At least, since the past 8 years or so. It was a year of all time lows when it comes to reading. Remember how i mentioned here that this was the year of not growing? I think that is also reflected in my reading.

The primary reason for reading less is obviously phone addiction but I think it was stimulated majorly by entering a reading slump sometime around October because of a book I wasn’t enjoying. I might have mentioned this before, but I have a hard time DNF-ing books. I understand life is too short to read books you are not enjoying etc etc, but when I have picked a book, there’s usually some reason associated to it and I can’t let go. Funnily, that book is now getting interesting for me.

So, in what terms was the year bad for reading?

1. I read less. I finished only 13 books this year, I know my last book opinion mentions 14 but that’s because I didn’t realise until now that I had left my 10th book midway. I only realised while randomly passing time on Goodreads.
2. Also, Goodreads tells me that I only read an average of 143 pages per book. Honestly, since the past few years, I haven’t read huge books but this is specifically low I guess and it brings me to my next point.
3. 3 out of the 13 books were essentially short stories. I have talked about them here.

What am i essentially doing to change things this year?

I purposely stay away from annual book challenges because i have participated a couple of times and I get too caught up without actually enjoying the book. Therefore, i am going to take certain approaches that work for me:

I am a slow reader and a forgetful one, so I am going to give my books enough time to savor them. Things that motivate me to read more are not going to be numbers but something else:

1. first of all, I’ll try to read at least 5 physical books that I have purchased since 2018. So, I have bought a lot of physical copies since 2018 (because I remember a particular book bought at that time). i hardly have read any of them since i mostly read on my Kindle, so this is one challenge that i am giving myself.

2. as last year and last-to-last one, I am going to read more books out of my comfort zone. I don’t want to put a count to this and get intimidated but this would be my number one goal books wise.

3. I’ll read with more intention. If you scroll through my book opinions from 2022, you will realise that I picked a lot of books randomly while browsing Kindle or Netgalley. While there’s nothing wrong with that and spontaneity in this department is good, I’ll intentionally do less of that this year. The reason is very basic actually – I want to read a lot of things and do not end up reading them. So, i shall plan a bit. Of course, spontaneity will be welcome when I pick up pace.

4. Most needed and most difficult – Spend less time on phone.