CW Room

We, as a society, might have lost sight of what reading goals are, and why we’ve set them. With the goals we see around the internet and the books we see in popular rotation, we might as well obliterate reading goals completely. Let me explain.

Numbers

As a child, I always had my face buried in a book, always reading something. At some point, I stopped reading and only got back into the habit as an adult. I then got myself a Kindle and my obsession with books returned in full swing, except I was an adult with adult money and adult abilities that allowed me infinite spending on as many books as I wanted.

This was so recent, that I only just set my first reading goal of my adulthood this year. I planned to read 25 books over the year, and I thought it was comically simple.

At this point, I had friends on Goodreads setting 10 and 12 book reading goals, so I thought I was on top of the world.

I spent January reading at my leisure before I was preoccupied with a house move for a good 2 and a half months. I read 0 books in February and March, and in April I realised what a mistake that was.

Ideally, I would’ve been reading 2 books a month, and now I was 4 books behind.

Inconvenient, but what the hell. It was only April, and I can fit those 4 extra books in the last 3 months. I could read 3 books instead of 2.

Of course, I got distracted later in the year and fell behind one more book. By mid-November I realised there was no way I’d read 9 books in the time I had left in the year.

Comparison

I went from feeling on top of my little world to a little ridiculous. I can understand why I fell behind, and 19 books (so far) this year is nothing to be ashamed of, and yet something didn’t feel right.

Why on earth am I subconsciously beating myself up?

Over the year I came across multiple book review creators and influencers on the internet. Almost always, they boasted numbers in the range of 100-200.

What is that.

I mean, that is an absurd number of books. Rory Gilmore herself read maybe 50 per year, if we’re being generous, which would explain her book collection. 100-200 books a year is a absurd amount.

Disregarding that for a moment, why should other people’s numbers make me feel inferior?

Remind me, what was the point of reading goals again?

Reading goals are goals you set for youself to improve your reading frequency, speed and even the amount of information you want to process.

Right? So why does it bother me?

It’s because I’ve come to feel like I’ve accomplished something this year, when popular reading goals set unrealistic expectations on people – effectively diminishing the merit of my own reading goal.

Genres

My biggest qualm is not with the numbers, however, it is what those numbers represent. Had you undergone a scholarly debate between book readers, one being a 100 book-per-year reader and the other having read 15 books per-year, you would no doubt expect the person with more books under their belt to have won.

I don’t think this would translate in reality, though. To me, it seems like those who are boasting a reading accomplishment of over 100 books happen to be reading a ratio skewed in favour of romance and adult fantasy.

Now, I haven’t done the research on much of this but maybe you can let me know in the comments or DM me on my socials , but I don’t think those two genres hold as much information about the world as other genres do.

That said, you can probably say the same about most genres out there. What are you really gaining from thrillers, mysteries or even science fiction. I’m sorry, but most self-help can be summarised with one paragraph.

So what is it that is worth reading?

Well, quite frankly, everything. I think a good mix of everything serves to develop writing skills, critical thinking skills and more. Contemporary fiction in particular I think is a good way to explore writing different cultures and self-exploration arcs.

It does no one any good to read just the one genre with no diversification. Stories, themes and characters become repetitive and books tend to become one-note.

Are you proud of yourself?

That said, personally I would find it hard to read 100 romance books, so kudos to those who can.

The main thing to remember is whether you are proud of your reading goal for yourself or not. Expectations for yourself are not ones you should take lightly and it is important to listen to what you have to say.

You just have to remember what your reading goal was aiming to do. I have read 19 books (so far) in 2023, and it’s helped me explore writing styles, discern between the writing of different genres, develop my own voice and help me jump back into the reading goal.

I could count that as a win if I wasn’t so intent on hitting next year’s reading goal! 2024 will be the year I read 35 books in the year. What will your goal be?

Thanks for reading 🙂