Do you keep count?
If you’re like me, you join Goodreads Reading challenges every year. You may or may not hit the total number you set, but you’re determined to try anyway. I’ve joined the Reading Challenge every year since I first discovered it in 2015. Since then, I have only reached my reading goal three times.
This might surprise you. After all, I’m a writer. That’s part of the problem, actually. For example, when I published The Moreau Witches, I read my novel thirteen times that year, looking for errors. How many other books could I have read in that time?
This year, I’ve been working on The Curse of Kalaga and have unwittingly fallen into a read-and-revise spiral that I am hopefully about to end. Even so, reading only six books last year feels absolutely terrible.
I’m committed to doing better this year, and so far, so good. It helped that I started the year with way more time on my hands than I ended it. Hilariously, I have already read four books.
What is my reading goal for 2023?
My goal for this year is the same as last year. On New Year’s, I signed up to read 12 books by the end of the year. At the time that I’m writing this, we are only 8 days into the year. So, to be a third of the way through my reading goals feels absolutely amazing. The one big downside, of course, is that I now have less time to obsess over my novel, but maybe that’s a good thing.
What kind of books do I read?
For years, fiction was my go-to reading area. If it had vampires and witches and magic, even better. That changed in 2018. Since then, I have gradually read more and more non-fiction books. It reached a height in 2019. This was when RVing, camping, and tiny living took over my life. I had no one to ask for help or who could answer my questions, so I turned to YouTube and books. Clearly, they helped because less than a year later, I was on the road, putting everything I had learned into action.
Why are so few people reading these days?
This might not come as a surprise, but people are reading less and less worldwide. The decline is especially noticeable among men. Men are inclined to read books that stroke their egos and tell them how to feel powerful and be charismatic, but they seem to read little else. What might surprise you is that even college graduates read less and less in America.
If you have also struggled with meeting your reading goals lately, what happened? I’ve shared my reasons. What’s yours?
What will you do about it this year?
There are a few big reasons I’ve been able to read more lately. The main one is that I have been spending more time on my own and truly alone. Often times, we are alone but talking on the phone or getting caught up in social media. I now take an hour or two every day to walk on the beach at sunset.
Sometimes, I bring a book, and sometimes I bring painting gear. Whether I read during my sunset stroll or not, it frees my brain so that I get work done more quickly and have an extra hour or two before bed to read.
Isn’t it crazy how dedicating an hour or two to self-care somehow buys me another extra hour or two in the evening? And all without sacrificing the amount of work I do? Madness!
How many books will you read this year? And what will you do to ensure you reach your reading goals?
“I’ve joined the Reading Challenge every year since I first discovered it in 2015. Since then, I have only reached my reading goal three times.”
What would you say was different about those three years? Was one of them the year you read a lot about RVing?
“I had no one to ask for help or who could answer my questions, so I turned to YouTube and books.”
Reading to learn about a subject can be very tricky, in my opinion. I encountered so many books that were a total waste of time. It would take too much time to read them, and the contents would just be stuff you could find anywhere on the internet, nothing special. YouTube videos, websites writing about the stuff, trial and error and some courses help me a lot more, when I want to learn something.
I think this has to do with how books turn in profits. If a book is bigger, in volume, it can turn in more profit. (Not speaking for novels, or books with character, in general.) So I think the authors put in too much copy and pasted information to make their books bigger, and we as a society end up with too many useless books.
Were you actually able to find some good books about camping and RVing?
“Men are inclined to read books that stroke their egos and tell them how to feel powerful and be charismatic, but they seem to read little else.”
Where’s the research for this, haha 😀 I’m looking for books that stroke my ego!
the source you linked to says:
(study of college people) “In the past, women read close to twice as many books as men did, but the gap has narrowed as the average U.S. woman read 15.7 books last year, compared with 19.3 between 2002 and 2016. Over the same period, men’s readership declined by barely one book, to 9.5.”
“Isn’t it crazy how dedicating an hour or two to self-care somehow buys me another extra hour or two in the evening? And all without sacrificing the amount of work I do? Madness!”
That’s great! I feel like self-care allows us to get more focused on our work, because we are focusing on ourselves, discovering what we want, and how we will do what we want to do.
