Reading 100 books was my 2021 New Year’s resolution.
It had been a while since I was engulfed in a series, so it didn’t feel right to call myself a “reader” with that record.
So I picked up whatever novel had enough of an interesting synopsis to spend the next few hours reading. At first, it was mystery books, horror books, then recommendations from friends and eventually … nothing.
I remember being 21 books in before I quit in April.
It wasn’t that I ran out of books to read or that I got bored. It was the numbers. What started as a simple goal with an ambitious bar turned into a comprehensive list with the amount of novels I read in every genre, the average number of pages I was reading and the time it took me to finish the books – down to the seconds.
As the weeks went on, I realized that I wasn’t reading at the rate I needed to reach my goal. Instead of accepting my pace, I decided to hit the brakes and save my energy.
Had I not given up, I would have read at least 60 by the end of the year.
With that realization, I made another New Year’s resolution in 2022 to read 50 books. I can’t even say how many I got through that time, because by then, I was tired of forcing goals on books as if the only thing on those pages that counted were the numbers.
I thought I bounced back until I found myself writing more than I was reading.
When I started writing stories myself, the goal changed, but the drive was the same. Every paragraph that bled into the next page made me stare at the new page number I’d reached. I can’t say that it made me quit writing, since I wasn’t as strict that time, but it took the fun out of it.
So I decided to read again.
This time, it was to regain inspiration for writing. I surprised myself by making it through a third of a book before ever checking where I was. I was too busy caught up in the characters’ story, unaware of how long it took to read or the amount of books I’ve gotten through.
It was only then that I could finally have a favorite book, a preferred style and pay better attention to details. Even though I definitely haven’t read 100 books this year, I can confidently say I’ve become a better reader.
I could look back at my 2021 resolution to dismiss it as the most left-brain thing I’ve done before moving on, but I’ll take it as a lesson that numbers and goals are some of my best tools.
Just not where novels are involved.
