I recently read an interesting article on the Tor.com site called Maybe Reading Goals Are Good, Actually, which suggested that for a lot of us reading is proving harder than usual right now, and that setting reading goals might be a good thing to do. I agree! I regularly set reading goals – you can read about my 2022 goals here. However, the article seems to be based on the assumption that reading goals are a sort of necessary evil, a last resort to turn to when the world gets in the way of everything else. This…I don’t agree with. I actually think that a lot of the article’s conclusions are pretty accurate, just maybe not its assumptions, so I thought I would write my own piece on the same subject to talk about it from a different point of view, reinforcing some of the same messages and offering alternate views on others.
I’m not saying the author of the Tor article is wrong, or that I’m right – I just want to offer a different perspective. Personally, I think that it’s a fundamentally good idea to set goals for your reading, as long as you choose goals that suit your interests and your own way of reading. Because that’s the key thing – there’s no point setting arbitrary goals just for the sake of it, but applying a little structure or self-assessment into your reading can be really valuable. So with that in mind I’m going to talk a bit about what reading goals actually are and the different forms they can take, and give some suggestions as to what sort of goals you might want to set and why. I will also add in a few words of caution, because it’s fair to say there are some downsides if you’re not careful.
Assumptions
First though, let’s take a look at a couple of the assumptions that the Tor article makes. The first one is something I agree with – that the pandemic, and everything else that’s happened over the last couple of years, has probably had at least some impact on most people’s reading. To be honest, I’ve read loads since the pandemic started (in fact, more than I was reading previously), but it’s still had an impact – not so much in terms of quantity, but it’s definitely affected how I’ve chosen books and what I’ve been in the mood for (I’ve reviewed less, and chosen way more comfort reads, for example). Other people will have been affected in different ways…but I think it’s a safe bet that a lot of people will have felt their reading habits change, for better or worse.
The second assumption, however, is one that I’m not very keen on – that just as there are ‘plotters’ and ‘pantsers’ when it comes to writers, there are mood readers and goal readers. I don’t agree. At all. I’m just not a fan of this binary way of looking at things – that everyone must fall into one of two camps, in this case pantsers/plotters or mood readers/goal settings. I understand why it’s popular as a sort of shorthand way of looking at things, but I don’t think it’s an accurate reflection of the real world, or real people. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason why you can’t be both a mood reader and a goal setter, in fact I’d say that most people are a combination of the two. Some will lean more towards one than the other, but it’s a spectrum not a case of either/or.
Me, I’m absolutely a mood reader – for example, I have a ridiculously large stack of books that I bought because I really want to read them, but haven’t found myself in the right place for reading yet. I know I’m going to love each and every one of them, but so far every time I’ve finished a book I’ve looked over at them and thought “hmm…not in the right mood” (or the digital equivalent). But the thing is, I also love setting goals, because they help to keep me motivated, remind me to not always read the same sorts of books, and give me an additional sense of satisfaction. As far as I’m concerned, I’m a mood reader AND I set myself goals for my reading.
I said it earlier but it’s worth repeating – the Tor.com article is, in the end, generally positive about setting goals, just in a roundabout way. I don’t want to be too critical of its author, but I also really don’t think this combative ‘us vs them’ approach is healthy. So, with all that said, let’s take a look at what reading goals actually are (or rather, what they can be).
What is a reading goal?
Ok, let’s be clear: setting goals for your reading doesn’t have to mean planning really far ahead, deciding what to read in advance or being really regimented with what you read. It can mean that if you want, but it doesn’t have to. Maybe it would help to not call them goals but rather hopes or intentions…because the way I see it, setting reading goals isn’t about applying strict rules or limitations to your reading, but rather finding ways of getting the most out of your reading, and the time you have for it. They’re goals you set based on your own style of reading, your own lifestyle and what you personally want to achieve.
You might think “I’m going to finally read that book I’ve been meaning to pick up for years”, or “I’m going on holiday to X and I want to read a book set there” – those are great reading goals! Likewise, you might want to make a conscious effort to think about what you’re reading and keep in mind variety and/or diversity, or just find a way to encourage yourself to read more. These are all valid goals, and as far as I’m concerned none of them conflict with being a mood reader. Likewise, just saying to yourself “you know what, I just want to choose books based on how much I think I’m going to enjoy them” – whether that means going by trusted reviews, sticking to familiar authors or series, or whatever – is also a perfectly valid reading goal!
