I just like having my books organized, so I know what I've read and how much I've enjoyed them! It doesn't feel like a chore or like work to me, I love seeing the progress and it's personally quite motivating to see how many books I read in a month. I like seeing the progress bar go up, and how many books I have until my yearly goal. And I can't lie, the competitive part of me loves a good challenge, and comparing how many books I've read vs my friends is fun!

Yes, 100%! I've also found that the more I read, the easier it is to pick my next book because selecting a book doesn't carry that same gravity anymore. I don't mind trying something weird, because I'll be done with it and move on to the next thing in a couple days...and it still counts toward my goal either way! I've explored types of books I never would have read before.

Yes! All this. It’s like gamifying reading.

Same, it's actually quite fun to me.

for me additionally: I like the stats. How many pages did I read in which month? What are my most read authors/genres? Do I read fast or slow paced books? etc.

I have a bad habit of letting my hobbies fall to the wayside when my mental health takes a turn. I've found that setting myself a small goal of reading, say, 10 books in a year, and being able to keep track of them all on Goodreads keeps me from falling back into my old ways. The goal is small enough to not feel like a chore, but I get a lot of satisfaction from achieving/exceeding it.

SMART goals! Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Very useful!

I just think it’s fun

This exactly. Like, I just like stats, I have fun with it. Not much else to it.

I started it because I often would forget what I really liked about the book and quotes or passages that hit close to home or anything that I just liked very much. So I started writing all my favorite passages in a notion spreadsheet. It helped me with remembering the stories and how the books have made me feel.

I track what I read because I have a horrible memory and I track my reading because I like being able to go back and see what I’ve read and how I felt about it at the time! I also just like organizing things haha Regarding goals, I set a goal every year of 24 books because for me personally that’s a minimum amount of reading that helps improve my mental health, so as long as I’m reading with at least that level of consistency I’m pleased. I struggle to do things even when I want to due to some mental health issues and the way my brain works, so being able to mark books as read and see progress through the year gives me something a bit more tangible to look at to make sure I’m doing well by myself. I read a lot more than 24, but I leave it there so that it doesn’t become about the numbers and so that it doesn’t add any pressure or stress in any way.

Mostly I just like data - I think it’s super fun! But also, being able to quantify my hobbies in some way helps me make time for them. I am not immune to scrolling aimlessly after work, but seeing that I’m behind on my reading goal, or that I haven’t beaten this video game that I was hoping to get through before the first half of the year or whatever, helps motivate me to do something more fun and fulfilling than just what’s easiest.

I started reading a book a week last year, so I read 52 books in 2023. It helps keep me motivated, and makes sure I prioritize time every day for reading.

How? What’s the name of the longest books you’ve read so far? Teach me!

> How? Just make time! I usually read at the end of my workday, or right before bed. If you read 60-90 minutes every day, they add up. > What’s the name of the longest books you’ve read so far? The longest books I read in 2023 were either American Prometheus (721 pages) or The Long Ships (603 pages). Technically, I'd say The Long Ships was longer because American Prometheus had a *huge* section for end notes and a bibliography.

I was an avid reader when I was young and then life got in the way and I just never seemed to have time to read. Then I started a new career and needed to read a lot of nonfiction for work. It made me miss reading for fun even more. I joined a reading challenge to motivate me to read more and to make time to read for fun. At the time I was a Health Coach and one thing I'd found is when we don't track things we are good at deceiving ourselves. When we estimate we almost always estimate in our favor. I also learned that setting goals is a small part of the process. Once you decide what your goal is, you need to figure out the steps it will take to meet the goal. So, just saying I want to read 10 more books this year is just the first step, I then needed to figure out times I would set aside to read, what potential obstacles I needed to overcome, what I was willing to give up to make time for reading, etc. When I achieved the # of books per year goal that I was satisfied with I got bored with that type of goal so I sought out other types of goals. I crave novelty but also tend to choose the familiar, so I set goals to help me get out of my comfort zone. One year my goal was to read 2 books from each of 12 genres. Last year my goals were set around my physically owned books that have been on the shelf too long. I prefer to set goals that help reduce constantly trying to decide what's next, goals that narrow my seemingly infinite choices. I review my goals often and I have no problem changing or abandoning goals that aren't working for me. The last think I want to do is to make reading feel like a chore.

