scijessreads

Life is cyclical. To everything there is a season. These are common sayings that have some truth to them (hence sticking around for so long and being almost overused).

The same goes for my reading habits.

I’ve had Goodreads for a while. Since 2010, to be exact. In the beginning, it was sporadically used, and my first joined challenge didn’t happen until 2014. As a kid, I read A LOT. Have book, will travel. There was reading material in my bag at all times, so I could go hide in a corner and read at family functions and events that I had no interest in being at. At home, my mom would constantly get on me for reading without turning on the lamp (which probably did not help my vision in the long run, so mom may have had a point).

When I went to college and grad school, my reading habits took a nosedive, at least for pleasure/fun reading. I was eyeballs deep in research papers, textbooks, and class reading. The last thing I wanted to do at the time was stare at more words on more pages.

2010, when I started Goodreads, was the year that I finished grad school. 2014, the first challenge year, I was in the last year of my grad program. I set a lofty goal of 24 books that year, and finished 9 of them. That year I read: The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Maya’s Notebook, Pretty Good Number One, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, The Rook, The Disaster Diaries, Lock In, and Neverwhere.

After that, I didn’t set another challenge for myself until 2019 (my last year teaching in FL). I guess my post-doctoral years did not warrant a challenge, even though I know I read books then. And in that year I read 3 of 12. Educated, The Rising, and Into the Drowning Deep.

2020 brought me to reading 4 of 10 for that goal. Hyperion, Between the World and Me, and The Stand.

2021 was the first year I made and met a challenge goal. 21 of 20! Yay, me 🙂 in 2022 I read 280 of 100. 2023 had 250 of 200. And 2024 had 166 of 150. I had a bit of a reading renaissance after 2020. Those lists are too long to type out here. But I will say that 2022 was the year I found Kindle Unlimited, the Libby App (for my library), and a renewed love for the romance genre.

This years goal is 120 books, and as of now I am at 52 read. So far, so on track to reach it.

Do you set reading goals?