it. This blog has been overrun with book reviews *SorryNotSorry*. I have finished the first reading challenge (2015 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge); I actually finished it back on September 24, 2015. I conquered 63 books (#Overachiever), and 20,506 pages. I have to say I love and loathe what it has done to me. On the positive side, the challenges have challenged me; forced me to read things I normally would, or things that I avoid (ie: romance novels). I have discovered some really great books and authors that I probably would not have found otherwise, and I'm never unsure of what to read next, because there is always a list of books in waiting. On the negative side, it has pushed me to read every chance I get. Which to be honest, I would do anyway, but in the past I would never push through slumps. I would just ride it out, and pick a book back up when I felt the slump had passed. This means I watch less TV and movies (good), but I struggle to socialize (bad). I've always been an introvert at heart, but my new obsessive reading hobby is making more of a homebody. What concerns me about that is how much I enjoy that, and how I worry that I will loose friendships/relationships because of it. Maybe it's just me getting older and the party scene isn't my thing anymore. Maybe it's moving to Alaska where I feel more of a homebody because of the long winters, I don't know. I just know that I socialize less, and I don't feel bad about it, but I don't want to become a shut-in either. I jokingly told a friend in a text message #BooksBeforeBoys, in a response to my recent lack-luster dating life. While I realize that there are other reasons I've put dating on the back burner, I also acknowledged that I blew a guy off because he was interrupting my reading time. #Oops I still maintain that if GoodReads started a dating site from their main site, they would make bank. Another point that makes me cringe about the reading challenge is how I have made 8 additional reading challenges (with no official end date), plus I'm working on the GR group 2016 Reading Challenge. I'm not sure I will ever get through them all, but it's something to work towards, and at least it's not meth. Not including my side reads, the 2016 Challenge, the Choices Challenge, or the books I've already read/am reading, I have a book waiting list of 863 and counting. Now that the official 2015 challenge is complete for me, I can focus more on the Mega Challenge, my side reads, and random books from other lists. Ideally I would still like to meet my goal of 300 books before the end of July 2016, but I'm not sure I'll quiet make it. July, August, and most of September were light months for me and I fell behind. As of today's date (October 26) I am only at 145 books. To put me at my target I will need to read 55 books in the next two months. It's not impossible to do, but not the easiest either. If I stretch out to reading 150 books in the next 9 months (November - July) I will need to average 16 books a month. That is more realistic for my speed and patterns. I feel like I have started a game that I can never finish, because my TBR pile (challenge or no challenge) will always be growing. When I heard the latest "panic" of the world is ending soon my first thought was I still had so many books I have not read yet. It was a joke, but there was some truth behind that. I feel like this post has gotten pretty negative, and I hope you're not taking this that way, because I know this has been more of a positive influence in my life than a negative one. I've meet some pretty great people all over the world because of these challenges, have had great discussions about our reads and finds, and found new books because of them. A few of them have even become great friends.
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Hope you don't mind me stalking older posts. I was actually interested by your rating system since it related to something I was talking about just this afternoon -- sometimes I find it hard to give a book an overall rating on GoodReads (and the lack of half star options really doesn't help!).
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