Completing the (Read) 100 Books in a Year Challenge: A Review
the good, the bad, the ugly and a few tips I’ve learned
The GoodReads Yearly book challenge (which is a self-selected goal) is a great motivational tool to step up the reading game each year. As friends set goals, we might find a higher number interesting. I’ve always thought that my friends who sign up for 100 or more books each year are inspiring, but that the project itself might be a waste of time- time that could be otherwise spent.
However, 2020 has been a different beast. In the beginning, I set my sights on 35 books. I had been reading Finished by Jon Acuff who presents the idea that if you want to accomplish a huge goal cut it in half. That way you still have momentum but you wouldn’t be disappointed if you didn’t cross the finish line in an expected amount of time. I knew I hadn’t been meeting my reading goals the past three years so I figured why not? Set the bar low.
The game-changer for me was reading 10 books in January. I also read that people studying for an MFA in writing usually finish about 100 books per year, if not more. I was inspired by my friends who touted over 100 books per year. If they could do it, so could I.
Nine months and 100 books later, I wanted to share the good, the bad, and the ugly of this challenge.
The Benefits of Reading 100 Books In A Year
A chance to experiment: when choosing to read 100 books, it’s hard to read the same type of book 100 times. It is easier to experiment with different genres, subjects, and authors. The project allows us to try waters that have been uncharted by us and bring us more variety. It can also lead to exposure to a variety of different concepts and the author’s view on the topic. By reading a variety, there is continual exposure to new information.
Variety of Voices and Forms: While reading 100 books, the door is open to different forms of writing. Maybe poetry is appealing after a large novel or after a self-help book, the next one will be a short story format. This is especially helpful in studying the craft and seeing how each form and style is written. Each author also writes with a different background and beliefs about a subject. They bring both of these to the work they create. It’s a good challenge to read a variety and be inspired by different author’s works.
Cross an Item Off a Bucket List: maybe the idea of reading an entire type of list (for example, 101 books to read before you die) gets your motivation up. It could also be on the bucket list because, like me, you see friends attempting and achieving this number every year. You know you love reading but haven’t been able to imagine doing this.
Uncovering a New Love: I didn’t realize until this year how much I enjoy reading memoirs. That changed when I came across Let Love Have the Last Word by Common. We have completely different backgrounds, but I agree with many of his insights about love. It was an inspiration to me when evaluating my relationships.
By allowing ourselves to experiment and try different things, we might find that we fall in love with one of the subjects or types of books. It also might be that we remember an old hobby that we want to get back to working on. For me, this is bullet journaling. The spark was reunited for me while reading Ryder Carroll’s Bullet Journal Method and I realized that bullet journaling is more than spending an hour creating a pretty monthly spread.
Building a Habit: if you want to make reading for x amount of time or x amount of pages a goal for this year, 100 Books will amplify and keep you accountable to that goal.
The Disadvantages to Reading 100 Books a Year
Limited time for other activities: Setting a goal of reading 100 books takes a lot of time. Regardless of how many audiobooks versus print copies or how much time we commute to work, it’s still a choice that requires some sacrifice of other activities.
Overload of Ideas: While exposing your mind to great authors and subjects will help you both personally and as a writer, there is a downside. Often, it can feel like the ideas are coming at you like a landslide. 100 Books a year keeps you going, even when you want to take time out and think through the material.
It Doesn’t Have Much Actual Weight to It as a Goal: A few times over the summer, I stopped to think about what goals were worth pursuing this year. What would be the consequences if I didn’t finish 100 books? Would it matter? I kept going because I knew in my heart it was something I wanted to see to completion.
However, compared to other goals- for example, eliminating the debt from one of my credit cards, it didn’t measure up. Paying off the card was a tangible goal and had real effects whether or not I saw it through beyond just “it would be nice to…”. This is a challenge that you need to decide if it’s worth the sacrifice of time and energy to complete. It’s a personal choice.
Hard to Remember Sources or What You Read: when I was attempting the 100 books in a year challenge, I didn’t keep a notebook. I made a mental note of what I wanted to return to later and kept going. However, there were a lot of great ideas this year that when I went to pull from later, I couldn’t remember where I had found them.
The Potentially Ugly Side:
Why are you reading that? While doing the 100 books in a year challenge, I felt many times that I was racing a large clock. I had a goal that I was going to achieve. Sometimes this takes the pleasure out of reading. There’s a sidetracking element that will take you past any pleasure and checking the date to make sure you’re on track for accomplishing the goal.
