I Don’t Count the Books I Read, But I’m Reading More Than Ever

Tackling the status quo for a more fruitful reading life

Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash

Like any other bookworm, in 2016, I started tracking my reading progress on Goodreads.

In 2017, I pushed myself to read and finish many books because I wanted my Goodreads stat to display a boastful number. I read 15,000 pages and finished 61 books in 2017. This is how it looked in Goodreads:

Screenshot from Goodreads by author

I graduated in 2018 and started working full time. Due to the new routine and shortage of time, I prioritized and asked myself, why am I even doing this?

Honestly, I don’t remember a lot of what I learned from the books I read in 2017. I read only 38 books in 2018, i.e., 23 books fewer than the previous year. But I read better, I absorbed better, I learned better.

That was the moment I decided to focus more on learning. Instead of reading many books, I wanted to read a few, but apply whatever I was reading. Tracking these lower counts made me feel incompetent.

I was judging myself — comparing myself with others who read 100 books a year. So, in 2020, I stopped…