For the past few years I've set a regular challenge for myself in terms of the books I read. It started when Shelfari introduced the option for reading goals and I've kept up the practice all the way to the migration to Goodreads as Shelfari has closed shop for now. I think I started with a target of like 100 titles and I've steadily done "better" over the years. Last year I aimed for 250 books and ended with 300 books. So I'm starting out with the same 300 title target for the year but if I hit it sooner, I'll probably add more books. I wonder if I'll ever hit 500 titles - that would certainly help me deal with the backlog of books that I hope to read sometime.
My reading progression has gotten a lot faster over the years due to a number of factors. The biggest shift was when I first got a Kindle. I was never a big fan of electronic reading before that but e-ink sort of changed my life and so it was easy to fall into the Amazon trap. Not only has the Kindle made reading easier, but it has also helped me read faster.
Then came along comiXology and the ease of both purchasing and reading digital comics. To be fair to my reading goals, I only count comic books as their collected trade paperback equivalents and not as individual issues. It still makes for a lot of reading but then the ease of using my smartphone to read just about anywhere makes it easy to start and stop reading a comic just about anywhere.
Not I'm starting to look into audiobook options through services like Audible and thanks to past Humble Bundles I've purchased with sets of Doctor Who audiobooks by Big Finish. I'm still bigger on reading books as text as opposed to listening to them, but it does allow me a bit more progress in my reading while I work at the same time. I'm not 100% committed to the medium but it's certainly worth exploring for now.
Don't get me wrong - I still read physical books when I can. It's just that my reading queue now extends into both the physical and digital worlds because I'm crazy.
Comments
Post a Comment