Why my Goodreads Reading Challenge gives me mild anxiety (and how I'm going to fix that)
If you’re a user of Goodreads like me, you will be very familiar with the fun (and potential anxiety) of setting a yearly ‘reading challenge.’
Essentially, Goodreads (which is owned by Amazon 🙄) asks you to set a goal of how many books you think you might be able to read in a year, and constantly reminds you whether you’re falling behind or flying way ahead.
While I’m here, I should mention that I really dislike the interface and UI of Goodreads and find it bloated and messy, but that’s beside the point of today’s blog.
In 2024, I set a goal of reading 24 books — two a month — and ended up getting to 36.
I have a lot of thoughts about the Goodreads reading challenge, and I’ll ask a few questions to help prompt my thoughts:
Does the reading challenge help keep you accountable for your reading habits?
Does the reading challenge encourage you to read more books?
OR
Does the reading challenge artificially put pressure on you to read?
Does the reading challenge remove the fun from reading and make it all about quantity and speed?
I’m actually not sure about the answer to any of these questions, but I will say that I’m a big fan of tracking the media I consume. Whether it’s tracking the movies I watch on Letterboxd, books over on Goodreads, or even the albums I listen to on Musicboard, it’s a good way of keeping tabs. I’ll write more about why I track what I consume in a future blog.
The other problem I sometimes find with the Goodreads reading challenge, is the public and social nature of platforms like Goodreads makes me second guess myself and fear judgement of others. I read a lot of stuff, but sometimes I don’t include it on Goodreads or my reading challenge because I worry people will think, “Oh, he’s cheating with that one!”
For example, in 2024, I had a sudden urge to re-read the popular Australia fantasy novel series, Deltora Quest, which are pretty simple kids books. They’re quite entertaining reads, but I kept thinking people might judge me adding them to my reading list to help pad out the books.
Additionally, I read a lot of comic books and manga series during the year. For instance, in 2024 I read a lot of One Piece, and started various comic series including All-Star Superman and Deadpool (2016). This year, I’ve already started reading some of the Sonic the Hedgehog comics (I’m a huge nerd for Sonic), and am loving them. 0These are big volumes of comics (ie: 12 issue sets) but I wouldn’t include them in my Goodreads list in fear of being judged.
Furthermore, every single night after we finish reading, my partner and I like to drift off to sleep listening to Stephen Fry narrate that Harry Potter audiobooks. We’re currently on Order of the Phoenix. Something about Stephen Fry’s narration of my favourite book series just helps us both nod off pretty quickly. But I never add these to my reading challenge because there’s an anxious part of me that says people “won’t count those.”
But now, in 2025, I’m thinking to myself… literally why? Why do I care about what other people think of what I read?
I couldn’t care less what other people read. I want my friends to read whatever they enjoy most. So why do I set arbitrary boundaries on myself?
I’ve set a reading goal this year on Goodreads of 40. And I’m going to add everything.
I don’t care if its a short novel, a non-fiction book, a comic book volume, a manga or an audiobook. Whatever it is, I’m adding it.
I’m trying to keep in mind that the purpose of reading daily is for enjoyment, entertainment, education and escape. It’s a habit I’ve formed that really helps me settle into bed and fall asleep quickly. I don’t want to feel external pressure to read certain things or in a certain way.
I just want to read whatever I feel like reading.
Mike Liberale
Hey! Thanks for reading my blog this week. I’m all over the internet doing dumb stuff that I think is cool.
Recently I did a video about Mr. Beast’s new TV show, BEAST GAMES, and why I hate it (lol)
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Good luck! I wish there was an app that you could log ALL media. I find good reads too annoying to use.
Aha. 1. Deltora Quest is great. 2. Harry Potter is GOAT. 3. very funny about Mr Beast referencing Squid Game when Squid Games point is why this is not the best.