52 books in 25 weeks…
It would appear that I’ve inadvertently finished my 52 in 52 challenge a whole 27 weeks early.
In January I set out to accomplish the goal of reading 52 books in one year. When I started to tell people about my challenge I was mostly greeted with skeptical good lucks and disbelieving looks. Surely no one could read 52 whole books in just a year!
Well as my fellow Ravelers in our 52 in 52 group have shown, that is quite possible. In fact some of them have doubled the total already. I just finished 6 months early, they’ve done the challenge twice in half the time. Sure, some of these people don’t work 40 hours a week or have a 6 class load in college, but I work a full 40+ hours and I managed to read 52 books already this year.
So what’s stopping anyone from doing this? Self perceived limitations.
Oh, I’m a slow reader. Read shorter books.
I only like to read non-fiction. Try historical fiction, its rooted in fact.
I can’t stand long books. Check out YA books, they are seriously quick reads.
I fall asleep when I read. Sit at a table and read with lights on, reading in bed is a really bad habit.
I’m just not that interested in books. Well there’s a battalion of book lovers who will happily sway you to our side. We have cupcakes.
Even though the year is half over you can still join. Just end the day you start one year later. If you start today, on June 29th 2010 you should have read 52 books. See? Anyone can do it.
The Ravelry group I’ve set up is pretty sweet but not everyone is on Ravelry, right? Hopefully by next January I’ll have something set up for anyone to join. Don’t worry, I fully intend to promo the shit out of it, so you won’t miss it. 
Are you participating already? Leave a comment and tell us how far along you are in the challenge.
Lisa replied:
I’ve been attempting 50 books the last few years, and usually get fairly close to finishing, but this year I’ll be lucky if I finish half. At the moment I’ve finished 14, total. It just hasn’t been in the cards. I was kind of frustrated earlier on when I realized that I couldn’t be serious about this goal this year, because last year was my closest yet—I got to 48 books, at least—but c’est la vie. I guess I could have rearranged my TBR pile in order of shortness… haha But I didn’t want that stopping me from reading the things I really wanted to read, either.
June 29, 2009 at 2:51 pm. Permalink.
Drew replied:
DO NOT start with ‘Wizard’s First Rule’. It’s a great story, but a darn long book.
June 29, 2009 at 8:50 pm. Permalink.
Nicholas Tam replied:
Congratulations. Good post, too.
I did this from June 2008 to May 2009 and got through a little over 40, although I took a few weeks off (I know, I know… tortoise, meet hare) and didn’t bother to log or write about my old re-reads. It was still an extremely worthwhile experience, and I plan to resume it sooner or later. The weird thing about reading is the subtle creep of withdrawal – you often don’t notice how much you miss doing it until you sit down and do it.
Just two things: 1) I don’t think the challenge need be limited to fiction, although I agree that people who “don’t like fiction” usually just haven’t discovered the kind they like. 2) I did find that doing this and trying to keep myself on pace had the unfortunate side effect of deterring me from reading the longer books on my shelf (meaning the ones above the 500-600 page mark). I think one could be excused for falling short of 52, even in a challenge like this, if the benefit is immersion in something very rich.
Keep it up!
June 29, 2009 at 10:12 pm. Permalink.
Julie replied:
I wouldn’t limit 52 in 52 to fiction either! I’ve just heard some people say they can’t find enough non-fiction books and that’s the only type of thing they like to read. I’m also trying to sucker my historical non-fiction friend into reading Outlander
I’ve been deterred from reading some of my longer tomes as well, hopefully now that I’ve hit 52 I’ll relax a little and catch up on the other books I have leering at me on the shelf.
June 30, 2009 at 12:34 am. Permalink.