It’s a self nourishing process. Introspection goes hand in hand with self-care, and introspection creates better work.
“How many books will you read this year? And what will you do to ensure you reach your reading goals?”
I think a lot of my reading comes to me through experiences. Last year, I read an author that I felt, embodied the spirit of the country I was in. (I was living in the US last year.) Then a friend gifted me a book, and I finished it in a week. A teacher gave me books, I finished some, left some half-read. Then I got super interested in an author and read two of her books. I must have read like 6 books last year, at least.
I never set a goal for myself before, and always wanted it to be a natural process. I guess I will do the same this year. At the same time, I want to read books about certain topics, and read books from some favorite authors. I don’t think I will set a number, but in general I want to guide myself to reading more about those certain topics. Plus, a big goal I have this year is to go back and write essays about the books i’ve read! Even re-read some of them.
Sorry if this comment is undesirably long, and thank you for the thought provoking blog post!
I’m not sure what was different about those three years, but my guess would be that I spent more time at home being an introvert. It’s harder to make time for reading when you have a busy social life or a busy travel itinerary. I’ve been reading a lot more this year, for instance, because I’ve been sitting in one spot longer than usual.
Books were very helpful when I wanted advice on business management, solar installations, RVing and car camping. I did also watch YouTube videos, but the books were very helpful. These types of books are actually much shorter these days. Self-published authors generally avoid fluff because they have to pay for edits and then printing costs go up depending on the length of books. Readers’ attention span is also too short for long books, these days.
I’m sure there’s research somewhere on the ego-stroking books, but it’s something I see 9 times out of 10 and other women I know say the same. 😅
I’m glad to hear you’ve been keeping up with your own reading process, even if you don’t set hard goals. I do recommend the GoodReads challenge if you ever change your mind though.
Happy reading!
Short self-published books teaching specific subjects sounds amazing!
I mean, I basically gave up on looking for those. I guess internet still holds some things I haven’t found yet.
I have seen a lot of good ‘intense self-published books’; on politics or self-help. I thought I hadn’t seen any that teaches how to do things, but now that you mention it, I realize I was ignoring the ones I saw.
I will go back and take a look at them!
And yeah, GoodReads, might do that too! Hehe 😁
Thank you for your reply! I found your blog like two years ago, and I just decided to be active on WP as a reader too. Feels good to interact.
Have safe travels!
Two years ago, wow! Thanks for reaching out.
I’m glad you’ve found some books that could teach you skills and life lessons. I’ve read self-published books on everything from breakups to solar installations. 😅
Happy reading!
My goal this year is to read 12 (unread) books, one for each month of 2023. I admit, I don’t read as much these days, especially after graduating university a long while ago (where I was an English major and had to read a ton for my studies). But in the past two, three years, I’ve slowly returned to reading, first starting out by re-reading my favorites and then trying out new ones. So far, I’m doing pretty well, as I finished a new poetry collection last week and will find something else to read…it helps that my partner is a bookworm and is always recommending me books to read! Happy reading, and happy new year! 🙂
I’m happy to hear you’ve been trying to rekindle your love for reading as well. I made it through five or six books in January and then BAM! I hit a reading slump lol
I dedicate every day at least 3 hours to reading, and this since when I was just 8. I designed my daily routine and chores so as to be able to read as much as possible.
I would say that I read about 150 – 180 books per year.
WOOOOOW! This is impressive!
I started the Goodreads challenges in 2019 or something. I devoured books as a child but reduced my reading significantly the further I went into my studies. But I was gifted a couple of books and decided to try the reading challenge I think I planned for 12 and read 4 😆 so for the following year I reduced my expectation I think to like 6 and read 5. Using this method of realising I’m coming from far and slowly building back up worked and I met my goal the last 2 years (which I increase by 1 every year). It also helped that my boyfriend and I instituted a “reading night” policy on Mondays. This year, I’m also doing a bookclub with a good friend and I think by end of quarter 1 I’d have done a quarter of the books at least.
A reading night policy together sounds like an excellent way to spend meaningful time together while feeding your minds. I love that! I hope you reach your reading goals this year. <3