Book 1/52. Image credit: Penguin
I usually make a few new year’s resolutions, and forget them by the end of January. This year, I’ve decided to go all in on one really difficult target: I’m going to try to read 52 books this year.
This is a crazy target for me. My highest ever book count was 37, and that was years ago, when I was hyperfixated on the very concept of reading. I’ve not been like that in recent years. Last year, I read 10 books, and two of them I had to finish in audiobook form because my concentration was so shot. (No slight on audiobooks as a form of reading - but personally it’s a last resort.)
So this is going to be stretch. But I recently looked at my screen time, and I was not happy about it. I’ve cut down my social media time considerably over the last year, and yet somehow I’m still losing hours on internet guff. So I’m going to convert some of that time into useful book-reading time - if I have the urge to browse the internet mindlessly, I’ll open the Kindle app instead, and at least read something more fulfilling.
I expect to fail this challenge - but I don’t plan to. I’m not deluded; I don’t really anticipate that I’ll be able to maintain reading a book a week for a whole year. But if I start the year with every intention of achieving this goal, then I’ll be setting up some good habits and practices that I’ll benefit from in other ways. And at the very least, I’ll most likely still read more books this year than last year.
Now - for accountability - here’s what I’m aiming for:
- Read 52 books in 2025.
- No minimum page count, but no mickey-taking. Individual short stories don’t count. Novellas do.
- Fiction and non-fiction are both in.
- Comics and graphic novels don’t count. (Because I want to focus on my concentration on longform text.)
- Audiobooks don’t count - visual reading only. (Same reason as above)
Wish me luck!