WHY I’M NOT ENJOYING THIS YEAR’S READING CHALLENGE
I am one of the 5 million participants of Goodreads’ annual reading challenge. As of the writing of this post, I’ve read 56 books in 2021. My goal is to complete 80 books before the year is over. With 12 weeks left in the year, I need to read two books a week to be able to pat myself on the back for a job well done.
This is what my reading challenge has been reduced to - math. I calculate my progress weekly. Count the pages I have left to read. The hours left on an audiobook. I reach for thin poetry books over daunting 400-page adventures.
I began participating in these challenges with good intentions. I graduated from college in 2014 and no longer had study sessions, sorority life, or a collegiate magazine to keep me from reading for pleasure. By 2015, I had a stable big girl job and a growing TBR pile. My 6x5 Kallax shelf from IKEA was bursting with books I intended to read, someday, when I had time. Not realizing, of course, that the time was the present. I was single with no kids, had few social commitments, and had a 9–5 job. I had the time, but not the motivation.
