How The Goodreads Reading Challenge Changed The Way I Read

In the book-blogging and Booktubing sphere, Goodreads seems to be a necessity for any book lover. It is a fantastic website which allows you to add books, rate and review them, and even recommend them to your friends! But there is a part of Goodreads that may not be so great; the Goodreads Reading Challenge. It is an annual challenge where Goodreads members can set for themselves a certain number of books which they would like to read that year. Goodreads then keeps track of what you've read, and tells you how you are progressing in your challenge (as well as letting you know whether you are behind or not. Eek!)

At first, this may seem like a fun experience to motivate individuals to read more in a year, and help them feel more accomplished with their reading progress.

Yet I have found that this challenge is much more stressful and harmful to my reading habits than I could have ever imagined.

The thing about the Reading Challenge is that, for quite some time I really did love it, I felt that because of it, I read more. I actually felt motivated.

Last year I read 73 books, having set a goal for myself of only 60 books. Since I surpassed my goal, I thought I should bump it up a bit, and set myself to read 100 books for 2014 (at this point in the year I have read 52). But I have read any short book I could get my hands on in order to make sure I was staying caught up.

Now, reading has become a sort of chore, I don't seem to view books as whether or not I want to read them, but whether or not I can read them quickly enough so that I don't fall behind in my challenge. This has resulted in me putting off so many books that I really want to read, simply because they are longer than 800 pages.

And I know, I have no one to blame but myself. Yet, isn't it an issue at large in the Booktube community? There seems to be so much pressure to read 10-15 "books" a month, and those who can't reach that always seem to feel embarrassed in their Wrap-Up videos.

But it is very different for one person to read 15 YA novels and graphic novels in a month, and the other person to read 4 adult Fantasy novels. Yet to Goodreads, they are all "books" and all hold the same merit for the Reading Challenge.

I think rather than setting a number of books to read in a year, we should be setting page goals, making it so that longer novels which take more time and dedication will count for more than a manga which can be read in the course of 30 minutes.

However, I don't think Goodreads will be making any changes soon, so for now I will simply chug along, read what I want to read, and the challenge be damned.