What: 2012 Mount TBR Reading Challenge and 2012 Off the Shelf Challenge
When: 1 January – 31 December 2012
Climb Mt. Ararat: Read 40 books (COMPLETED)// Level: Making A Dint — 30 books (COMPLETED)
The list of books for these challenges can be found here.
Well, it’s not the end of the year yet, but I wanted to do this wrap-up post now, since the holiday months are usually hectic for me, blog wise, with end-of-year posts and new challenges to sign up for (and I hope there will be read-a-thons!). I will continue to keep track of how many older books I read for the rest of the year, and maybe do a follow-up to this post.
I was really hoping to do a little better, statistic-wise. The most books I read were acquired in 2011 (regardless of year published). I’ve been tracking books since April 2006 — the dates used on my list are the dates the books were entered into my database. Most of the books entered in 2006 were on my bookshelves long before then.
Breakdown and Percentages for Off the Shelf (30 books):
- 2006: 4 books (13.3%)
- 2007: 1 book (3.3%)
- 2008: 5 books (16.7%)
- 2009: 2 books (6.7%)
- 2010: 5 books (16.7%)
- 2011: 13 books (43.3%)
Over half the books had been in my TBR pile less than 3 years. Had I read more In Death and some Star Wars books, the numbers would have better.
Breakdown and Percentages for Mt. TBR (40 books):
- 2006: 6 books (15%)
- 2007: 1 book (2.5%)
- 2008: 5 books (12.5%)
- 2009: 5 books (12.5%)
- 2010: 7 books (17.5%)
- 2011: 16 books (40%)
The ten-book difference didn’t improve the percentages much. Half of the ten additional books were added in 2010 and 2011.
On the plus side, for the month of September so far, the three books I’ve read were all acquired in 2009 or earlier — even the edition of Emma was acquired in 2006 or earlier, though it doesn’t count because it’s a re-read. If I do this type of challenge again next year, I may have to establish certain parameters: can’t count books acquired later than 2009 until half the books read are from 2006-2008; or no book acquired after December 2009 will count toward the goal, period.
