My 2022 reading goal is to finish all 10 of the books I’ve started over the last few years.
Some context: Without going into too much depth, I used to read 100+ books a year and after many years of that, I burnt out SO HARD that I basically stopped reading altogether. I’d pick up books here and there but abandon them and then forget about them because I didn’t have a place where I put “in progress” books. Bookmarked paperbacks ended up all over my house and, eventually, buried by other things. After a while they were in the way. Books? “In the way”!?? WHO AM I. (I have also basically completely diminished my attention span.)
I still stay eternally invested in these books and remember exactly what I have read so far, but the list is getting kind of long and it’s a little ridiculous that my “reading habit” now involves starting a book while I travel and then forgetting I was reading it once I return home. I started probably 4-5 of the current 10 on an airplane.
I would like to say something like: “I am sure it will not take me all year to read these 10 books,” but I will note that one is over 1200 pages long and another one is a textbook. Most of the rest of them are normal books, 200-500 pages long, and should be easy to finish if I just cut out the attention for it. If I can somehow maintain focus. If IF iF!
I don’t want to measure success like there will be a performance evaluation or some shit, but I’ll feel pretty good about it if it gets easier to find the motivation/focus as I move through the books. Even if I don’t finish all 10 for some reason, that would be a good reward and sense of progress in improving my reading habit and making efforts to fix whatever about it is broken.
Holding myself accountable using Story Graph which by year end will print out some pretty stats for me.