Each year many of us like to set a reading goal of how many books to read in a year. Goodreads made this popular with their yearly reading challenge. But is this really the best way to set a reading goal? No! It’s time to cultivate a deeper reading life through better reading goals.
I confess. I was one of the many people who would dive into the Goodreads challenge. Each year, I set set bigger and bigger reading goals. My reading challenges grew from 20 to 50 to 100+ books in a year. And, as an avid reader and lover books, it wasn’t too difficult.
Eventually I quit and here’s why: I noticed my reading becoming more and more shallow. I was choosing to read only easy and fun books. That way, I could easily read them very fast thus meet my yearly book quota.
Why do we set a goals or challenges anyway? Is it not to improve ourselves or lives in some way? I began to wonder how simply reading a certain number of books per year improve me or my life.
Vague and Shallow Goals
I realized that setting a goal of how many books to read per year is actually vague and shallow. It was vague because there was no specific way it was making me a better reader or improving or deepening my life. It was shallow because mostly it seemed best for “bragging” rights – “I read ____ amount of books last year!”
Not only is it a vague and shallow goal, but a reading goal like this can easily cause you to get stuck in a reading rut. You will likely pass up those longer, more difficult or challenging books that you really want to read but just don’t have time for – spending weeks reading War and Peace or House of Leaves will definitely get in the way of a 100 books a year reading challenge.
I kept passing up a book I always wanted to read – The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. If I was to meet my reading challenge then I couldn’t spend that much time reading one book.
If you are a new reader or an elementary reader, reading a certain number of books in a year can be a fun challenge. However, if you are already an avid reader and want to cultivate a deeper reading life, then there are better ways to set reading challenges and goals.
That Cultivate a Deeper Reading Life
What is a better way to approach reading goals and challenges that will improve your life and you as a person? Below are a few ways set goals that improve or deepen your reading life:
Read Every Day
Truly, the best goal when it comes to cultivating a deeper reading life is to spend time reading every day. How much or how long you spend reading every day is up to you. I find that 30 minutes a day is ideal.
Obviously, some days you will have more time than others. Some days you will have an hour or more and other days only time for a page or a paragraph. Do what works for you. If you are having a busy day – just do what you can. The main thing is to spend time reading every day.
It’s very difficult to cultivate a deeper reading life if you do not have a consistent habit of daily reading. Spending each day reading offers a sense of continuity in your reading which helps towards having a deeper reading life. It also works consistently to improve and train your ability for deep concentration and focus over time.
And when I say read, I mean sitting and reading a book in quiet concentration – not listening to audiobooks. That’s listening, not reading – besides, most of the time we are engaged in some other activity when listening to an audiobook. Each are unique experiences that engage the brain in different ways. There is nothing wrong with audiobooks – I love them too! – but a daily reading habit consisting of quietly, singularly engaged in reading a book is what I am talking about. It requires a deeper attention and level of concentration.
For those of you that still want a numeric goal or challenge – how about the number of days you read each year. Get a calendar and mark each day you read. Can you get to 365?
Challenge Yourself and Read Difficult Books
It’s fun to read books purely for entertainment purposes only and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I love getting lost in a good book. Reading can and should be fun. However, if that is all the reading you do, then you are missing out.
Reading offers so much more than escapism and entertainment. If your only goal is to read “x” number of books a year, then it is likely you are choosing only (or mostly) fun, escapist, pure entertainment books that are easy reads to meet that goal.
Here’s your new reading challenge: instead of setting that reading “challenge” of how many books you will read, make your reading challenge to read a book that will actually challenge you.
I’m not saying you have to stop reading fun escapist books. What I am saying is to read one or more books this year that will stretch your reading abilities. Who knows, you may even find the challenging ones to be fun and entertaining on a whole new level.
What makes a book difficult or challenging? Well, it is different for every person. Pick up that book that intimidates you, that you think is too long, too difficult, and possibly way out of your league and go for it. Take it slow and steady and don’t give up. (Now that you have given up your 50-100-books-a-year quota, you will have time to delve into those more challenge reads that you always said wanted to do.)
Stretch those reading muscles and your brain. Go for the books that challenge you. What difficult books you have always dreamed of reading will you pick up and challenge yourself with this year? Don’t hesitate – go for it!
