Starting in 2017, I made a goal to not only read more, but to read consciously. Generically I can summarize my goals as ways to encourage me to read books from other countries, other races, other genders and other time periods. Here are the goals I set for myself to do that.
Summary of Goals for 2022:
Goal #1: Read 4 books a month (48 total)
Goal #2: Read some longer books (over 300 pages)
I want this number to not be zero and ideally be above 10%. This goal was created to help me face my fear of big books and tackle some longer reads.
Goal #3: >50% of books are by women
When I first started this goal, I found that barely 30% of the books I read were written by women. This data showed a bias on my part considering women make up 50% of the population. Even now, 70% of the books I have read in my lifetime have been by men. I think it might take my whole lifetime to get this ratio to be even.
Goal #4: >50% of non-fiction books are by women
When I first started reading more books by women, I found rarely were those books non-fiction. This meant I was still getting my ‘expert’ advice from men. In fact, of my reading goals, this one is always the hardest to achieve.
Goal #5: More than 50% of books are by an author of color
Goal #6: At least 1 book by a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
I have a lifelong goal to read at least one book from everyone who has won the Nobel Prize in Literature since 1950. These books are great reads that are never recommended to me by peers.
Goal #7: At least 1 book written before 1900
Goal #8: Read a couple books from other countries
I have a goal to read a book from every country in the world (book list here). Reading a couple a year will slowly expose me to more world literature, and let me reach my goal of reading a book from every country in the world in 50 years.
Summary of Results:
6/8 goals were surpassed. Here are the details.
Goal #1: Read 4 books a month (48 total)
Result: Read 50 books
Goal #2: Read some longer books (over 300 pages)
Result: 46% of the books I read were above 300 pages
I equate the success of this goal to the fact that I read a lot of fantasy series this year and quite a few graphic novel series, which can get quite long.
It is interesting to see that despite reading 2 fewer books than last year, I read more pages this year.
Goal #3: 50% of books are by women
Result: 49% of the book are by women
I was one or two books shy of hitting this goal. It is worth noting that I do not count repeat authors in this goal, meaning if I read two books by an author in a year, that author only counts once.
This matters because if I count authors I read multiple books from, I surpass this goal at 56%. That’s because all nine of the books from fantasy series I read this year were written by women.
That being said, I’m still considering this goal as unachieved for 2022. I can’t use fancy math to get my way.
Goal #4: 50% of non-fiction books are by women
Result: 41% of non-fiction books are by women
Another missed goal. I originally thought I missed this goal because I was part of quite a few book clubs this year where we read only non-fiction. But only 3 of 11 non-fiction books I read were from book clubs, and 2 of those were by women.
So I likely missed this goal because I did not pay that much attention to it and to the fact that I read less non-fiction overall — 11 out of the 50 books I read were non-fiction, and only 4 of these were written by women.
Goal #5: More than 50% of books are by an author of color
Result: 53% were by an author of color
I don’t have much to say beside the fact that 53% seems low for someone who is actively trying to read non-western authors.
Goal #6: At least 1 book by a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Result: I read Accidental Death of Anarchist by 1997 Nobel Prize Winner Dario Fo.
Next year, I want to read 2 books by a winner of a Nobel Prize because I will not be able to catch up to my goal otherwise.
Goal #7: At least 1 book written before 1900
Result: 14% of the books I read were before 1900
I read 3 books that were over 100 years old: Emma, Sense and Sensibility and Death of Sultan Bahu.
I read 6 books that were over 50 years old: Prison Diary of Ho Chi Minh, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Fire Next Time, The Blind Owl, The Wizard of Earthsea, and Fifteen Iraqi Poets. (I gave myself half a point for each of these).
Overall, these were some of the books I enjoyed most this year, so I want to try to increasing this number next year. I will update next year’s goal to be 20% of books written by 1970 or earlier.
Goal #8: Read a couple books from other countries
Result: I read the Blind Owl by famous Iranian author Sadegh Hedayat
Goals for 2023
Goal #1: Read 3 books a month (36 total)
I want to read harder books next year including a lot more foreign literature and political theory. Because of that, I lowered my book goal to encourage diving into harder books.
Goal #2: >10% of books are longer than 300 pages
I added a percentage goal instead of the generic ‘some’ I had years prior.
Goal #3: 50% of books are by women
Goal #4: 50% of non-fiction books are by women
Goal #5: >50% of books are by an author of color
Goal #6: 2 books by a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Goal #7: 20% of books written by 1970 or earlier
Goal #8: 2 books from other countries
Thanks for reading!
Previous Reading Data and Writing
Collective
- Reading Data Over Time in Google Sheets
- Reading a book from every country in the world
2022
Data
Writing
2021
Data
Writing
2020
Data
2019
Data
Writing
2018
Data
Writing
2017
Data
Writing
