Welcome to Road Trip Wednesday day, a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway posts a weekly writing- or reading-related question and anyone can answer it on their own blogs. Check out the original post for links to other Road Trippers’ answers!
This week’s topic is: About how many books do you read in a year? Do you want to read more? Or, less?
Ahh. The last couple of years I’ve set a very lofty goal for reading. In both 2011 and 2012 I hoped to read 100 books. Even with being generous in allowing re-reads to count (once per year), I still fell crazy short of that target, hitting about 50 in 2011 and it looks like I’ll be right around that for this year as well.
My problem is I read in starts and spurts, and much of the time I’m drafting (which has been… all year) it’s sometimes difficult to make time to read, or to find something to read that won’t interfere with my output. This year I stated my goal to read all the Printz-nominated books and, well. That just didn’t come close to happening. I find it very hard to pick up and book and get into it when there’s pressure to read it. (Apparently I am very much a reading diva.)
Still, 50 books in a year is fairly good, and I’d say my hope would be to keep that consistent—maybe make the goal 52 books, or one book a week.
What about you? Do you set reading goals for the year? Have you kept track of the number of books you’ve read?
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Sarah, I’m about like you–I keep aiming for 100 books or higher, but my wild fluctuation (sometimes 1 book a month, sometimes 12) makes it impossible! I love the wide selection you have in your TBR, though. I think it’s important to read one’s genre, but also to read widely elsewhere. Best of luck with drafting!
Yes, that’s exactly how I am Lindsay! Some months I’ve blown through a dozen books and I think reaching 100 is going to be a breeze. Ha! And I completely agree about reading outside the genre. It’s fun to be in totally other worlds sometimes!
I set a reading goal for school, because I have to read many, many books for my M Phil exams this year. The first list was 75-80 texts, of which I probably read 60-65 books; the second list, which I started on after Thanksgiving, is 35-40. GR tells me that I’ve read about 50 books for fun on top of that. Good thing most of my time is dedicated to reading!
O.O Holy COW lady that is a looooot of books!!! (And texts!) I fear for your shelves.
I was totally inspired by you to use GR more for tracking what I read. I like using the website, but GR seems like it’s more user-friendly than it used to be. So I’m giving that a whirl!
I definitely like GR as a tracking mechanism, but I do have a couple of criticisms. One is probably not useful for you, because it has to do with the obscure things I read for school (and that’s why I am now a GR librarian). The other, though, has to do with the pressure GR puts on you to star-rate or review everything you read. On the one hand, I’d like to remember how much I liked or didn’t like a book, and giving it a quick star-rating or jotting down a few notes for myself about it would be useful for that. On the other, since it’s a public forum, I don’t like to rate or review all that much because I would be less forthright than would be useful for me, in remembering my frank appraisal of the book. I’d love if GR had a feature that allowed you to rate and/or review privately. Until then, I mostly just rate books that blew me away and review if I have (generally nice) Things to Say about them.
If you try using GR as record, I’d be interested to hear how it works for you!
I’m at 114 right now, but that was fueled by the two hours a day I spent on the subway until school finished up in June and I moved out of New York City. At the moment, I’m lucky enough to stay home and read/write at my leisure…but I’m actually reading a lot less! Partly because of writing, partly because of housework, and partly because when I’m home there are a million other distractions competing with writing (my iPad has gone from “vital work tool” to “huge timesuck full of stupidly addicting games.”) So next year I’m gonna shoot for somewhere between 50-75 books: enough that I will have to deliberately make time for reading, but not so many that I start choosing shorter books just so I can add them to the list!
114, WOOHOO! Oh I know exactly what you mean about reading on the subway commute! Actually I never would have finished my book this year if I didn’t spend my two hour (total) commute working on a laptop. LIFESAVER.
(And I’d like to pretend I don’t know what you mean about the shorter books, but, eh, *CoughWeetzieBatCough*)
I try not to set read goals. I find goals can be helpful in a lot of things. Like when I decided to write 1500 words a day during the first-draft stage of my manuscript, it helped. I agree with you about putting pressure on reading a book itself. If it’s there, I find I’ll rebel. 50 books is a very respectable number, and still much more than most accomplish. (Myself included.)
