Anyway, here I am.
I don't really 'do' New Year's Resolutions (yes, I know, this entirely contradicts something I wrote here last January). They usually go one of two ways, as far as I can see: either we set relatively easy goals in order to feel good about achieving them, or we set difficult goals and feel guilty about it later. However, every year I do find myself resolving to read and write more, and I usually start the year with a list of 'target books': specific things I hope to read. This year, at the suggestion of goodreads, I set a target number of books to read, too. (By the way, if you love reading, I highly recommend goodreads. A nice way to keep track of what you've read and see others' recommendations.)
So, setting my target at 30 books seemed reasonable. I figured that meant two and a half books per month, on average, which should be very easily doable. Yet here we are, New Year's Eve, and my total stands at 29. I have less than 12 hours remaining, and one book still waiting to be read (it's John Steinbeck's 'The Wayward Bus', in case you were wondering).
How did that happen? How have I managed to average less than 2.5 books per month? Probably because my reading is somewhat erratic. I can go weeks reading barely anything, then there can be a day such as yesterday, where I read my 2.5 books in less than 24 hours. Also, to be fair to myself, a couple of the books I have managed this year were either very long, very difficult, occasionally disturbing... Perhaps I am making excuses for myself but it is true, and besides, when I look at my '2013 reading challenge' page on goodreads, I am very pleased with the selection I have read this year. It has been varied, and very interesting.
As for 2014, will I set my target any higher? Probably, because I'm just that sort of person. Aiming for the same number of books this year will not satisfy my need for 'achieving' more and more. Anyway, I could and should have finished more books this year. I have about ten on the go at the moment.
Of course, the point of reading is not to finish these books and tick them off some sort of checklist. It doesn't really matter whether I read five books or fifty, as long as they were worthwhile. If I don't finish the thirtieth book today, does it really matter? Of course not. I can finish it tomorrow. I can finish it the next day after that and it doesn't make me a 'worse reader', or some kind of failure. But I have recently made a list of books that I really, I mean really want to read, and some that I have been meaning to read for a long time. Hopefully 2014 will be the year in which I read some of these. Having a number to focus on is just a bit of fun. After all, for the most part, reading is 'just a bit of fun' too, not some kind of chore, and that is just the way it should be.
