In 2016, I set a goal to read 300 books by the end of the year. I reached that goal in November and then abruptly slackened off. It became clear that I was driven by my goal. I then set a new goal of 350 books by the end of 2016 and was able to finish the year at 355 books read. If I hadn't slackened off, I might have managed to read one book per day in 2016. Oh, what might have been!
The idea of reading one book per day appeals to me, even though it is a daunting task. I set myself a goal of reading 365 books by the end of 2017. I have some significant doubt as to whether the goal is reachable, and it depends upon the length of the books I read. Indeed, I have set the goal at 365 to force myself to keep reading as many books as I can as quickly as I can.
I have approximately 500 books on my "to read" list. These are books that I truly want to read very soon, but even at one book per day, I will need around 1 1/2 years to get to all of them. It's a bit overwhelming and even a little depressing. By having a goal of one book per day this year, I will make good progress on my reading list.
The books I read in 2016 were generally books with no more than 150 pages. That's why finishing the year at 355 books was not quite as impressive as one might suppose. I find that many of my 2017 books are longer than 150 pages. Christopher Pike's adult and more recent teen books are each 400 to 500 pages long. While I love to read, there is a limit as to how much I can tolerate reading in one day. For that reason, I can't read one of Pike's 400 to 500 page books in one day. Those books slowed me down significantly in my 2017 reading progress. In fact, by the end of May, I started to let go of my goal of 365 books thinking that I could not possibly maintain one book per day since I was falling too far behind.
By the end of May, I had finally finished with Christopher Pike's books. In June, I was able to increase my speed and close the gap. However, during later June, I slowed down somewhat once again due to some vintage series books that are over 300 pages long.
In June, I set myself another goal; rather, I issued myself a directive. I have too many random books that have been on my shelves for many years. Those books take up too much space, and I do not like wasting shelf space on books that I might not necessarily like. I need to figure out whether I do like those books. I have kept putting off the task of reading them, so I made myself get started. I have made significant progress towards this goal. The following picture shows the books that I have read recently in order to determine whether I like them.
I feel a great sense of accomplishment in having read the above books.
As of July 1, 2016, I had read 181 books, which was almost right on track to finish the year at one book per day. Even so, I fell short at 355 books by the end of 2016.
As of today, I have read 178 books so far this year. I am behind my 2016 pace, but I am not very far off, at least not by raw numbers. At the same time, the task of catching up is much harder than it sounds, especially since most of my current books are more than 150 pages long. Not only do I have to maintain an average of one book read each day, I also have to read above that amount to catch up. For instance, if I were to read 1 1/3 books per day, it would take me nine days to catch up and match my pace from last year.
It's going to come down to how many 300 to 500 page books I end up reading, since those have impacted my speed greatly. I have definitely set myself a difficult goal to attain, but I will keep working towards my goal even if I don't quite make it. I have the satisfaction of knowing that I am decreasing the size of my "to read" list as rapidly as I can.
1 comment:
You go girl! And I appreciate the critiques.
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