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You're listening toLifeKit.
FromNPR.Hey, what's upeveryone?
Andrew Limbong here in FromMariel,Sagarra.
Iswear, this is not a shamelessplug, but I write the NPR booksnewsletter.
And, youknow, every week we chit chat about books and reading and all that funstuff.
Now, back inJanuary, I asked people to write in about their reading goals for theyear.
Because, youknow, the type of person who reads a book's letter from NPR is probably also the type of person to have readinggoals.
And, we got a lot of responses about either wanting to read some classic books that they never got around to or reading more notfiction.
Imean, most folks just wanted to readmore.
But, none of those goals really mean anything if you're not working towardsthem,right?
NPR's Monzi Karano wrote a piece for NPR about how to set a readinggoal, onethat, youknow, you can actuallyaccomplish, which is what we're going tocover.
On this episode ofLifeKit, Monzi's on the path to talk about her piece and our conversation got more existential than I thought itwould.
Because it's more than just aboutreading.
It's about how we treat ourhobbies, how they serveus, and what's the line between a healthy obsession and one that just gives us something else to stressabout.
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Hey,Moncy.Hello. Can I ask you a potentially invasivequestion?
Yeah,sure. How many books did you read lastyear?
Okay. So lastyear, I read 37books, which depending on who you are and how much youread, that might beimpressive, that might benothing.
I think that'simpressive.
Do you want to sell your stuffshort?
I think that'sgood. That's a goodnumber.
I don'tknow. For one of the people I talked to in this story was reading 60 books ayear.
And I waslike, allright.
Oh mygoodness. I'm not at the samelevel.
I read37,though. And I was pretty happy with that number until I realized that my goal was to read45.
And then suddenly I feltlike,oh, I've completely missed themark.
I felt very upset for noreason.
I felt like and really went down this journey oflike,okay, should I make my goal less thisyear?
Should I make my goal more thisyear?
How do I sort of adjust based on what I learned from the previousyear?
I sometimes make reading goals and I feel bad aboutthem.
Why? Why do we dothis? What is the point of setting a readinggoal?
Because I think there's not an insignificant part of me that feels like it just inducesstress.
So why makeone? One is it's definitely a personality type to enjoy having a goal to feel like you're working towardssomething, especially when it comes to a numbersgame.
There are some people who get overwhelmed by having a numbersgoal.
And that's totallyfine.
There are other options for you if that's thecase.
Butreally, I think the goal is more of a reflection on how you've been doing and how your reading has been progressing over theyears.
So three yearsago, I kind of fell offreading.
I wasn't doing it asmuch.
It used to be my favorite thing to do when I was akid.
And I really wanted to get back intoit.
So I made a really simplegoal.
Read a book amonth, 12 books ayear.
And I was able to reachthat.
And by writing everything down and by writing down each book Iread, I was able to see how easy it was to reach thatgoal.
And now three yearslater, I increased that goal a little bit every year to make it so that it's something that I'm working towards or workingon.
Yeah, that's tracks pretty closely to why I started tracking myreading.
I noticed I wasn't reading alot.
And I think you can't solve a problem unless you kind of see the numbers in front ofyou.
Now, counting one book as one unit ofmeasurement, I think is a limited measurement because sometimes people want to diversify theirreadings.
And sometimes people feel pressure to read more dusty F ski than John Grisham orwhatever.
But sometimes people just want to read what they want toread.
Yeah, I think that that is definitely a hugething.
And one of the biggest things that I sort of came out of after reporting this story was think aboutgenres, notnumbers.
If you're someone who isn't a numbers person doesn't really want to focus so much on the numericalvalue, you can start to think about the types of books you're reading instead of how many books you'rereading.
Forexample, if you're a big fan oflong,worn, piece typeclassics, it might be more interesting for you to read only three books ayear.
Or if you're someone who wants to read more sciencefiction, maybe you notice you gravitate more towards nonfiction and you really want to changethat.
You can make a goal to read two new books from two new science fictionwriters.
