Every year seems to go by quicker and quicker, and this year is no different. As the end races closer, I find myself looking back at the year, reflecting on the goals that I set for myself. The goals I create for myself each January change depending on my life and needs at the time, but one thing stays consistent — my reading goal.
Every January, I decide on a number of books to read in a given year and commit to reaching that number before the end of the year. I’m far from alone in this yearly challenge: StoryGraph, Goodreads, Fable — most of the book tracking apps and websites have this feature built into their systems because of how popular it is. This can be a really fun way to challenge yourself to read more, and it can be one of those touchpoints where a lot of readers can relate to each other.
Despite its well-meaning intentions, though, these types of challenges are capable of facilitating an unhealthy relationship with reading.
Before I started setting a reading goal each year, I didn’t pay any attention to how many books I read. I would just read at my leisure, picking up whatever caught my eye and reading whenever I had time and was in the mood.
In 2022, I tried my first reading challenge! I set my goal for 45 books, and I actually managed to read 47 books.
In 2023, I pushed even harder — I set my goal for 90 books and read exactly 90 books. Or, at least, that’s what I tracked on Goodreads. In reality, I read around 270 books that year, most of them within the first few months of the year. It felt like a great accomplishment, but it was also a really difficult time for me mentally and emotionally. Reading was how I coped. I wasn’t sleeping much, and that was a big part of how I was able to read so many books. I honestly don’t remember most of them, but that high number stuck with me.
I realized that I needed to cut back a lot and take better care of myself, so for 2024, I set a goal of 50 books and managed to read 61 books. Still, though, while I felt accomplished by the end of 2024 because I hit my goal, I still felt the pressure of needing the number to be bigger. I had 2023 on the mind, and I knew that I was capable of reading even more than 61 books. The pressure had grown to the point that I wasn’t enjoying long books because I couldn’t help but think of the number of books I could’ve read in the time it took me to read that one long book, I found myself reading through books so fast that I was missing details and not fully enjoying the story, and I was getting close to a reading slump, where my desire to read would be at an all-time low.
In an attempt to alleviate the pressure that I was putting on myself, I decided to set my reading goal for 2025 to 12 books. I told myself that if I managed to read one book each month, that would be enough. Me being me, I went past that and I’m currently at 55 books for the year so far — and I still have a very stacked TBR.
I still have a lot of progress to make. One example of many potentials — long books still stress me out, so I haven’t read many of them in 2025.
If any of this sounds familiar to you, I urge you to learn from my mistakes. As we count down the last days of the year, don’t stress yourself out trying to hit your reading goals. Choose to enjoy it instead. Read because you love it, and don’t let pressure impact that love.
Thank you for exploring with us! Until next time, may the pages and paths ahead of you be great.