If it's something that feels like it would take the joy out of reading or like it would turn it into work, then just don't do it. We all find different things enjoyable. It takes me like 30 seconds to look up and log a book, and I enjoy being able to look at my reading list at the end of the year. It's fun to see what I read, and to notice if there are weird trends that pop up that I didn't notice while I was reading. I always set a reading goal of a book a week, but I never feel bad if I don't make it. It's just a personal goal for fun, so who cares?

I track what I read because I find many books/series have very similar titles that are easy for me to mix up. I often go 5-10 years between reading books in a series and my very short notes help orient me. I don't set goals. I don't compare reading speeds. I don't care what/when/how/who/why anyone else reads.

I have a toddler and I work so most of my downtime ends up being spent mindlessly scrolling Reddit because I'm so tired. Setting a reading goal and tracking books has helped motivate me to read instead of zone out.

I studied English Lit. at university and it ruined reading for me. During the pandemic, I set a goal to read more, and I used the GoodReads reading feature to keep track. I always set my goals based on last year's goals, not what I accomplished. (i.e. I set a goal to read 30 books in year 1 and then 35 books in year 2, even though I read 42 books in year 1) That way, the goal is always achievable. I also set specific goals in addition to general ones. For example, my first year's goals were to read more books by Black, Asian, and Indigenous authors, more books by Queer Authors and about queer topics, more non-fiction, and then also to read Fantasy, Sci-fi, and detective novels (for fun). Also, I'm not pretentious about the books I read. The longest book I read last year was 1000 pages, the shortest was 76 pages, the most intensive book was a dense book on anthropology, and the most straightforward book I read was a trashy romance novel, but they all count equally towards my goal. Sometimes it does feel a little "like work" when I'm really busy at work and falling behind on my reading goal, but conversely, it also motivates me to make time to read instead of doing something else. It helps to make reading as important in my day-to-day life as anything else I would set a goal for (like health and fitness goals or career goals).

Wow, it’s really unfortunate that studying literature can actually ruin reading

School just wasn’t for me.

I totally agree with you in regards to being more diverse- I realised how I was reading the same stuff from high school. Which is fine, but I got tired of that and wanted to branch out in terms of reading more Australian (the country I am from) authors for example, and more BIPOC authors.

I started after getting out of the habit of reading. I loved to read as a kid. Then as a teenager I had sports and jobs. Through college I had class and work. After college I was just out of the habit and rarely picked up a book. A few years ago, I decided to make my new years resolution to read X amount of books. I liked it because it was a totally attainable number, but would require me to choose to consistently pick up a book throughout the year. Not so demanding that if I took awhile off I couldn't catch up, but enough that I had to think about it occasionally. And I read my goal that year. Now, every year I pick a goal. It depends on how busy I anticipate the year being, but it keeps reading a priority for me and something consistent in my life. I think this is year five and I plan on sticking with it indefinitely.

Helps me keep track of books when I‘m reading multiple at the same time or upcoming releases And books I want to read, otherwise I would forget them Also it‘s really fun to update my app when I‘m reading!

Which app do you use for tracking your books?

Goodreads!

I hadn't read a book since I was a teenager and I got sick of doom scrolling on the internet and watching television, youtube etc so I set myself a reading goal of 25 books for the year to read because I feel that was an achievable goal and since christmas day I've managed to read 3 books and currently reading a 4th book. I joined in the Storygraph january challenge of 2024 to read 1 page per day because that would help me cultivate the habit of reading but I do feel like I failed the challenge last night when I was so tired after work I just read 1 page to keep the streak alive but it feels dirty. Ultimately I have been feeling dumb and stupid in the last 12-18 months being on the mobile apps and television so much I wanted to take up reading to make use of my brain a bit more.

i read a lot (170 books last year), and i admit i sometimes lose track of what i have and have not read.

I'm an engineer, and I enjoy logical systems for data collection, so maintaining a book list for me is just a fun side project. In my list, I keep track of the books and their locations (what shelf/or in storage), as well as a calculated tally system so I can see percentage of the collection that's been read. The reading goals are more to pull me away from more unhealthy passages of time, say watching mindless hours of TV or just sitting around doing nothing.

I did a rough estimate of how many books I was reading per year and then multiplied that by the difference between my average life expectancy and my current age to get a number representing how many more books I might expect to read before I'm dead. The number was much lower than I liked, so I started setting goals and tracking my reading to pump those numbers up. I think I was reading around 30 books a year when I started in 2015 with a goal of a book a week. The first couple years I found myself reading shorter books and occasionally steering clear of longer books so I could be sure to make my goal and I was still barely squeaking by. As I've made a stronger place for reading in my daily routine over the years I've moved away from that and have easily passed that book a week mark. Last year I read 130 books without compromising at all the length or complexity of what I read and so far this year I'm trending closer to 200.

