Do you have a Goodreads Account? If your answer is no, you should make one because it's perfect for a book lover! It has a lot of great features. I've used it for two years now and I think that it is very user friendly. Read more on GoodReads here.
Join Goodreads here, or add me as a friend on Goodreads!
Now that's over and done with, I want to talk about a certain feature of Goodreads, and that's the Reading Challenge. I wasn't that much active on Goodreads for the past year so I found out that we could set a reading challenge for ourselves only just recently.
So when I found out that I could set a reading challenge for 2014, I took this seriously...only I couldn't decide how much books I wanted to set as my goal. The number of books by default was 70 (if I remember correctly), but I knew my reading speed. 70 books a year? Pfft. More like seven. (LOL just kidding) My reading speed was average, if not slow, but I knew I could speed up if I wanted to, so my reading challenge was set to 60 books.
Since then, I pressured myself to read more books - I wanted really bad to reach my goal by the end of the year! I tried to read as much books as I could every week, and it pleasured me to finish a book and update my reading challenge, but... Come to think of it now, I don't think that I -or anyone else- should read books like that.
I joined the fandom because I enjoyed reading, and although I want to read more books, it doesn't mean that I should rush through every book just so I can start a new one. Or just for the satisfaction so I can update my reading challenge. No. This was not me. It seemed at that time that I was reading books -or plunge through them like a freight train- just for the sake of a reading challenge.
The main objective of the challenge was probably to encourage readers to read more, to explore other books or genres, not as a challenge to see how fast you can read. You don't get prizes for completing this challenge.
But since I really wanted to read more this year, I finally decided to set 57 books for my goal this year. Why 57? It's more of a psychological issue. 60 books seems like too much; but if I put 55, I get that feeling like, I'm only 5 books from my original goal!
57 is nice; it's in between 55 and 60, so that I won't feel too pressured but at the same time, I get motivated to read that much books this year.
So it's June now, my reading challenge is 39% complete, and I'm not gonna lie and say I don't feel bothered by it. However, I think that I should stop obsessing over this reading challenge and go at my own pace.
Happy reading!