Something like that can really help you still have a goal when it comes toreading, but not be as focused on thenumbers.
There are even certain apps like the story graph that give you reading challenges that have to do with reading 10 books by internationalauthors.
So you can easily trackthat, have really good book recommendations and still feel like you are working towards some sort of goal when it comes to yourreading.
Because having a reading goal changed your way you actually read your appreciation of reading ofbooks.
I think it's made me a lot more conscious of the kinds of books I'mreading.
Forexample, I see thepatterns, I see the fact that I love a contemporary female writer who's writing a book about a girl in her20s, because that is what Iam.
Yeah, shout out EmmaKlein,yeah, thatvibe,yeah.
Yeah,exactly. Shout out KylieReed, something likethat.
I love books likethat, and it's really given me a chance to sort of look and take stock of the kinds of books I'm reading and what attracts me to each ofthem.
Youknow, as someone who low-key missesschool, I understand the appeal of giving yourselfhomework.
But for people who aren'tme, what is worthwhile about pushing yourself sort of expand your readingtastes?
Yeah, so I think one of the best things about reading is that it can kind of expand your horizon and it can expand the types of stories you'rehearing, the types of people you're interactingwith, and the types of narratives you'reconsuming.
So if you're someone who maybe only gravitates towards contemporary romanticfiction, it can be really limiting to only read contemporary romantic fictionfor, youknow, an entireyear, or it can feel a littleboring.
You've read the same 300-page book over and over and overagain.
So really sittingdown, taking stock of what you'rereading, andseeing,okay, what else do I want to learn abouttoday?
What are other types of authors that I want totry?
What are other perspectives that I could begaining?
Is a really good reason to sort of challenge yourself with these tiny challenges and make your reading a little bit more interactive and challenge yourself to read somethingdifferent?
Ithink, can I describe to you a scenario that I feel like you might relateto, which is you've set a reading goal for yourself at the beginning of theyear.
You made a mereresolution, like we all do about yourreading, and then comesJune,July,mid-year.
You check in with thatgoal, and the numbers don't addup.
You're not on track to hit thatgoal.
What do youdo?Yeah, I think that this is something that we all fallinto.
This is something that definitely last year I fell onto.
I work a night shift at morningedition, and it's very easy to not want to do anything if you wake up at midnight every single day to getwork.
It's a brutalshift. I was slowly watching my Goodreads Challenge go further and further behind from your only one book behind to three books behind to five booksbehind.
I waslike, allright,well, I'm never recovering from this night shift or my readingchallenge.
But I think a really big thing here is to not be afraid to adjust thegoal.
If you realize that life is getting in the way that you were overly ambitious at the beginning of theyear, you can change thatgoal.
You don't have to have it set instone.
Reading is one of those things where you're not necessarily competing withothers.
You're competing with yourself in a lot ofways.
So changing that goal can make it feel less like achore, less likehomework, as youmentioned.
And more like something that isenjoyable.
I think the big thingis, is once you realize that you're slipping further and further behind thatgoal, you're starting to read books that you do not careabout.
You're just trying to finish the book so that you can reach your reading goal or your reading really small books really fast and not digesting anything because you're so in pursuit of that onenumber.
It's better to just change yourgoal, slowdown, and enjoy what you're reading because at the end of theday, this is ahobby, nothomework, not achore.
Yeah, what do you get to the point where you're cooking thebooks?
Right? You're justlike, Imean, therewas.
I think if you look at my readinglist, I think it was first year of COVID orwhatever.
I set a readinggoal. And then if you look at the books that I'm reading inDecember, they all happen to be the length of myson,man, I'm just trying to put numbers on theboard.
I literally put a bookthat, like a picture book that my and my friends picked up at a bookstore calledSikadas.
And we just read this little picture book aboutSikadas, but I put it on my reading list because I waslike, I'm going to usethis.
Technically, this 20 page bookcounts.
And I'm five books behind rightnow.
Let me haveit. I didit. But what about for people wholike, they're not setting a hardnumber.
They just want to readmore.
