Whenever I meet someone new and tell them I spend quite a lot of my time talking about books online, one of the first questions they ask is how many books I read every month. I always prepare myself to disappoint because, as anyone who spends more than ten minutes on bookstagram or booktok or booktube or any of the bookplaces knows, the bar for how many books a respectable reader should consume has been set so high that most of us can’t even see it.
I usually say “around three!” and I’m lying through my teeth. A three book month for me is an absolute rarity, an occasion worthy of formal wear, a precious gem of an experience. I’m a solid two book a month girl, and this is me making an active effort to read whenever I can and often when I kind of… don’t feel like it. But to say I read three books a month would be, well, a creative answer, to say the least. It does happen, but it doesn’t happen frequently.
Still, people will often be very impressed by this, or pretend to be, to which I will quickly add “but that’s very little for, erm, book people”, which is an unnecessary disclaimer, and one that most likely helps perpetrate the very notion that I’m hoping to pull apart today, though it seems to be accurate regardless. The trend might have subsided by now on my particular side of the internet—the type of creators I follow has shifted in the last couple of years—, but there are definitely many people out there reading hundreds of books every year, especially in book-dedicated spaces.
The benefits of reading more are clear, and the internet is full of tall monthly wrap-up stacks, gigantic haul videos, and tips to help you read more—I know, because I’ve shared these myself. And granted, if you’re going to be doing more of anything, reading is up there on the list of positive things you could do. It’s harmless, it’s enriching, it’s fun, and it even makes you a better person.
Given the world’s collective determination to shove the notion of productivity down our throats, I’m positive that most people reading this will, at least to some degree, perceive reading more as the way to go when it comes to book consumption, and that’s how I’ve often felt about it too.
However, I think there’s an imbalance when it comes to the online representation of two opposite, but equally valid, choices: while reading hundreds of books a year is highly praised and shared by those who achieve it, a slower approach to the hobby isn’t really discussed as a legitimate option, especially in book-focused spaces. It’s as if you’re either successfully reading a lot, or you’re failing at it.
I don’t blame us. We’ve always been told to look for clear metrics of success, after all: the best athletes run the fastest and jump the highest, the brightest students get straight A’s, the most successful businesses make the biggest amount of money. No one gets a medal for running the slowest, and don’t we all want a medal? I know I do.
But unfortunately, even if reading was an actual competition, there isn’t really a way to measure how well we read beyond counting how many books we read, and isn’t that just about the most useless metric one could think of when it comes to art consumption? What does it matter, really, how much we read?
Turns out that it matters quite a lot to many readers. I’ve seen people independently add the 66 books in the Bible to their reading trackers in December just so they could make their reading goal (which… did you really read the whole Bible that year? Did you really?) and I’ve gotten DMs stating that audiobooks “don’t count” when it comes to yearly reading challenges. My question to that is… what do you mean, they don’t count? They don’t count… for what?
I am all for readers challenging themselves, but things get tricky when people get into each other’s business. There is this sense of ownership over the “competition” when really, there isn’t one. There are no rules, no jury, no prizes. We’re all just… reading. Some more, some less.
I’m a very slow reader. I have a hard time juggling multiple titles at once (even on different mediums, my brain remains determined to consume one story at a time), and I can’t read every day, even if I have the time, and even if I want to; some days, my focus simply isn’t there.
While I know there’s nothing wrong with this, a part of me still feels guilty. I’ve long left the ambitious yearly goals and challenges behind but still, sometimes I wish I read more. It’s ingrained in me (as I said, I want that medal!).
The fact that I talk about books online certainly furthers this sense of urgency. Most book creators read a lot, and such habits are expected of them if they want to keep up with new releases and post content often. Although reviewing books isn’t my job, I certainly would like to have new titles to discuss and review at a faster pace than I do at the moment. And on a personal level, as a reader, there are so many books I want to experience in this lifetime; how am I expected to read them all unless I race through them?
Both instances, however, are games I am destined to lose. Lord knows no one could read fast enough to satiate the algorithms, and there is no way I could ever leave this world with the certainty that I’d read all the books I had a remote interest in, so why stress over it? I might as well focus on what I can enjoy in the present moment. Numbers have the importance you choose to give them, anyway.