Competitive aspect: I mentioned earlier that a few people I know on Goodreads set to read 100 books a year. It’s easy to get lost in the game of comparing who is further along. This can quickly destroy the challenge if it is allowed to have any place during it. Reading should be an individual activity and not a race.
Would it Destroy Your Love of Reading? I was an English major in college. After four years of reading, analyzing plots and structure, and writing essays, I was burned out. I remember sitting in my advisor’s office four months after graduating, asking if I would ever love reading again or if it was game over for me.
Judging from the fact that I just finished 100 books a year, it wasn’t over. Yet it didn’t come back overnight either. It took a long road and a few books that piqued my curiosity enough to get back in the game. We each have a different level of comfort with reading and how many books we can honestly enjoy in a year.
If this is something that you feel would destroy your love of reading, don’t do it. If you start to feel bogged down and are not on some level enjoying it, don’t do it. This is not a must-do challenge, even if everyone you know is attempting it.
7 Ways I Accomplished My Goal and 1 I Wish I Had Used
- Read a few books simultaneously. Depending on your mood and what you’re currently interested in, you can get more reading done in a day from one source compared to another. Some days I found myself wanting to finish a book of poetry, others I wanted to escape into the fictional world of Lisabeth Salander (Girl with Dragon Tattoo series). It helped to have both going on at the same time.
- Audiobooks are a godsend. When I was younger, I had a one hour commute by bus each way. It was the perfect time to crack open a physical book spine and read for hours. However, nowadays it’s not quite that simple. My commute time is spent in the car and it usually led to me reading at least an extra book each week.
- Keep a list of books you want to return to. I have a few titles I want to get back to next year. Due to the rapid-fire nature of reading 100 books, I didn’t absorb as much as I wanted to from them. It helped me to have a list of books to go back to and reread once the challenge was over.
- Set a goal per day. this will build the reading habit as well as ensuring you’re making progress. Take a long term mindset and choose to finish a set number of pages per day. Many times you’ll get further.
- Post it somewhere. Instagram and Goodreads are prime candidates. If you’re able to see how far you’ve come, it makes giving up more difficult. It also helps to let you know if you’re on target- Goodreads even has a yearly challenge tab where they tell you how many books you would need to read per week or month to accomplish the challenge. Plus, both allow you to post easy reviews after if you desire.
- Remember that it’s okay to DNF. I choose to DNF three books during this challenge. It wasn’t always in the book and I remember after passing on one of them telling my fiance: It’s a good book but I feel like I already know everything in it. It would have been helpful a few years ago. Sometimes we’re not in the right place or season for a book. That doesn’t make it a bad book or a bad choice, it’s just not a match at this current time.
- Even if you’re a planner, leave room for adventure. With everything, it’s possible to over plan. Every year, reading groups and various sites on-line blogs promote a variety of reading challenges. These challenges range for a variety of times but to pass the challenge, you need to plan it out ahead of time. Knowing some of the titles you want to read this year might be helpful, but it’s also intriguing to be able to go to the library and see what catches your eye. Leave some room for adventure.
- I wish that I had kept a commonplace book. A commonplace book is a place to gather all of the things that inspire you in one location. It allows for the collection of material and forces you to think through what you just read as you write, summarize, and transcribe ideas into a permanent notebook.
My Personal Take On the 100 Books In a Year Challenge
So far, we’ve covered the pros, cons, a few warnings, and some tips for accomplishing the 100 books in a year challenge. So, after completing it, what are my feelings and would I do it again?
I’m proud to be able to say that I accomplished the feat. It stretched my comfort zone and challenged my mind and the way I think. It was a fun challenge that leads to many positive memories I deeply enjoyed both reading new (to me) books and revisiting old favorites.
I also learned a lot this past year, including the following: how to set realistic relationship goals, how to form lasting habits, how to use Twitter, and what happens when someone takes on the challenge of being rejected 100 days in a row.
It’s ultimately up to each person to decide what they want to do, but it’s not a challenge I’m going to take on again, at least for the next year or two. This is not because I feel wiped out from finishing it the way I did after obtaining my undergraduate in literature.
It’s just that different seasons call for and allow different experiments and experiences. I do however plan to eventually dig back into this challenge, reading notebook in hand.
I think if you love books, this would be a challenge that would be helpful to entertain.