Are there other ways other than setting like a quoteunquote, like reading goal to increase your yourreading?
Yeah. And this is definitely for other people who are unlike you andI, who don't misshomework, who don't want to focus on anumber.
I think a big thing here is really reframingreading.
Reading is often seen as a solitaryactivity, but it definitely doesn't have tobe.
You can join a bookclub, ofcourse, or you can just have a goal to read outside a little bitmore.
Go to abar, go to apark. One of the other things you can do is go to more reading events in yourarea.
I love going to authorstalks, I local libraries forone.
There's also a huge trend of quiet reading nights at certain places where you can just go sit andread.
And you don't even have to interact withanyone.
And if you don't want to go out andread, I think it's best to just make reading a bit more of anactivity.
It's not something that you have to do just right before bed where you read 10 pages and then fallasleep.
You can light somecandles, get ablanket, find more ways to make reading and activity that you can enjoy at the end of the longday.
You're ritualizedit.Yeah.
What's your reading goal thisyear?
Do you have a numbersgoal?
What's on yourhead? I had so many conversations for this piece ofit, so many differentpeople.
And a lot of them are reallylike, youknow, you should make your goal35.
There are so many things that you can't achieve inlife.
Make your reading goal something that youcan.
But then I talked to one person whosaid, youknow, it should be something that tests you a little bitmore.
And I think that I really do want thattest.
That's just who Iam. So I will say I am planning to read 45 books this year because I feel like that number is the right amount of a challenge forme.
It feels like a goal I can reach if I keep reading apriority, but it doesn't feel impossible for me toreach.
And halfway through theyear, I'm on track to reach thatgoal.
I'm enjoying what I read and remembering that reading isn't anobligation.
It's my hobby and I don't have to read abook.
I don'tlike. That beingsaid, and I know I imagine you'll relate tothis.
The sort of the reason I'm so conflicted about it is because I agree withyou.
I'm a big fan of sayinglike, youknow, give abook, 50pages, dumpit,whatever, whocares?
You read what you want toread.
I'm not the best at following my ownadvice.
And I also will admit to feeling like some juice when I put in enter into abook.
When I put in enter into thespreadsheet, like read onemore, like adding one more notch to thelist.
Which isnot, I don't know if that'sunhealthy, but I think that's what you're talking about when you say like you like thechallenge, you like thetest,right?
Like there is something broy jockey toit.
I think the biggest thing when it comes to tracking things is really the intentionality behindit.
You are tracking yourprogress.
You're tracking how well you're doing atit.
And it is for you to look at later and feel proud and feelaccomplished.
It's not a punishment or it's not an assignment that we're givingyou.
It is a way for you to remember and enjoy what you've beendoing.
And reading is definitely one of those things where it feels really good to be able to see exactly how many books you've read or remember thosebooks.
Andsee,oh, this is the one that I really liked thisyear.
This is the one that I gave five starsto.
This is the one that I rated thehighest.
It is a way for you to sort of reflect lateron.
It is not meant to be something where you are competing with others or you are trying to prove something to otherpeople.
Think of it more as a reflection tracking your books or picking agoal, not necessarily acompetition.
Well,Monty, thanks so much for joiningus.
Thankyou. For moreLifeKit, check out our otherepisodes.
We have one on how to start a book club and another on how to readdeeply.
You can find those at npr.org slashlifekit.
And if you love LifeKit and wantmore, subscribe to our newsletter at npr.org slash lifekitnewsletter.
Also, we would love to hear from you if you have episode ideas or feedback you want toshare.
Email us atlifekit.org.
This episode of LifeKit was produced by Claib and RichSchneider.
Our Virgil's editor is BeckHarlan.
Our digital editor is MalcoGarib.
Our host is MarielSaguero.
Megan Cain is the supervisingeditor.
Beth Donovan is the executiveproducer.
Our production team also includes an anti-tagel market sereno and silvyDouglas.
Our engineering support comes from David Greenberg and BeckyBrown.
I'm AndrewLimbong. Thanks forlistening.
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