Each year I take part in the Goodreads Reading Challenge and set a reading goal, but sometimes I’m not sure if it’s a habit or really helpful to my reading.

• About Let’s Talk Bookish
• Queer Reading Goals
  • Why do I set reading goals, if I don’t really care about them?

About Let’s Talk Bookish

Let’s Talk Bookish is a bookish meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books where bloggers write posts discussing the topic of the week each Friday! Now it’s run by Aria @Book Nook Bits. Here are the other prompts for January 2024.

Queer Reading Goals

In last week’s Let’s Talk Bookish post, which was all about wrapping up my 2023 reading, I’ve already mentioned I read 57 books, where I originally pledged to read 30 books.

So I’m not really good at setting a realistic goal. Usually, I like to read one book a week to feel like “a reader”. But what is a book? There are books with 50 pages and there are books with 900 pages. Both would count as one book each, but the first I’ll read in one setting and the second might take me weeks.

So I guess it would be better, in a way, to set a goal of pages read. But I don’t really care about that. I don’t even know how many pages I’ve read last year and I sure as hell won’t go back and count them. Starting this year, I am counting though. We’ll see how I think about pages read when I reflect on this year’s reading.

Why do I set reading goals, if I don’t really care about them?

One, because it’s a habit. And Goodreads explicitly asks you to. It’s not really hard to set a goal there.

And two, which is the main reason, to hold myself accountable. I enjoy reading. Reading helps me take some time for myself. But when stressed, I tend to ignore my needs without really noticing doing so.

So Goodreads telling me if I’m on track is one way to make sure I allow myself to indulge in a hobby I enjoy.

How do you deal with reading goals?