what is a reasonable yearly reading goal?

[mothpanic]

I know already that it depends on way too many factors for there to be a single answer!!

...but we can still generalise. :)

no idea whether most people have heard about those who claim to read 300+ books per year, or if that's just something a few eccentric people like to brag about online. how do you feel about that? there's also people who claim to be unable to read books at all, or at least, I've spent time with them. how do you feel about that too? 52 books seems to be a common goal for avid readers, and probably a little more realistic...?

I'm curious as to what you think is reasonable for yourself, in your situation, but moreso what would be a good average for, well, the average person.

personally, I'd say that an average of 1-2 books per month is reasonable for someone in full time work, assuming they have other hobbies and they haven't read any of said books before. so, 12-25. although there is some wiggle room there before I'd ever so slightly maybe but not really but kinda question someone as to why they're setting that goal, of all things. mm. I swear I had something else to say about this.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

If somebody would tell me that they have a certain quantity of books to read per month or per year, I'd assume that they see the books they read mainly as something they work through (and I might also strongly suspect that they read rather trite stuff, as this promotes this approach to reading). For reading a book is more than just reading the words in it - if you want to capture what is in it, you also have to think about it, imagine the things in it, and so on - and this is incompatible of reading it like a machine gun.

Currently, I read ~2 hours per day; there are books that I was busy with for almost a year, many that took me several months, some that I finished within a few days. While the number of pages/words does - ofc - make a difference, the main factor is the difficulty of the text itself. I can't remember having finished a whole book within a single day for a long time.

[TheFrugalGamer]

For me I think my general average has been around 30 books per year, and that's because I'll either take a break now and then, or I'll read a very long book interspersed with short books in between.

It probably is different for everyone for different reasons. Do you know how many books you read in a month? You could generalize that out by multiplying it by 12 and using that as a general goal. Or you could use your first year as a test, just read like normal, and see how many books you end up going through. Then add 3-5 to that number and use that as your goal. I initially came up with my number of 30 by going through my Goodreads history and seeing that ~30 was how many I usually went through in a good year.

[Eunice]

Well, I can usually read around 200 books in a year. But you might not have the time or patience for that. So as everyone else has said, it depends! (I'm currently up to 131.)

[haumeaGeth]

I consider myself an avid reader, and now that I think about it, I guess I do technically read 1-2 books a month. However, that's 1-2 books collectively. I like to have multiple books going at a time, so I always have something to suit what I'm in the mood for. If I were to pick up a new book right this minute, I probably wouldn't finish it until next year. But, with so many books going at a time, I always end up finishing one per month. Or, sometimes, if a story really sucks me in, I might just devour an entire novel in a week or two.

I do like to keep track how much I read per year. I think it's fun, it feels like a game, and at the end of the year, I like to look back and reminisce about what I've read. I especially looove the stats I get on StoryGraph, seeing what genres I tended towards and my rating averages and such. Right now, my reading goal for the year is 18 books. It was 15, but I already hit my goal, so I bumped it up a bit.

[BlazingCobaltX]

I did a test run one year to see how many books I can realistically read without it impeding all my other hobbies. I tend to have phases of a specific hobby, which means I sometimes read 3 books in 1 month and then 1 book in 3 months. Overall, 15 seems like a good goal: Comfortable, but still pushing myself to discover new things and prioritise paper over a screen. This year I've had to do a substantial amount of academic reading which really pushed back the amount of leisure books I could read, but I am still confident I can read 6 books in the remaining few months of this year. Book length helps a lot in finishing these challenges.

[milo]

I really wish I read more, and I'm slowly redeveloping the habit. I used to read a ton when I was younger. I actually signed up for a library card last year and went on a spat of checking out small, digestible books and I think I read 3 or 4 books last year which was a lot for me. This year I've finished 2 books and am powering through a 3rd.

I typically only "feel" like reading when the weather is cold and cozy, but lately I've found time to sit outside during the summer and read which has been really nice and has afforded me more reading time.

I also like to read huge epic novels so often times a single tome of a book will take me months, or even years to finish. I'll start it up, get a third of the way through and get bored and want to read something else, then maybe pick it back up in a few months.

So yeah... a handful of books a year is my goal these days. I also have a lot of other hobbies that keep me away from reading and I usually have to be in the right mindset to be able to really absorb myself in a book. But like I said, I'm re-training my brain to be able to be in that mindset and reading more has felt really good. :)

[torrent-empress]

I tend to view 30-60 pretty reasonable. That's like 1-2 every two weeks. I read a good mix of non-fiction and them graphic novels and manga though, based on "real" i.e. no picture books I would say my average per year is about 25ish I've had years where it's been higher and rn including manga it's at 63 books, but this was a pretty heavy year since I was unemployed for a good chunk of it and got a new ereader