Sure, there may be some readers who find setting goals totally incompatible with their style (or indeed some readers who absolutely have to set goals and need the structure), but I think they’re likely to either be outliers, or to be viewing this question through the same binary lens as the Tor.com article begins with. Just to be clear though – that’s my opinion only, and your mileage may vary!
For reference, these are the reading goals I’ve set for 2022 (see this article for full details):
- Read 52 books: reading absolutely isn’t all about quantity, but I just like seeing my progress against an arbitrary target as I find it strangely motivational.
- Keep listening to audiobooks: really this is just a reminder to keep up with the good habit I developed last year of always having an audiobook on the go.
- Read both for fun and to review: sometimes I find I need to remind myself that while I may run a book reviews site, I don’t have to review every book I read.
- Diversity of reading: SFF can, on the surface, sometimes seem to be dominated by white male writers. I’m not going to stop reading those books, but I’m keen to make sure I’m reading as widely as I can, and enjoying all sorts of different viewpoints.
- Catch up on my 2021 TBR: I have a pile of books published last year that I didn’t get around to reading, but I really do want to read! Hopefully this year I can catch up on those.
Why set reading goals?
Ok, so working on the basis that setting reading goals is really just about each person deciding what they want to get out of their reading, let’s talk a bit about what the benefits are of setting and working towards goals. There are of course endless possibilities for which goals to set and what you might want to get out of them, but here are some of the benefits that I find when setting goals.
Accountability
I find that setting a reading challenge – using Goodreads or otherwise – is a good way of holding myself accountable. I know that reading isn’t just about plowing through as many books as possible, but I also know that however much I love reading, sometimes I get distracted or too busy, and reading risks falling behind. Having a reading challenge keeps the concept of reading on my mind, so any time I realise that I haven’t read much I give myself a nudge to get back on it and get back in the habit.
Maintaining habits
Speaking of habits, reading can be just like any other hobby – the more of it you do the more you want to do, but if you stop then it can be hard to start up again. Whether it’s a case of making time to always read before bed, on your commute to work, in your lunch break, whatever, reading regularly is a good way of maintaining momentum…but it can be hard to stick with it (see the earlier point of the current state of the world). I find reading goals really helpful in giving me impetus to get back reading and into good habits, or in motivating me to maintain good reading habits.
Sense of achievement
Human brains are weird things, and one way in which my own brain is weird is that I get a very recognisable sense of achievement from finishing off projects or hitting goals and targets. Obviously it’s a lovely feeling to reach the end of a really satisfying book, but I also find it’s equally satisfying to tick each book off on my reading challenge (and…um…my reading spreadsheet, because yes I’m that much of a book nerd), or to see what proportion of the books I’ve read up to now have been audiobooks, or written by female authors. Maybe it’s just me (although I suspect it isn’t), but this is one of the biggest rewards I find I get from setting goals.
Variety and diversity
When I think back to years in which I predominantly read Black Library books (for example in 2017, when 58 out of the 76 I read were BL books), two things are noticeable. Firstly that over 75% of what I read was military science fiction from one publisher, and secondly that less than 10% of those books were written by female authors. Clearly I wasn’t getting a lot of variety in my reading. Now ultimately the most important thing for me is to make sure I’m enjoying my reading, and I do love Black Library books, but there’s more to life than reading the same sort of book every single time.
For me, setting a goal to read more widely is really just a reminder that I love trying new things as much as I love comfortable, familiar genres, styles, themes and so on. So I still enjoy reading Black Library books, but since making a point of reading books from other publishers, of looking for books written by non-male authors and (although I still need to better on this one) non-white authors, I’ve found new favourite authors and generally just enjoyed a greater variety in my reading. Let me be clear – that’s just my personal choice, and there’s nothing wrong with sticking with comfort reads. A bit of variety is rarely a bad thing, though.
A quick extra note on the question of diversity in particular. I’ve often seen comments along the lines of “I don’t pay attention to authors’ gender/colour etc.” from people being very dismissive of the idea of actively trying to read widely. It’s not my place to tell anyone else what to read, of course…but as far as I’m concerned that’s just a thinly-veiled excuse. Reframe that statement to “I don’t care that everything I read is written by men/white people etc.” and it becomes a much less comfortable statement. Personally, I’m very pleased that I was able to recognise how I had unintentionally been reading almost exclusively white, male authors, and I’m honestly happier now I’ve made a change to that.
