Reading has been a passion of mine my whole life, whether I was enjoying a story my mum was reading to me or reading them myself. I read books before social media was a thing, I’ve read them without logging them on Goodreads and sharing photos of them on Instagram. I read for fun, but I do often wonder if with the inclusion of publicly shared TBRs and yearly reading challenges, is reading becoming more of a competitive sport than a passion often used to relax and escape?
At the start of this year, I set my Goodreads goal to 50 books. A few months ago I surpassed that goal and as of right now am currently in the 70s, which is the most books I’ve ever read in a year. I’m not crediting my books read to my Goodreads goal, but to my increase of time to be able to read, what with lockdown restricting our social interactions for so long. I see people set their annual goals for a very low number so it takes away the stress for the year to hit it – which I think is a good idea if your Goodreads goal adds an unneeded pressure that you both don’t want or enjoy. I, however, do like the goal because I find it pleasing to see, especially in later years where it hasn’t been a struggle for me to hit it.
But the inclusion of the goal at all begs the question of whether we are turning reading into a sport to compete against each other. We bust a gut to hit our goal, to read all the books on our TBR, to read as many books as possible in 24 hours. Most of the time we do it for fun, because we want to, because we’re getting involved in something as a community. But sometimes I’ve fallen into the bracket of it feeling more like a competition, a race, a point I have to hit for no other reason than somewhere on the internet suggested I should.
In the 21st Century, we are all surrounded by social media – it’s hard… if not impossible to get away from it at times. We can have thousands of humans to communicate with at the touch of our fingertips. I love being part of the book community and it never feels like a chore to post. But often there comes with it a pressure to read every book ever right here, right now. When a big new release comes out, it feels like you have to read it now or be spoiled, or just be out of the loop and the hype for the characters everyone else cares so much about. I suppose this is the same with any trend. But it certainly feels like a growing pressure at times – there are constantly new books coming out, new reasons to add more and more to that growing pile of unread books you have.
Now I’m not saying just because there is a lot to read this needs to turn it into a competition. But it does sometimes feel like an unspoken one. Wrap-ups, how many books did you read this month? Did you complete the TBR you set? Did you manage to read everything for the readathon? This month I’ve been moving out of my family home and it has been manic. I’ve been so busy I’ve barely had time to think about anything else. As someone who usually reads around 50 pages a day, I’ve been reading 10 a day, if that, at the moment. I started to think oh no, I’m not going to finish many books this month at this rate and then stopped myself – why does it matter? I was putting unnecessary pressure on myself to read more when no one but myself would care about the number of books I finish this month.
Are we setting invisible goals? Sure. When don’t we in life? I see nothing wrong with setting reading goals of challenges, as long as we keep at the heart of it, the why. Why do you want to read 20 books this year? Because you love it and you want to read as much as you can to enjoy it as much as possible. And if you feel you’re starting to drown with the stress of these TBRs and challenges, just stop. You’re not doing this for anyone but you. Enjoy reading. Sure add a bit of competition to it every now and again if that motivates you. But pick up that book because you can’t bear to be without the story.
Amen to this!
Now I can’t remember who said it, but there’s a famous quote we learned today that is, “comparison is the thief of joy” and I feel like it totally relates to this.
I’ve stopped comparing myself to other readers as there’s no way I’d even begin to compete with some of them – (I honestly feel some of these people must use time-turners to read that many books)! 😂 And for some people, they have genuine reasons why they can’t read at such fast paces. I’d say Netgalley and author reviews make me more stressed out than social media most of the time, but that’s a whole other ball game!! 🤣 Great post – thanks for sharing. ☺️
Love this article. I feel this more and more of late, particularly with reading challenges. I keep thinking I want to just do no more challenges next year, just read, reflect, review, but not count.
Oh I love this! I’ve been so guilty of this – without my commute means my reading time has plummeted this year and I have been the type who is feeling guilty that I’m not going to hit my target. But you’re right – I started this because I had a lot of books that I want to read, so it really doesn’t matter if I meet some number I made up before the world changed or not! Thank you so much for this – and I hope the move went well!
Great post! It’s important to remember why we are reading and why we are blogging. Comparisons and trying to keep up with everything and everybody will only make it chore.
Great post!
I totally agree that whilst having goals and seeing what other people are reading can be fun, it can also make reading seem like a competition, and it adds a certain level of pressure to reading. I’m currently a few books behind on my Goodreads goal and keep finding myself avoiding longer books on my TBR, and trying to find shorter books to read, but really I should just read whatever I feel like!
Luckily I’ve managed to avoid this feeling despite how common it is!! Maybe I’m just too hardheaded 😂 I caved to that “gotta read X books” by the end of the year in the past and it sucks. Now I just read whatever the heck I want and don’t fret, though I do try to set goals. Right now they’re more like reading diversely and taking risks on genres I don’t typically read. I’ve loved it so far, and it’s gotten me a lot of interesting new finds!
I totally agree with this and wrote a post on this topic a couple of months ago, it’s almost become a way of increasing social status and if you didn’t instagram it did it happen? I admit I am guilty of this, but one of the upsides of having mental health issues is that I have to slow down when it becomes too much so I can savour the books.