Today I’m here to potentially ruffle some feathers.
It’s the time of year in which book nerds all over the internet start updating us all on how many books they’ve read this year, while lamenting how many books they didn’t get to read this year. Huh? Pick a struggle.
Ok, don’t get me wrong, I keep an annual list of how many books I read each year because I find it to be interesting data. I like to see how the number changes from year to year, as it can be indicative of what else I may have had going on, or not going on. Was life extra busy? Was I in a reading slump? Was life extra quiet for some reason? Also, what type of books did I tend to gravitate towards?
However, I do not put any weight on this number at all, in fact, I do not set an annual goal of how many books I’d like to have read by the end of the year because, in all honestly, it means absolutely nothing.
If you read 10 books this year that were meaningful to you, then you had a productive reading year. If you read one book this year but you loved that one book, you had a meaningful reading year. If you read 100+ books and you accomplished that goal, great! Good or you, you also had a meaningful reading year. And if you were in a reading slump and read nothing, that’s ok! Slumps happen and I’m a fan of embracing the slump.
This arbitrary total number at the end of the year is incredibly suggestive and can’t be compared from one reader to the next. For example, not all people read the same, plus we all have different schedules and demands on our time. The person who read 10 physical copies of 1000 page novels, and read them page by page, pouring over the language and annotating them, vs. the person who listened to 250 audiobooks nonstop throughout the day at 2X the listening speed, in which the hard copies average 250 pages each … is that even comparable? I’m not saying one is less than the other, I’m saying they are two completely different “end of the year” lists, so don’t get your undies in a bunch.
One does require the reader to sit down and tune the rest of the world out and solely focus on one thing, while the other is able to multitask. I do occasionally use audiobooks, though very rarely and for me, it’s an entirely different experience, but I digress, because I’m not here to debate the use of audiobooks, because I could really care less how someone chooses to read, I just like the fact that people are interacting with books. But let me reiterate - you’d be hard pressed to compare these two mediums.
But it does make me pose this question - when people throw out these massive numbers at the end of the year … how much did they actually process and absorb, whether or not they used audiobooks or read the hard copies? It’s like an assembly line of books and content. And, did the reader only seek to reach this “goal” for the sake of saying “hey look, I did this thing!”? And again, don’t get all tight and raise your blood pressure - I’m sure that there are many people who can read a copious number of books in a year and recall the intricacies of the books, but it’d be naive to not acknowledge that there are also people who shallowly run through texts for the sake of appearances.
By the end of the year, my book count will total around 33 books, which is about 20 books less than last year and I’m totally ok with that. Yes, I do seek to read as many books as I can, but there is no goal. I get to what I can get to, when I can get to it. Last year was an anomaly because life literally stopped in some cases. There was nothing else to do but read. However, the books that I did read this year were no less meaningful and felt like a 100 books to me based on the richness of the content, how much I enjoyed them and the fantastic conversations that resulted from having read these books.
So, again, if you read one book or 100, own it. The purpose of reading is to enjoy what you read, not to impress others with some vague, subjective number. You read for yourself, not other people, so take these lists with a grain of salt and don’t let someone else’s list make you feel “less” than. Comparison is the thief of joy. You do you. I like seeing what other people have managed to read by the end of the year, but that’s what they’ve managed to read. What on God’s green earth does that have to do with me? Let other people be great - it has no bearing on what you were able to accomplish reading-wise this year.
I’m done. Thanks for coming to yet another one of my TED Talks.
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