Submitted by Gocountgrainsofsand t3_znwkac in books
Before I write, I just want to say that I am guilty of this as well and trying to consciously change it. However, most of us at the beginning of the year will set our Goodreads/Story Graph reading goals and then obsess over it. We say, oh I just need to finish this book, not because I'm truly enjoying it, but just so I can finish it, say I've finished it, and then move to the next one. So the whole idea isn't actually reading the book, it's just to log that book on Goodreads as read. If we truly stop, slow down, and focus on a book, piecing it apart, maybe annotating if it's philosophy, then I feel you get much more value out of the book than just saying I read however many books this year.
It's also important that I feel a lot of people avoid longer-form novels, not because they are long, but because they view books through the lens of consumption, where reading more books in terms of quantity is somehow better than reading a longer book that tackles more difficult themes.
So, going into next year, I'll be making a conscious effort not to give a shit about my Goodreads goal. If anything, I may not even make one.