Reading Challenges Updates

lapetitepritt

Sep 1

Hello, bookworms!

Happy September 1st, also known as the start of Spooky Season as far as I am concerned. Today I am here with a different article than usual. It's probably something no one cares about, but I love reading updates and check-ins, so I figured — since we are officially two thirds into the year — I would do a little recap of how thing are going for me. I don't know if you remember, but at the start of 2022 I had posted something about my reading goals and the reading challenges I was going to take part in, so let's see how I am doing!

Goodreads Challenge
I had set my goal to 50 to begin with, stating that I would have loved to get to at least 150, but I wasn't sure I was going to manage it. I hadn't taken into consideration the fact that I am reading a lot more mangas (and graphic novels for work) this year, so my goal has been changed a lot since. I am sitting at a 300 goal right now and I have read a total of 250 things as of today. I know some people don't count mangas, graphic novels and comics in their reading challenges, but to me all reading is reading and I love to keep track of everything. It's not a race against other people, it's just something I do to challenge myself, so I like it this way and I think I am doing good so far.

Popsugar Challenge
Out of the 50 prompts of the challenge, I have completed 49. The last book I finished for this challenge was The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad, which fulfilled the prompt to "Read a book by a Pacific Islander author". I am now missing only "A book with a palindromic title", for which I am going to buddy read Madam by Phoebe Wynne with a friend later this month. Some of the prompts were harder than the others, and I read a lot of things I didn't like. However, I also find some new unexpected favourites and hidden gems, as usual, so I am surely going to take part in this next year as well. I want to take it easier in 2023 with all the challenges and whatnot, but Popsugar for sure is staying.

The 52 Book Club Challenge
This was a new challenge for me, it was the first time I did this. Out of the 52 prompts, I have completed 51 and I am going to read the last book this month as well. I am only missing "With the word game in the title", for which I am going to pick Game On, an anthology edited by Laura Silverman. There was a prompt that said "Read in the month of November", for which I cheated a bit and used Chef's Kiss, a graphic novel I've read last year in November. I'd say it still counts, because it did not say November 2022. Moreover, the hosts said they couldn't wait to see how we would cheat and I did not want to drag this until November. I want to finish most of my challenges this month, so that I can be a little more free in the last quarter of the year, leading up to 2023.

Alphabetical Challenge
This one I completed early on in the year. It was fairly easy, as I have been reading a lot of different things. Usually, the most challenging letter for me is the Z, but this year I knew from the beginning I was going to read Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao, which was one of my most anticipated release of the year, so it was easier.

22 Books for 2022
I am proud to say that I am only missing 5 books out of this one: Docile by K.M. Szpara, Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie, Rag and Bone by K.J. Charles and Alex in Wonderland and Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green. We are going to ignore the fact that in the meantime I bought too many other books and the situation on my shelves is looking quite dire and we are going to focus on the fact that I am almost there and I have read some books I'd owned for literal years. Out of the 5 remaining ones, the one I am most excited about is of course Rag and Bone, while the one I really don't care fore is Docile, which is why I am going to read the latter as soon as possible, to get rid of it quickly, lmao.

Read at least 12 new releases and 12 classics
The 12 new releases are all there and accounted for (I've actually read 44 of them, so far). Some of them where hits, some of them were misses, but I did read them and that's what counts. Considering that some of them have become all times fav, they are definitely worth the bad ones in between. As far as the classics are concerned, I've read 10 of them — which I am proud of — and they were from different parts of the world: England, France, Italy, USA and Russia. I will try and read some non-Western ones, but I am not a huge classics person, so we will see if I manage to read more than 12 (I have the next two picked out already, since I own them and I want to reduce the number of unread books on my shelves).

Buzzwordathon
I have read all the books for each buzzword from January to August in the right month, so it's going great. It's not the hardest challenge ever, but some of the prompts were a bit more difficult than the others. Since this readathon is hosted by @booksandlala, I want to mention that I've also read all the books she picked for her Literally Dead Book Club so far this year and I am starting The IT Girl by Ruth Ware soon (it's the pick for September). In my first article I said I wanted to read only mystery, horror and thriller for this readathon, as they are the genres I follow Kayla for, and I mostly did, excluding June in which I read a queer contemporary manga, since it was Pride month and I wanted to use a queer book.

Get better at keeping up with ARCs and finish all the backlist ones I still have
LOL. Literally, LOL. I did read most of the backlist I had downloaded on Netgally and Edelweiss+ and there was a month in which I was actually on top of my game. However 1. I received some physical ARCs while I was living in another city 2. Penguin keeps making this blasts where you can download anything you want from theri selection and they have so many interesting titles. At the moment, I am submerged by ARCs, both physical and digital, so I don't know if I'll be able to read them all by the end of the year. I want to finish the other big challenges, so I can focus on ARCs, but we will see.

These were my official 2022 goals, as of January. However, since I am a planner anxious person, I have since then added some more… Brace yourselves.

Read my 2021 most anticipated releases
Back in 2021 I made a list of 21 books I was highly anticipating. I did not read them all, and after having eliminated the ones I wasn't interested in anymore, I made a small list of things I wanted to read this year. I am trying to finish them by the end of 2022 and since I am now only missing 4 (As Far as You'll Take Me by Phil Stamper, In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens, Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas and That Way Madness Lies edited by Dahlia Adler) maybe I can actually do it. Who knows, who knows.

Read my 2022 most anticipated releases
Since I do not want to have to do what I am doing with 2021 releases next year as well, I want to try and read all the 22 (21, since one has been pushed back) books on my list. So far I have read 10 of them, and I am trying to catch up in the next few months. Some of the books on this list were huge misses, but I did review them all the ones I've read so far, and will be continuing to do so as the year goes on, so keep an eye out for those.

Francinabook Instagram Challenge
What's one more challenge to throw into the mix, am I right? A mutual of mine (@francinabook) created a book bingo on Instagram and of course I had to participate. I cannot resist a reading challenge and this one sounded really fun. Luckily for my mental health, I am done with it, having read the last book for it in August. I really should stop taking part in all of these challenges, but they are so tempting, I don't know if I'll be able to resist in 2023.

Lastly, it's not really a challenge, but I'm also done with the Magical Readathon for the year, unless G comes up with something new! Since I already wrote an entire article about it, I'll leave it alone and call it a day. Thanks for reading, I'll see you soon with a review!

Comment