Ultimately, it was my personal taste that determined I wouldn’t be able to keep up with a fast-paced reading routine. When I got into literary fiction and character-driven stories about two or three years ago, I found myself enjoying these novels, but I wanted to dive deeper - I wanted to highlight and annotate and read them at a slower pace, and spend hours on Reddit threads after finishing them. I wanted to enjoy the writing, truly savor it, and I couldn’t do it on a deadline.
Up until that point, most of my reads had been heavily plot-driven (I could hardly read something that wasn’t), and for me, those are a lot faster and easier to get through. So it was a natural, unintentional transition, though it took me a while to accept that my reading goals would have to adapt to my new preferences and not the other way around. I couldn’t read 50 books a year anymore; or I could, but forcing myself to do it wouldn’t be a good idea.
Like everything else in life, the amount of books we read—and the way we choose to go about our reading habits—is a choice, and it’s a personal one. You’re no less of a reader if you read one book a year, and similarly, you’re no less of a reader if you’re voraciously going through hundreds of books a year. Reading can be pure joy in both instances.
Personally, I’ve found that I am in a season of reading slowly, and as a consequence, less. Substantially less. That also means that I read better than I used to. I experience my books in a way that feels immersive and interactive, that sparks discussions with those around me, and that doesn’t place unnecessary pressure on me. And that’s exactly where I want to be right now.
If you’re an avid reader, here are a few reasons you might want to consider reading less, or more intentionally:
Your favorite genres demand to be read slowly. I could never read a 300-page non-fiction book and a 300-page thriller at the same pace; non-fiction books are usually so dense to me, I need three stomachs to digest them. Similarly, it could take me a month to read an 80-page literary fiction novella.
You’re focused on reading diversely. Reading authors and genres outside of your comfort zone often requires extra brain power and more time to first find them, then read them. It’s worth it.
You’re avoiding information overload. Maybe one book a month or one book every two months is your sweet spot, and you want to spend the rest of your free time walking or painting or sleeping.
Reading goals make you anxious. You don’t want your hobby to feel like a race.
You want to read with company. Maybe you can only finish your book if you’re reading it along with a friend and stopping along the way for discussions over coffee.
You’re an annotator. You want to write on the margins, highlight your favorite quotes and then write an essay about the book you just read. Those things take time.
Thank you for reading! I would love to discuss this with you in the comments below. Have you found yourself reading less recently? Or are you reading more than ever? Do you feel like being online has influenced your reading habits?
I’ve been thinking about this so much recently, i also did a post about this on my instagram (don’t get your hopes up, I’m so not an influencer - https://www.instagram.com/p/C2XnIlCoNMZ/?igsh=MWFpY2owNjh1OWViOA== ). Besides the overconsumption that we see, instagramers and youtubers with a goal of 27274829 books a year, i found out that most are just skimming through them! Like reading only dialogue or the so called “dynamic reading” (which is not reading in my opinion). So, like any other online pressure, reading goals have also become kinda of a pressure through basically fake “advertisement”.. i don’t trust no one.
I am what I would call a very fast reader and I also used to be a book blogger that got idk probably 50-80 books sent to me a month for a good 6-8 years or so and in that time I would reader a little over a 100 books a year, for reasons because I could and enjoyed it for that time but it was also legitimately profitable for me to do so (tho looking back it was pretty dumb because while profitable I didn't need the money and there was no direct correlation of number of books read + more $).
Ever since that phase passed me by I greatly enjoy being back to my pace of reading before that era. I still read very fast ofc but there is something to be said about reading only what you absolutely think you will love or are intrigued by and i think more importantly, when you are reading that many books you're not just reading the books but you're also in the grind of scheduling, knowing what's coming out, and you're oddly in the book business without being in the book business and having benefits and you start treating it like a job.
When you're on top of stuff like that I also think you lose a key component in life, not just reading, but maybe especially reading, and that's legitimate discovery. Discovery is beautiful. There's something about finding a book on the shelf or online, it hitting you, not everyone on the internet, not your friend group, but something spoke to YOU and you pick it up and then even after you read and if it's just okay or even not great, it's still yours and it makes the winners you pick up that, let's be honest, the right book can change your life if they catch you at the right time, and finding those types of books, my memories of that, are as strong as the first time I went to Bora Bora or something. It's a legit journey and adventure, it's art, not a factory line.