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Shake up your reading life. Get out of your comfort zone. Read something different. Challenging yourself – as mentioned above – is more about reading difficult or challenging books. Getting out of your comfort zone is about reading different books.
Perhaps you mainly read a certain genre of fiction (thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, or romance to name a few). Then, choose to read a book that is in a totally different genre. Maybe all the books you read are fiction. Then it’s time for some non-fiction.
For example, you love and read mostly science fiction books. To get out of your comfort zone, you might choose to read a non-fiction book like A Crack in Creation (a book about the revolutionary new technology of gene editing, CRISPR).
Perhaps all you read is non-fiction, self-improvement or productivity books, then it’s time try a fiction novel such as David Copperfield.
Some of you may only read contemporary literature. Perhaps its time to dive in to a long epic poem like The Iliad or The Odyssey by Homer or The Histories by Herodotus.
Whatever your reading comfort zone is, get out of it. See your reading patterns and disrupt them, expand them. Whatever it is you read a lot of, choose one or more books to read this year that are very different. Cultivate a your deeper reading life by stepping out of your comfort zone.
The best part? The more you get out of your comfort zone the bigger that zone will become. It’s quite the (reading) adventure. Not only will you grow as a reader and a person, you will seriously flex those reading and concentration muscles.
Embark on a Reading Project
Speaking of adventures, another way to deepen your reading life is to embark on a reading project. Rather than just picking how many books to read in a year as your goal, why not pick a reading project? By embarking on a reading a project, your reading ‘goal’ suddenly it becomes a reading adventure.
When choosing a reading project, consider these things: how you want to challenge yourself, what you are interested in, ways you want to grow, or secret dreams you carry in your heart.
There are many ways to approach a reading project. For example, there was a woman who decided to read a fiction novel from every country. That is a great example of a reading project!
Keep a Reading Journal
This technically not a reading goal, however it does help to cultivate a deeper reading life. Keeping a reading journal is a good practice.
Your reading journal doesn’t have to be for anyone but you (unless you want to share). It can be intensely personal and totally imperfect. You don’t have to take notes on books like you did for school (unless you want to). This is for you. Not only is it documenting your reading journey, but your growth as a person as your deepen your reading life.
Jot musings, notes on what you think as you progress in your reading, how you feel about what you are reading, connections you see and are making, quotes and turns of phrase you love, ideas it inspires in you, record words that you look up, and make note of books or research it references that you might want to read in the future.
Don’t feel like your reading journal has to contain only “deep and important” thoughts about what you are reading, but you might have some of those as well.
You can even note the dates and pages read as you write about the book in your journal showing your progression as you read. You can also keep an actual calendar in your reading journal to plot the above goal of number of days read in a year as well what you read and when.
If you ever decide to re-read a book again in the future you will be able to return and see where you were the first time your read it. The more we experience life, the more depth of understanding you have and it shows when you pick up those books from your youth and re-read them. They take on a whole new meaning. Your reading journal will reflect that. The reading journal can also feed into other areas of your life as well in surprising ways.
So keep a reading journal – it will definitely help you to cultivate a deeper reading life.
Pleasure vs. Joy in Reading
Getting lost in a good book purely for escapism or entertaining is such a pleasure. But cultivating a deeper reading life through reading every day, challenging yourself with more difficult books, reading outside of your comfort zone, and reflecting on your reading in a reading journal will bring you joy.
Joy is deeper and more lasting than fleeting pleasure. You may not remember most of those 50-100 books you read in a year, but you will remember that book that challenged you, that made you step out of your comfort zone, and took you weeks or months to finish. The books that stay with you, become a part of you, even shape who you become. There is also so much joy in simply having finally tackled that book or work you have been saying you would for years. These are all lasting joy you won’t soon forget.
I don’t remember the details of many of the fun books I read last year. They were fun while the lasted. However, the joy of finally reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky (which took me months of finish) is one that will stay with me for a lifetime.
So stop setting the vague and shallow goal of simply how many books you want to read in a year. Instead, cultivate a deeper reading life by challenging yourself to read those books you always wanted to read but thought were too difficult, by stepping outside of your comfort zone, by developing a daily reading habit, and also by keeping a reading journal.
Reading goals like this don’t just cultivate a deeper reading life, but cultivate more meaningful and better life overall and help you grow in your own soul.
