"And to this purpose"

"If people like to read their books, it is all very well, but to be at so much trouble in filling great volumes, which, as I used to think, nobody would willingly ever look into, to be labouring only for the torment of little boys and girls, always struck me as a hard fate; and though I know it is all very right and necessary, I have often wondered at the person's courage that could sit down on purpose to do it." (In other words: rambling analyses, opinions, ideas, views, and comments from an English major, Essay/paper-writing enthusiastic, Austen-loving Master Librarian on, well, Jane Austen...and a whole lot of other things, too.)

"Celebrated Passages are Quoted"

Heidi's favorite quotes


"What is it really like to be engaged?" asked Anne curiously. "Well, that all depends on who you're engaged to," answered Diana, with that maddening air of superior wisdom always assumed by those who are engaged over those who are not."— L.M. Montgomery

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

The 2015 Book Challenges Wrap-Up

Amazingly, among all the busyness of last year, I got some reading done. Granted, it came in spurts and hardly anything would have been read if it hadn't been for children's books and audiobooks on the 10,000+ miles I drove. Still, I read. And I was WAY under goals. But if it hadn't been for my splurge of December reading, I would have only been at 50% of my main reading goal. As a reminder, here was our points system for the S-n-H Challenge:

1. Each book must be at least 100 pages to count. (Under 100 equals .5 points.)
2. The first book in a category is worth 10 points. The rest are worth 5.
3. Any book you own is worth 25 points.
4. Any books on your goodreads "to-read" list previous to 2015 is worth 25 points.

This past year we piggy-backed on another's challenge, and worked on 51 categories. 51!!! Again, I am amazed that I finished all but 2. There wasn't really a strategy. Periodically I'd look at what I read and fit them in a category somewhere. It wasn't until December that I actually started to pick books to fill a category. And there may have been a couple of categories that I tweaked a bit to fit more of something that would actually interest me.

So, here are the spreadsheets of the 51 categories, as well as my 2 "other" books, my Pic bks, and my Total Points. There is also my random A to Z Scrabble Challenge--because I just can't stop myself. This year I was interested to see how many letters I could cover, not so much the points. Scoring goes as follows:

 1 point: A, E, I, L, N, O, R, S, T, U
 2 points: D, G
 3 points: B, C, M, P
 4 points: F, H, V, W, Y
 5 points: K
 8 points: J, X
 10 points: Q, Z

 Can only count an author once. (Which is always to my disservice in my liking series.) For my name's letters (H and T), I get to add 1 point on for each time that letter was read.
 

And the comparisons!

2013 Total Books: 287
2014 Total Books: 299.5
2015 Total Books: 182

2013 Total Pages: 29,584
2014 Total Pages: 24,656
2015 Total Pages: 15,766

2013 Points: 1152.6
2014 Points: 1429.9
2015 Points: 1043.2 (not bad, considering!!!)

For A to Z:
2012 Titles: 246
2013 Titles: 223
2014 Titles: 79
2015 Titles: 51

2012 Title Letters not read: Q, X, Y, Z
2013 Title Letters not read: G, J, K, N, Q, X, Y, Z
2014 Title Letters not read: K,Q, U, V, X, Z
2015 Title Letters not read: J, K, N, U, V, X, Y, Z

2012 Highest Scoring Title letter: H (30 points)
2013 Highest Scoring Title letter: H (35 points)
2014 Highest Scoring Title letter: B (27 points)
2015 Highest Scoring Title letter: W (24 points)

2012 Authors: 210
2013 Authors: 254 (whoa! Go me!!)
2014 Authors: 64
2015 Authors: 39

2012 Author Letters not read: N, Q, U, X, Z
2013 Author Letters not read: E, I, Q, U, X, Y
2014 Author Letters not read: I, N, Q, R, U, X, Y, Z
2015 Author Letters not read: G, I, K, L, O, Q, R, X, Y

2012 Highest Scoring Author letter: W (28 points)
2013 Highest Scoring Author letter: Tie! B & H (30 points)
2014 Highest Scoring Author letter: H (35 points)
2015 Highest Scoring Author letter: J (16 points)

2012 Grand Total: 456
2013 Grand Total: 477 (wow. higher even with reading less.)
2014 Grand Total: 346
2015 Grand Total: 233

Oh. My. Wow. Seeing the final numbers--I really didn't read much at all!!!!

For 2016: I'm not going to set a goal with the intention to read less like I've done the last ~5 years. I'm setting a goal, and I'm going to aim for that goal. Aim high, but not too out of reach. Hey, a single girl has to do what she needs to do to get married! And work well at her job and Church calling...

1 comment:

Sara Lyn said...

Considering your busy year, wow!!!