I’ve been steadily increasing the number of books I want to read per year. Last year I hit a high of 84; however, I noticed in talking to my reader friends that I wasn’t remembering the books I read as well as I used to. I’d planned on 90 books for the year, but after a few of those experiences I’ve dropped to a goal of 50–still an average of four per month. I find I take my time, I’m more selective, I stay in them longer, and I’m just a happier reader again. Have you had similar experiences?
by ArchStanton75
8 Comments
If you put an objective on things, are they still enjoyable or do they become a chore? And if you put a time restraint on something that is supposed to be relaxing then that kind of defeats the purpose. IMO.
When it negatively impacts other things you value more. As far as comprehension taking notes will help more than slowing down.
Worst feeling ever
Setting a goal would turn this hobby into a job.
I read to escape, not to meet deadlines again.
I have no goals, but I read between 30 and 100 novels a year.
Like…six piles and four bookshelves….no idea how many books there are, actually 😀
But the ones I “know” I want to read (Either a part of a book series or favourite writer)…is about 30, I think. I am in the middle of one of those and that one has 600 pages. I think I am doing a decent job being on page 300 after five days but a girl has to work and eat sometimes 😀
I do like to have a reading goal, I use good reads and they have a yearly challenge. Every couple months I’ll update the number and goal depending on how much I got to read.
I had a similar experience about 5 years ago. For most of my adult life I read somewhere between 15-30 books a year, never having a concrete number goal in mind or even tracking. Then for a few years I got caught up in the “gamified” goodreads/booktube type thinking and I was reading book after book, looking up speed reading techniques, listening to audiobooks instead of music when I ran, etc.
Not saying this is a universal thing, but for me once I got up to the 70-100 range per year is when I couldn’t retain much of what I had read at all. And basically zero percent of the audiobooks.
30-50/year seems to be a sweet spot for me. Again I know everyone is different, but when I see these booktube/booktok people claiming to have read 200-400 books in a year, I’ll just say I’m skeptical.