Last year I set a goal of reading 50 books. It was pretty bold for me as I typically read many fewer books than that. However, I wanted to spend less time on the news and more time reading longer form content. I’m happy to say that I managed to read my 50 books in 2018. It was a great experience — and I read a lot of great books (you can check them out on my Good Reads account).

However, I have decided not to set such an ambitious goal for 2019 — indeed, I’m not planning to set any specific reading goal for the year. Why not continue the trend? A few reasons:

  • Having a number of books goal sometimes distorted my reading preferences. I shied away from longer books that might have taken too long and gotten me behind. I want to be able to pick up any book I like and not feel pressure to be able to finish it in a week.
  • Having a large book reading goal forced me to give up other types of reading. I’m generally happier not reading a lot of news and pretty much zero social media, but I also had to cut out a lot of magazines, longer articles I was sent, etc. Having all of your reading time dedicated to books forces you to give up other interesting reading avenues.
  • Finally, I want to be able to focus on several other areas of personal improvement this year — particularly learning some Chinese and spending more time coding and tinkering with my sons. I think these activities can be just as effective at helping to expand my mind — but they have to compete with reading for time.

So I’ll be heading into 2019 enjoying books, but without a specific target in mind for how many I want to read through the year. I’ll be very interested in what the total looks like at the end of the year. And if you have any suggestions — please send them my way!