It’s true, setting reading goals can be kind of silly! I think I might love goals too much :) It’s funny, I know authors that are on really extreme ends of the spectrum. Some speed readers get through hundreds of books a year, and I know some that can only tackle a dozen, if that. And really, in the end it makes little difference!
“I try to find something to read that won’t interfere with my output” –> definitely understand. I usually read YA contemporary when I´m working really hard on my novels, but sometimes I also need to step away to not interfere with my output. Funny how it works. :D
And I can´t tell myself I have to read a book, unless it´s based on a stellar recommendation (I´ll pretty much read anything Katy raves about :P) or it´s for Tracey´s book club but there again, I really wanted to read all titles proposed :D
Ooh, Katy and Tracey always have great book options/recs. I’m with you though, if someone tells me I “NEED” to read a book, I’m much more likely to resist—even though that doesn’t really make sense! Oy. Glad I’m not the only one!
If I could read 100 books in a year, and remember what each of those books was about, what I liked or didn’t like about each one, and was able to enjoy the writer’s craft, then that would be great. As it is, that’s not very realistic for me. For a start, with writing, work, and family alone, much of my reading time is consumed. I have to make time to read as it is. And then each book will have it’s own demands. Perhaps the story and characters are very accessible, and the writer’s style is easy, so it takes me a day to read the book. But it might be that the story’s world is deep, the plot complex, and the writer’s style somewhat obtuse. Such a book will require more concentration, and will take longer.
I wonder if some writers feel guilted into trying to read a lot of books because they’ve been told that good writers read a lot. I think it’s true that a good writer will be a healthy reader. But a healthy reader isn’t necessarily someone who is reading 150 books a year. At least not in my book (har har)! If you love reading, and you’re always looking out for something to read, and you’re making as much time as you can in your day to read (which may be hours, or five minutes in the bathroom), then I think you’re a healthy reader. The number of books that translates to will differ from person to person for a whole host of reasons, and so it’s not really that important.
There’s my 2-cents. :)
Totally agree, Colin! Everyone reads differently, and as with anything creatively-driven, forcing it won’t help! Perhaps more than focusing on MORE books, it would help me to focus on reading a more diverse range of books.
I’ve been setting reading goals for myself these past two years, but I’m a slow reader. So your average of 50 is my “lofty goal,” lol. I’m trying to hit 50 this year. I don’t think I’ll make it, but it’s nice because I improved from last year’s goal of 30. :)
I had a lofty goal, and I’m going to wind up with about 60. I think there’s something to be said for reading well and reading consistently, even if it means you read fewer books in a year. Sometimes reading really does feel like a compulsion for me–an awesome compulsion, but still!
I hit my goal of 55 back in August, but looking back at what I’ve read this year, I think it might be all of the YA I read – every book I’ve read this year except five or six were YA. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m thinking now that I’m not in college anymore and don’t have OMGBOOKS to read for classes, I might need to mix it up next year, throw in some classics since I’ve been meaning to read more of those.
I’m able to read a little over 50 a year and that includes audiobooks which I listen to while cleaning the house, usually for those I choose non-fiction because you don’t have to pay as close attention to the “storyline”.
Fifty books is still a lot! I like goals–like reading the Printz books–but sometimes picking up a random book at the store or finding a deal online is more satisfying. I’ve read some romance books this year I never would have picked up if it weren’t for my writers group.
I am a crazy person with reading. I do use GoodReads to keep track of my books and I love it for that. I tend to do very very brief reviews unless something really excited me (or REALLY REALLY REALLY peeved me) about the book.
Last year I set a goal of 100 and broke it before Thanksgiving so I reset my goal and ended up with a total of 140. So of course my goal this year is 150. I have 138 so far. (about 5 of those are picture books and I’ve read about 10 graphic novels, which tend to be a little easier to get through)
One of the things that has helped me get so many in is that I have a long commute and I get audiobooks from the library. I usually get through 1-2 a week depending on the book just from driving around :)