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My Journey through the Goodreads Reading Challenge
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C.S. Lewis
I didn’t think much of it when I joined the Goodreads Reading Challenge. Starting from 2015, I have been an avid contributor to the reading challenge, failing every year consistently. Well, except for the last year.
My completion rates varied from 4 — 95 % each year, with a 100% completion in 2021. For instance, in 2017 I was able to complete 72% of the books that I pledged and in 2020, I went all the way to 95%, which is 18 books out of 25. I pledged around 15–30 books each year over the span of 8 years. There was no specific genre for the books and I enjoyed reading both fiction and non-fiction.
Reading relentlessly while keeping a 9 -5 job is not an easy task to pull off. And I learned that the hard way. I hear bloggers claiming that they read 52 books a year, reading a new book every week. I am pretty sure that they are not part of the 9–5 bunch.
Here are a few things that I picked up from the consecutive years of failure and the one year of successful completion.
Keep Reading
Consistency is the key to sticking to your reading goal. Read everywhere, anytime.