Personally, I am trying to read 15 books this year and mix in more non-fiction books.
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This is the first year where I’ve decided not to have any reading goals. It isn’t work, it’s pleasure. I don’t have video game goals, or cloud watching goals, so why book goals? This year, I will read when I feel like reading!
There are years when I have read upwards of 60 books and others when I have scarcely read 6. It depends heavily on what else is going on. I don’t do numerical goals and never have.
For the last few years, however, no matter how many others I read, I have had a ‘big read’ of some kind spread across the year: War and Peace first - since it has 365 chapters in total, then In Search of Lost Time, and this year Finnegans Wake - which I was reading with a group which scheduled in some ‘summing up time’ at the end so I have finished it already. In 2024 I have decided that it will be The Romance of the Three Kingdoms: so completing that is my goal.
I’m going to finish Ulysses by James Joyce if it kills me
Gave myself a target of 70 books this year and I’m at 68 now and will finish a book in a day or so. But I did notice I was looking at how many pages were in a book and how long that was going to take to read and put bigger books on the back burner. So next year I’ll halve it and be more inclusive of the bigger tomes.
I usually stick to shorter books due to my attention span, but that’s a good approach to tackle bigger tomes. What kind of genre do you like?
Hopefully less than this year. I’m reading too many (100+) and that’s reflecting in my reduced time on actual work (self-employed).
100+ is very impressive! It sounds like you essentially finish a book every 3-4 days to get those numbers. How you keep that up consistently? I feel like I can do that for a month or two and then tend to need a break before picking up more.
I mostly read fantasy and sci-fi, which tend to have multiple books in a series. If they are easy-to-read and short (300-400 pages per book), it becomes easy to consume. Also, I read for escapism, so I don’t read too closely.
Out of interest, what do you mean ‘you don’t read too closely’?
When I was younger, I’d read slowly, trying to visualize the setting, keep track of character preferences, look up words I don’t know, etc. I’d remember a book well enough to talk about it even a year or so after.
These days, I just skim over descriptions and read as fast as I could while still getting the main plot. I get attached to characters only if the book is really good and savor them during rereads.
Ah thanks for clarifying. Would you not say that reading it slower would be the more enjoyable method? If you’re after escapism, wouldn’t it be better to engage yourself fully in the plot? At least for me, I find escapism works best when I’m fully immersed in the story’s world and characters. What you’ve described sounds more akin to someone skimming a research paper.
True, perhaps a case of doing too much of anything over a long period ;)
Well I hope you’re able to slow down the pace a bit (assuming that’s what you want)!
I never set any book reading goals with respect to number of books to read. My goal is always to enjoy reading the books as much as possible. Number of books read is of no consequence to me.
I plan on reading several.
I’ve fallen off with reading much of this year (life has been so hectic), so I’d like to make a manageable goal of finishing a book every other month next year. Even if it’s just a novella, it would be nice to get back into it.