How I Started Reading More
At the start of 2020, I decided I wanted to read more. I was in grad school and working at a campus library part-time, and kept hearing people talk about all the books they were reading. But I hadn’t read a book in months.
Classmates, library patrons, and people on the radio were talking about the new books that were coming out in 2020 and how great they were. My friends were actively diversifying their bookshelves, and I wanted to contribute to the conversations.
I love reading. Or, I thought I did. Why was reading so hard?
So at the start of 2020, I made it a new year’s resolution to read. I initially set the goal for 50 books but realized with my workload it would be more realistic to settle for two books each month.
Of course, 2020 wasn’t a typical year and my goals didn’t completely work out. It was discouraging seeing so many people reading so many books when I found it difficult to focus on reading anything for more than a few minutes.
When I realized the year was almost over, I quickly read a couple of children’s chapter books to bump up my final total for the year at 20 books. This isn’t too far from my goal, but I didn’t feel good about it.
A New Reading Goal
At the beginning of 2021, I decided I wanted to keep trying to read more; however, I decided against setting a numerical goal for myself. It didn’t work last time, and it just made me feel bad for not reaching it. I know that an open-ended “read more” goal doesn’t fit ideal goal-setting guidelines but I didn’t want it to be too structured or feel too much like an assignment. (I really appreciate what Heather Quarles writes about the relationship between goal setting and reading in her story about learning to enjoy reading.)
Be an Open Reader
I grew up with certain expectations of what defines “good” books. These are fiction, probably award-winners, have good public opinion, and bonus points if they are part of the literary canon (i.e. written by old white guys). This is partly because that’s what I grew up reading in school, and also because I was an English major in university and this is all I read for four years. I…
