Where I'm At With My Goodreads Reading Challenge

I thought I'd give you all an update on how I'm doing with my Goodreads reading challenge. If you aren't familiar with the Goodreads reading challenge, here's the gist: you set a specific number of books that you plan to read over the course of the year.

Since I've started the Goodreads reading challenge, I've changed my reading goal a couple of times. I either increased or decreased the number of books based on how many books I've read by that point. Usually, this happens by the end of the year, usually in late November or December. And I usually do this when I feel like I can squeeze in a couple more books or if I want to relieve any pressure or stress.

This year, my reading goal is at 125 books. I think I changed it once earlier this year, but I can't quite recall. (Oops, lol.) To meet this goal, I need to read about 10.5 books per month. So far, I've read 56 books. Apparently, I'm also 8 books ahead of schedule. I'm actually feeling pretty good about my reading challenge for 2021, which is a positive thing.

To calculate how many books you need to read per month to meet your reading challenge, simply divide your reading goal by 12. For mine, it's 125÷12, which results in 10.416. I just rounded mine up to 10.5 since that's the easiest thing to do.

However, do not feel pressured to know how many books you need to read per month. If it helps you gauge your time, then go for it. But it's not a necessity. Oftentimes, it can stress you out. Unless calculating how many books you need to read per month actually helps you in one way or another, don't feel obligated to do it.

10 Tips for Meeting a Reading Challenge of 50+ Books

First off, I would like to direct you to the following posts I've done up until this point:

• Reading Slumps: What Are They?
• Reading Slumps: My Thoughts on Them
• Reading Slumps: Tips on How to Deal with One
• 10 Tips for Reading More
• 10 Tips for Reading Multiple Books at Once
• 6 Tips for Setting Aside Time for Reading

Hopefully, these 10 tips will help you meet a reading challenge of 50+ books.

Tip 1: Don't pressure yourself into reading 50+ books each year. This is not something everyone can do, and it's not something you can do immediately after reading less than 50 books per year.

Tip 2: Read multiple books at once. 

Tip 3: Use every format of book - physical, ebook, and audiobook.

Tip 4: Don't force yourself to read/finish a book you're not enjoying. Set it down and move on to a new book. (You can still pick it up later. If you're not enjoying it in a particular moment, don't force yourself to read it.)

Tip 5: Be selective about what you read. Don't read books you have no interest in. Look into books, and read a book's synopsis and some reviews.

Tip 6: Know what books are on your immediate TBR. This way, you have an easier time choosing your next book once you finish a book.

Tip 7: Be quick to pick up a new read once you finish a book. You don't need to pick up a book the minute you finish a book, but try to pick up a new read soon after.

Tip 8: Prioritize your book over your phone, iPad, TV, etc. If you're on your phone scrolling through social media, that's when you can be reading a book.

Tip 9: Listen to audiobooks as you do small tasks that don't require much of your attention, like laundry or the dishes.

Tip 10: Set aside time for reading on a daily basis.

5 Pros and 5 Cons of Reading Challenges

Most of us readers know what a reading challenge. Many of us are familiar with the one we set through Goodreads, but many readers also set personal reading challenges.

As much as we may not like to admit it, there are pros and cons to reading challenges. The pros and cons are what this post will focus on.

Pro 1: You have a goal to strive for. Setting a reading challenge, whether it's a yearly goal or reading a new genre, it allows you to try new things or do better than a previous time. And you set a standard for your reading.

Pro 2: You can inspire yourself to read more. Setting a reading challenge can encourage you to try to get more books read in a year, and even a month.

Pro 3: You're intentionally reading. You're not reading for any other purpose other than to read and make your goal.

Pro 4: You're opening yourself up to a more diverse selection of books. By setting a reading challenge, you're, in a way, forcing yourself to look into more books to read.

Pro 5: Reading can help relieve stress, so having a reading challenge can remind you to sit down and read.

Con 1: It's hard to differentiate between reasonable and unreasonable reading goals. And reading goals that count as "reasonable" or "unreasonable" change from person to person.

Con 2: Reading challenges often don't take reading slumps into account. Reading slumps happen to the best of us, and they can seriously derail our reading plans.

Con 3: Sometimes, you're reading just to reach your goal, and you're not really enjoying the book or taking in its information.

Con 4: You don't always enjoy the books you read, and sometimes even DNF books. Depending on where you were in the book you DNFed, should you count it? (This will be in an upcoming post.)

Con 5: Reading challenges can cause a lot of stress. If you've set what ends up being an unreasonable reading challenge for you (Con 1), that can end up stressing you out in the end.