I used to do reading challenges based on books read, but I found a better alternative: pages. If you focus on pages read, you don't have sunken cost while reading a book and you can stop reading if the book stops being interesting. Pages read is less satisfying, but I've found it gives me a better reading experience.
That's a great point. I did get into the Murderbot Diary novellas this year and it's unfair (by page count) that they count as full books in the challenge.
I will say, when I'm using my e-reader, I use a percentage as guidance for progress versus page count, so I almost no longer ever know how long my books are.
Those are awesome book, but short. From the time I started the first page of the first to the time after I finished them all and pre-ordered the next was maybe 9 days.
I've been aiming for 12 books a year for the last 5 years or so. Sometimes I'll go months without picking up a book, and the challenge is helpful for getting me back into it.
>I do enjoy giving short reviews for books that call for them
When I was in school, we called these book reports, and I'm pretty sure a number closer to 0 actually enjoyed them the least of which was me.
Will say I like the yearly reading challenge, if only for myself. Says the average challenge is 61/year, which, even for myself as a fast reader, seems high. Believe I'm ~30 books. I initially put my goal at 22 books.