Why I'm Going to Pass on the Goodreads Challenge This Year

Last year I dove in to the Goodreads challenge feet first. Not only did I dive in to the Goodreads Challenge, but one of the groups that I belong to, dedicated to the many forms of Romance novels offered an annual challenge in tandem to the Goodreads challenge. I figured 'why not?' it made sense if I had pledged to read 250 books that I should also join the Romance challenge to help me reach my goal.

There were many issues with my lofty goal. First, by committing to read two-hundred fifty Romance novels that left me little room to read anything else. So while many people were obsessing over Girl on the Train or Paper Towns, or the latest Gillian Flynn novel, I was locked in my room on my kindle reading another freebie i had downloaded to fulfill whatever requirement the month had brought me in my Romance challenge. I'm actually kind of ashamed of this past years reading list. As a fellow author commented "there's a whole lot of skin on that list"...yes, yes there is. And the sad part is that most of it I didn't even enjoy. I wasted so many hours of my time forcing myself through horrible, terribly written, well crap, just so that I could amass the points to help my team. I ended up burning myself out and not even enjoying probably seventy percent of what I read this year. And, I write romance. So, if I'm burned out on Romance books- what is that going to do for my own writing?

So this year, even though I have said I plan to read two hundred books again-- Im not going to force myself to read just to get my numbers up. I'm also not going to push through books I couldn't stand or can't get in to. I have a list right now of the various books I've asked family members to buy me for my Birthday and Christmas. I believe there are twenty of them on my "2016" list. I intend to read those. If I have time left over in the year after that, we'll see what else I end up reading.