New member and Overwhelmed

Hi Everyone :) finding my way around here. Was on Goodreads but felt uncomfortable for some reason. Here, I'm more at home.

I'm an average reader but finishing a book within 1 or 2 weeks every week is not normal for me. Is anyone finding themselves in the same situation?

Yup. I've been stuck on the same book for... (checks start date) 12 months next Monday. Hey, an anniversary!

>1 petra4: It's one of the dangers of sites like this that you can get tempted into thinking of reading as a kind of competitive sport, simply by seeing all the people who seem to be reading more than you are, or reading books you haven't had the courage to tackle yet.

Of course, that's rubbish: what counts is what you get out of the book you're reading at the moment, not how many books you finished in the last twelve months.

If you think of yourself as "an average reader", that must mean that there are roughly as many readers who read less than you do as there are readers who read more (lets not get into mean vs. median right now...). The ones who read more than you do will include most of the noisy ones who post a lot about the books they have just finished; the ones who read less probably don't make as much noise, so you start to get the feeling you're "falling behind". So what? We read for enjoyment, we're not on piece-work here.

Global stats usually seem to quote an average "books per normal person per year" somewhere in the range of 4 to 12, depending on whom they ask and how they count. But of course that number would be higher if you ask people who think of themselves as "readers".

>1 petra4: What >3 thorold: said. I read a fair bit but I've not joined any of the groups that have challenges or targets—that really does start to look like a competitive sport. Incidentally, I'm probably one of thorold's "noisy ones" although I post about other things than books. Some groups encourage you to just chat: just as an example, the Green Dragon group has a habit of what we call "piffle parties" where people are encouraged to post entertaining rubbish.

Most of the challenge groups are about competing with YOURSELF, not with others. They do have things like group reads and bingo cards, but those are meant to encourage you to read things you might not otherwise try, not to make you feel pressured.

Remember, you don't know other people's situation. The person who gets through several books a week may need to lie down for an hour or two several times a day. You can get a lot of reading done that way, but it is hardly a virtue.

>5 MarthaJeanne: I'm with you on that one in your first paragraph. I have some series I have collected, read bits and pieces and now my personal challenge is to read every book in a series ONE OF THESE DAYS. I do belong to a history list and enjoy seeing what other people read and even some times add a book to my wish list. Will I ever read one? Who knows.

Then there is my 12 volume set of the surveys for the Transcontinental Railroad in the US. I'm 200 pages into the first volume. . . it's big! Takes up almost 3 ft. of shelf space.. .

You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe took me over 4 months! Ugh! Decent book, but not as great as I had hoped. Certainly not for all the time I invested. Oh well, at least I can say I read it now..

Oh, there are so many books I feel I should be able to say that I have read, if only I didn't actually have to read them.

You Can't Go Home Again

>3 thorold: yes, seeing people reading so many in a particular month/year is scary. I love reading to read. It's an educational experience also. Learning a lot as I'm going along

>9 petra4: Some of the reads could be rereads. I'm currently reading some Jules Verne stories that I read ages ago. (Only this time I write a review, so I don't need to read them a third time.)

>10 bnielsen: Yes, I'm learning to start writing a review

For non-fiction I include the table of contents and a short statement on its usefullness and readability. For fiction I write a resume (i.e. a spoiler) and a short verdict. I try to remember to put a blank line between the verdict, allowing to see at a glance if I liked the book or not. Stars do the same thing, but I don't often find a book completely wonderful or completely awful, so I have a lot of 3 star books :-)
The idea is to get relevant text into the review field, so I can use "search" to find non-obvious connections between my books.

Don't feel obliged to write reviews. I usually post about what I'm reading but never attempt anything that could be called a review. Some people can write good reviews; I can't and don't feel the need to take up space with feeble attempts! If I like a book I say so, and can sometimes give some sort of brief reasons why, but that's all I try to do.

It's often easier to explain why I didn't like a book.

>3 thorold:
Since Im new I thought that people would kind of make judgement since I dont have tons of books in my Library. But really its just super time consuming adding all the books i've read. I just joined to try and get into a community of book lovers who are interested into what i am. I am finding myself a little stressed but we will see what happens. I do appreciate your message about how we are just a community of people who enjoy reading and how it shouldnt be a competition. I fully agree.
:)

Nobody expects anyone to have a huge library entered right off the bat.

We're smart people. We can look at your "date joined" and know that you are just getting started. :)

>15 kayleigh_bae: Oh gosh, the idea that anyone is taking a peek at my library freaks me out.

I am very new here, despite having joined 10 years ago (I have a memory of spending $25 on a lifetime membership which seemed like excellent value at the time). I entered a dozen or so kids books I was looking for, then I discovered Goodreads and never returned. Ten years later I am migrating back here.

Goodreads felt much more about the reviews, and the comments on the reviews, less about a library. I have been enjoying scanning and uploading my library to this site, so that I #1 stop buying multiple copies of the same book, and #2 can let my friends search my library more easily.