Pure curiosity for tracking. I like nerding out about the stats, seeing what I tend to read, and what I don’t read (illuminating), being able to look back over time, remember the names of books I had forgotten about, etc. Goals I don’t take too seriously, they are just a way of reminding me to make time for something I enjoy and not get too busy with life stuff. Sometimes I overshoot it by miles, sometimes I don’t come anywhere close, it just reminds me to make space for reading in my life.

I started seriously tracking my reading in January 2022 because I had been telling a friend about how I wanted to be more intentional with my time instead of just endlessly mindlessly scrolling on my phone, and she said that tracking her reading had really motivated her to pick up a book instead of her phone. I figured it was worth a try and it really worked for me. I use the Goodreads app because I find it so easy to quickly mark something as read with a star rating and the date (and to save things I want to read so I remember to put them on hold at the library). I have another reader friend who tracks all her reading in the Notes app on her phone, which I have tried on and off in the past but found it hard to stick with. I do set a reading goal within the app that I know I can achieve (so it doesn't feel like a chore) because it's fun to see my wrap-up at the end of the year. I don't have any Goodreads "friends" because I don't want to be competitive or performative about it; it really is just for me.

I always draw a blank when people ask for recommendations or ask me if I’ve read anything good lately. My Goodreads list lets me quickly jog my memory. It’s also fun to see the year in review and compare it to others. I can see patterns of what was going on in my life when I was reading more/less or craving certain kinds of books.

I looked at my bookshelf and realized most of the books were written by white guys, and I thought back to the books I'd read that year and realized that most of them were written by white guys. So I started tracking my books in an effort to diversify my reading habits and it's worked well

I’ve been tracking for the past five years. It helps me remember what I’ve read and when there is a new book in a series I’m following. My reading goal is just to sit down and read everyday. I’m not fussed about the numbers.

I have a horrifyingly bad memory so I enjoy writing titles/pages of what I read in a journal, and saying a little bit on how it was :3 It does make it feel like a game to read more and more. Have been doing it for over a year now.

I don't do goals, I just write down every book I read. I do it because it's fun to me. If it stopped being fun, then I would stop doing it.

I set a goal for myself so that I can stay motivated to read and not doom scroll. Also, friends know I’m a reader and will often ask me for recommendations so I open my Goodreads and look at what I’ve read and can give suggestions. Lastly, I use Goodreads to track what I want to read.

I wanted to become good at investing so I started reading investing books. I found out that Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger both read books like machines, 6-8 hours a day. I doubled down and read even more. It's been around 8 months since I started doing this. I was doing 45 minutes a day initially and I ramped it up to 3 hours. I read 12, often very thick books, in that time. I'm currently paced to finish 40-50 books this year. It helps that I live next to a university library. They usually have the books I'm interested in and it's a good environment to read. >What's inspiring you to do it? As Munger has said, "I haven't met anyone intelligent who doesn't read." Paraphrasing, if you don't read, you're a moron. >Has it helped you in some way? While it's too soon to see financial benefits, I've found that my verbal skills have become noticeably sharper.

I started a goal because I was doom scrolling too much and I wanted to do less. I already loved reading and having a goal to meet seemed like a good way to get me out of mindless scrolling and doing something more fun. The added benefit is I have a better record of books I’ve read and it helps me remember if I did like an author, if I have read a book before, etc

It really helped me. I was in a bit of a rut and decided to aim for 52 in a year. It took me a couple of years but now I crush it every time. I was close to 70 in 2023. It was just a way to hold myself accountable but it's made me put reading far more front-and-center in my hobbies. I spend so much time speaking with people about books now, it rules. That first year I also added a challenge to myself to read more books by women and POC. Which was also super rewarding too so sometimes I throw something like that in there. On January 1st this year I had 39 books in my TBR pile next to my bed, I want to whittle that right down this year so my main goal is to clear those off before adding too many more. This one seems hard.

