Heart Full of Books

So far this year, I’ve read 159 books. I know: mental. Looking at the Goodreads Challenge 2015 tab is really fun (and scary) because some people have read over 200 books, and haven’t just finished the ‘Sailor Moon’ manga, or picked up ‘Ottoline Goes To School’ to fill out their challenge like me!

After eleven months, with only one more to go before 2016 is upon us, I’ve started to think about how much I read and whether I’m happy with it. Sure, reading over 100 books a year is an extreme achievement (and I’ve given myself, like, twelve gold stars) but did I enjoy all 159 of those books?

No.

Sometimes it feels like I was only reading for the sake of reading. For the thrill of finishing another book. The Goodreads Challenge, clicking ‘Read’ and the little star buttons, updating my status…it’s all made me an achievement junkie. It doesn’t matter if I’m only reading what turn out to be 2 stars books, as long as it contributes to my end of year total, it’s good.

Except, it’s not.

Next year, I want to read less books. I want to be genuinely interested in everything I read, pick it up because I think I’ll enjoy it, not because it’s under 300 pages or could be read in one sitting. A few of the books I’ve taken a chance on this year have been AMAZING, like ‘Fire Colour One’ by Jenny Valentine, but others, like ‘P.S I Still Love You’ that I was reading for the sake of finishing the series, wasn’t.

It might be radical, but by December 2016, I want to be able to look at all the books I read and think ‘Yeah, I wanted to read that.’ Of course, not all books can be diamonds. Finding 100 five star books in a year would be impossible,  BUT I want to have that drive to read.

What do you think about reading literally tonnes of books? Do you genuinely want to read every book on your shelf?