Catching up
I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for buying books with the full intention of reading them…only to be distracted by yet more books before I’ve got round to actually reading what’s already on my shelves (or Kindle). There’s a Japanese word for that: tsundoku. Ultimately I don’t mind it too much, as long as I’m enjoying what I do get around to reading, but it does bug me sometimes to think of how many books I’ve bought and not yet read, and I’d very much like to actually read some of them one day. I’m hoping that setting a goal of catching up on my TBR backlog will give me that little bit of discipline I’ve historically lacked to not get distracted by the shiny new books (at least not all the time), and to finally pick up some of those books I’ve been meaning to read for ages.
Logging
Almost every time someone asks me what I’ve enjoyed reading recently, or what my favourite book of the year has been so far, I find my mind goes immediately blank. For all the hours I spend reading, I often really struggle to bring specifics to mind when I’m put on the spot like that. One thing that I find helps with this is writing (and referring back to) reviews, but the other thing that’s particularly useful is using something like Goodreads or The StoryGraph to log and track what I’ve read. This is maybe a tangential benefit of reading goals rather than something exclusively tied to the concept, but I certainly find that by recording what I read against my reading challenge – and then regularly reviewing how I’m doing with the challenge – is a great way of reminding myself what I’ve read and which books I particularly enjoyed. It’s useful for my own satisfaction, but also when someone asks one of those awkward questions!
Retrospectives
On a similar note, every year – and sometimes at six month intervals too – I enjoy stopping and taking some time to look back over what I’ve been reading. Sometimes that’s just for my own benefit, but other times it’s for retrospective articles that I might put together for Track of Words. There’s something lovely about looking back at and revisiting or reliving favourites, and having both a method of doing that (i.e. tracking books using Goodreads/StoryGraph/a spreadsheet) and a reason for doing it (checking in on a reading challenge, reviewing progress towards a variety goal, etc.) is really very helpful.
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Those are a few of the benefits I personally get from setting reading goals – I’m sure there are more if I really think about it, but hopefully you get the gist. If you set goals yourself, I’d love to know what you get out of it too – so let me know in the comments, or over on Twitter!
Are there any downsides?
Ok, so I talked earlier about the Tor.com article coming at the topic of reading goals from a sort of ‘last resort’ angle, where the author clearly hadn’t liked the idea of setting goals but was coming around to it. Obviously I’ve taken the opposite position because I personally think reading goals are absolutely worth setting, but to be fair there are still a few things I’d recommend thinking about. For all their benefits, there are still some potential downsides.
I’ve already mentioned that reading goals – to me – are all about choosing what you want to get out of your reading, and I think that’s the most important thing to remember. Especially if you’re active on social media, it can be easy to fall into the trap of seeing what everyone else is doing and following in their footsteps, without considering whether their goals are right for you. It’s also easy to assume that once you’ve set a goal you need to stick to it religiously – I think there’s a fine line between using goals to help you make the most of your reading, and getting caught up in achieving your goals at all costs.
My advice would be that if, at any time, you notice that you’re worrying about hitting your goals rather than using your goals to help with your reading, or if you’re feeling anxious or unhappy when reading or thinking about reading, it’s worth stopping and reviewing what your goals are and whether they’re right for you. Here are a few key points that I think are worth bearing in mind:
- Set your own goals: don’t follow what other people do. Instead, make sure you’re choosing goals that suit you and what you want to get out of reading.
- Don’t be afraid to fall behind: if you set a reading challenge or goals based on numbers, try not to think of them as fixed targets you have to reach. It’s not the end of the world if you can’t keep up, or if you have some weeks or even months when reading has to take a back seat. Similarly…
- Be prepared to change your goals along the way: if the goals you’ve set aren’t helping, if you don’t think they’re achievable or if you’ve changed your mind about what you want to get out of your reading, that’s ok! They’re your goals, so change them to what suits you right now.
- Be kind to yourself: above all, remember that reading should be enjoyable, and that goals are there to help you rather than hinder you. The amount you read, or the specifics of what you read, might well be important to you, but ultimately there’s no point if you’re not enjoying reading.
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Ok so there we go, a few thoughts on reading goals and why – in my opinion at least – they’re great! I hope that’s been interesting, and maybe given you some ideas for goals of your own that you might set. I’d love to know your thoughts on the topic, and whether you’re already working towards any reading goals, so please do drop me a line in the comments below or over on Twitter!
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