It’s the new year, and every reader has set their Goodreads 2025 reading challenge goal, which leads to the inventible comparison between other reading goals and even your best reading years. Goals can be a tool to encourage new habits, but they become problematic when they overshadow the joy of reading itself.
In 2023 I read 48 books, so in 2024 I thought I could beat this setting my goal at 50. I read 29. I found that in 2024 I had less time to read, and watching Goodreads telling me I’m ‘5 books behind schedule’ didn’t make me want to pick up another book—and when I did, it felt like I was only forcing myself to read.
But reading 29 books in a year is a very good accomplishment, especially when many of them end up being 5-star reads and were added to my favourites. Ultimately, it made me realise that the true value of reading isn’t in the number of books finished but in the reading experience and the joy they bring.
The problem can be that as we begin to fall behind the reading goal, shorter books become more attractive, and the question arises, ‘am I reading this book just because it is shorter?’. Books that have been sat on the physical TBR (to-be-read) list for a long time can often be pushed aside for a newer and maybe shorter book that will help you achieve your goal faster.
I’m not trying to take away the integrity of short books because so much can be felt in such a short word count, White Nights by Dostoevsky is an exemplary example. However, how often are we missing out on reading a longer and denser novel out of the fact it might take us back on our goals?
This idea is also pushed through social media with posts like ‘the best short books to crush your reading goals’ and ‘finishing your reading goals – short book edition’. These goals aren’t a concrete marker of success and not meeting them isn’t failing. It’s easy to feel inadequate when you’re not keeping up, even though reading is personal and not meant to be a race. When did reading become competitive?
I recently found out that a lot of readers skip over paragraphs or cut out whole chapters of non-fiction books. Sometimes it feels as though people are trying to read every book that exists (although that would be the dream). Instead of picking a number of books, why not go for a goal that relates to a different aspect of reading? Read a book that’s been sitting on your TBR for a long time, read a translated book, or even read a book that’s over 700 pages.
If you are a reader who intakes a lot of book content it isn’t unusual to feel like you could always be reading more. Sometimes we get swept up in the quantity or quality of reading. At the end of the day, all readers read for the art of reading and that shouldn’t be discredited because setting a goal, whether it is 1 or 50, is an achievement in itself.
I understand not everyone feels this way, however it’s easy to get swept into wanting to beat your previous goal or even a friend. Reading goals should simply be seen as an aid to help make progress rather than a target that needs to be achieved. These goals aren’t concrete markers of success.
When did the art of appreciating a book become about how many we could read in a year? Instead of focusing on the numbers, it might be worth asking ourselves what truly makes a book memorable: is it the emotional resonance, the way it challenges our thinking, or the joy of getting lost in a world crafted by someone else? These intangible experiences can’t be measured by a reading challenge.
A single book that lingers in your mind long after you’ve turned the final page can be far more rewarding than racing through five books you barely remember. Shifting the focus from quantity to the impact a book leaves on us can help rekindle the love of reading for its own sake.
