How many books do you read in a year? How do you keep track?
I honestly never used to track how many books I read (or re-read) until I discovered Goodreads and the annual Goodreads Reading Challenge. I always knew I read a lot—more than most people I knew. Even in high school, I could read a book in a day. Or two, if it was Saturday. I just managed to keep my addiction fed between the school library and the town library.
Then I went to university, and my recreational reading dropped off. I lived in the university halls of residence, which meant a lot less alone time for reading, and a lot less access to books. And a lot more homework—which included reading loooonnnnggg textbooks.
I started reading fiction again after I finished university and learned Christian fiction existed.
I’d grown out of young adult fiction, and realised I didn’t necessarily like grown-up fiction because of the prevalence of bad language, sex, and violence. But I did make my way through most of the classics of British literature (which are much more interesting if you’re not having to write essays on symbolism and the metaphorical conceit). I also read many books from authors like Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, Mary Stewart, and Victoria Holt—older writers who didn’t see need for the content I didn’t care to read.
Later, I discovered Christian fiction.
Then Amazon. Then ebooks (Kobo first, then Kindle). And Goodreads, and the annual Reading Challenge. I discovered Goodreads in 2010, and have participated in the Reading Challenge each year from 2011. My annual “target” has varied between 150 and 200 books a year, and I’ve “won” every year.
That pales into insignificance next to some of the readers I’ve met online, who read a book a day or more (some read over 500 a year. And they review many of them as well). Many have notebooks of books read that go back decades. I am not and have never been that organised.
But I can manage to keep my Goodreads Reading Challenge up to date. More or less—there is usually a last-minute 31 December rush to include the books I’ve read over my summer break (I live in New Zealnd, remember. That means my summer break starts on Christmas Day!).
I will admit that my 2017 figures include some books I didn’t actually finish. I figure that if I start and read at least 10%, and that’s not enough to grab me, then I’m better marking it as read rather than having the book hang around on some virtual “am reading” pile for half of forever.
Carla Laureano is the RITA® Award-winning author of contemporary inspirational romance and Celtic fantasy (as C.E. Laureano). A graduate of Pepperdine University, she worked as a sales and marketing executive for nearly a decade before leaving corporate life behind to write fiction full-time. She currently lives in Denver with her husband and two sons, where she writes during the day and cooks things at night.
Denver chef Rachel Bishop has accomplished everything she’s dreamed and some things she never dared hope, like winning a James Beard Award and heading up her own fine-dining restaurant. But when a targeted smear campaign causes her to be pushed out of the business by her partners, she vows to do whatever it takes to get her life back . . . even if that means joining forces with the man who inadvertently set the disaster in motion.
Some fears haunt you forever….
Emma Carrie writes clean YA books with strong female characters. Her debut YA action adventure series, The Tacket Secret, features a teen spy assassin and a homicide detective who are thrown into an awkward adoption that puts both in danger. Each chapter alternates between teen and adult POVs. This 7-book series is packed with suspense and a touch of science fiction fantasy.
Broken-down walls and crumbling stones seemed to possess a secret language all their own.
Kristy Cambron has a background in art and design, but she fancies life as a vintage-inspired storyteller. Her debut novel, The Butterfly and the Violin, was named to Library Journal’s Best Books of 2014 and nominated for RT Book Reviews’ Choice Awards Best Inspirational Novel of 2014 and for the 2015 INSPY Awards for Best Debut Novel. Her second novel, A Sparrow in Terezin, was named Library Journal’s Pick of the Month (Christian Fiction) for February 2015 and a Top Pick for RT Book Reviews. Kristy holds a degree in Art History from Indiana University. She lives in Indiana with her husband and three young sons.
Terri Blackstock is a New York Times best-seller, with over six million copies sold worldwide. She has had over twenty-five years of success as a novelist. Terri spent the first twelve years of her life traveling in an Air Force family. She lived in nine states and attended the first four years of school in The Netherlands. Because she was a perpetual “new kid,” her imagination became her closest friend. That, she believes, was the biggest factor in her becoming a novelist. She sold her first novel at the age of twenty-five, and has had a successful career ever since.
Casey Cox’s DNA is all over the crime scene. There’s no use talking to police; they’ve failed her abysmally before. She has to flee before she’s arrested . . . or worse. The truth doesn’t matter anymore.
