More than a year ago, I wrote a blog post that I now find to be a bit too pretentious. It’s called “How to Read More Books.”
I don’t have anything about trying to read as many books as possible within a year. I think people who are able to complete their reading challenges with flying colors are awesome, especially those who manage to finish 50 books or more.
It’s just that, in my case, I tend to fixate so much on the number of books I need to read within a year that I end up reading some just because they are short and seem easy to finish.
Don’t get me wrong. I read fast. I studied creative writing in college, so I’ve been trained to read a lot per day. Yet, life has been so intense lately that I can’t devote a lot of time to reading, and eventually, I feel the need to cram. That’s sad because I should be choosing titles that I think I’ll enjoy.
In fact, I had some doubts before starting Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch in December last year, thinking I should be choosing short and easy reads instead so I could meet my goal of 24 books. Good thing, though, my desire to read that long novel prevailed, and I was able to finish it. I spent more time with it than I would with a shorter, easier book, but I genuinely enjoyed the reading experience. I had no regrets.
This is why I am setting my number low this year. For my Goodreads Reading Challenge, I am only pledging 20 books. This way, I won’t be so obsessed with the number and pick books according to how interesting and useful they seem.