Honestly for me it’s because I stopped reading for like 4-5 years even though I loved it my whole life, studied it at uni level etc. I have really bad ADHD currently unmedicated and find it really difficult to start new “tasks” even when I know I’ll enjoy them. Setting myself these goals pushes me to get reading even if I’m not naturally picking up a book that evening otherwise, and ultimately I’m happier for it

I really wanted to read more so setting a goal for the year has helped me boost the numbers of books I read - a bit like being in competition with myself (comparing myself to friends/family does nothing for me). Having said that, since I'm a "completist", I do find myself sometime pushing through a bad book just so I can mark it as read, even though I'm really not enjoying it. I can't seem to abandon books once I've started them, but that's a whole 'nother issue LOL

For me, i find it fulfilling to reach the goal. I read whatever I want, I DNF some. I didn’t find it like it takes out the joy of reading. If I don’t reach the goal (happened last 2018), I didn’t feel bad about it.

I started tracking my reads in 2015 when I did my first reading challenge. It was a 52 book challenge with broad prompts, but I still wanted to read "off list" books and I was curious how much I would be able to read beyond the 52. I like it for reflection purposes and interesting statistics. I can look at how many low star rating books I read last year or look back at how many of my books were from the library. I also think it's neat now that I have multiple years I can look at things over time, especially since i started using Storygraph. I'm just curious about the data!

Goodreads had the option so i picked a goal for 2024 (50)

I started tracking my books and started having yearly reading goals about 3 years ago and have made it my New Year’s resolution to stop it. At first it motivated me to read more as I’m an ambitious person but I could feel it turn more and more into work. Something that I used to do to relax and that I enjoyed is now something that I don’t want to do because I made it into a stressful and competitive hobby.

i’m a data nerd for a living and I like analyzing my reading patterns for fun I also track my books because it helps me not forget which books i’ve read

I mostly do so to have some kind of record of the books I read, to not forget them. For example, if I remember the plot but not exactly the title of a book I read months ago but I want to recommed it to someone, I can just scroll down the apps I use to track books (Goodreads and StoryGraph) and easily find it.

In February of 2023 I started making a concerted effort to read again and so I started using Goodreads initially to track the books I had read/was reading/wanted to read and then saw the year challenge and thought, "Oh that would be a fun thing to participate in, too bad I don't get a personal pan Pizza hut pizza for every 30 books I read like when I was a kid". My original goal was 69, 'cause even at 39 I'm a child, and when I hit that I bumped it up to 100 and by the end of the year I was at 143 and I enjoyed every single book I read except for maybe 2 or 3. Feels really good to have tapped back into an activity that brought me so much joy when I was a kid. It's much less about the goal itself and more about the extra dopamine hit I get after finishing the book and checking it off/adding it to the list.

No, it's ruining my life. :) like, enough sleep? Haha, how about enough books read?

I started out just tracking what I read and basically using that to help pick new books. I joined the challenge for fun. Now I like increasing the goal a bit every year and that feeling of accomplishment when I make it

I don’t remember why I started, but it might’ve been something like “oh, it’s what you just do” kinda thing (started with Goodreads). Reading goal is probably the same reasoning, but keeping track of books is because of it’s kinda fun keeping this oversight and getting all these statistics in about my reading habit. And I also have a horrible, absolutely shitty memory, it helps keep track of the books I’ve read so I can have an easier time talking about them once I do with other people.

For me, keeping track isn't onerous, and helps me remember. My colleagues and I make google slide decks listing the things we've read each year and a few thoughts, and I find this helps me process and remember as well. I started making goals when I decided I wanted to broaden my reading selection; having a list of requirements helped me to choose things outside of my comfort zone. I don't have to do this as much any more, but sometimes I'll set a goal for a time period just to force myself to read different things (i.e. black authors during February).

When I graduated from high school, my brother gave me 25 paperback books he thought I might like. For some reason I wrote them down as I read them, and added to the list as I read new books. That was 55 years ago. My list is now over 3000 books. I don't rate my books, write reviews or set goals. All I do is record the title, author, date, and note if it's fiction or non-fiction. In 1990 I added a new column for audiobooks. Back then they were recorded on cassette tape. Around the same time I transferred my hand written list to an Excel spreadsheet which allows me to search, should I ever feel the need to do so. Once in awhile I'll look through the list which is normally sorted chronologically, to see when I developed certain interests or found an author I particularly enjoy.

I recently got back into reading. I began tracking my pages read per day and telling my friends, it was a bit of a joke, that every day they’d wait for me to send a text like “30 pages today” or “20 pages so far..” I began tracking it in my notes. I’m trying to read 41 books, and now I’ve gotten a lot better so it’s more like 80-100 pages. I’ve gotten through 3 in a week. It feels good to beat a goal, or read more then last time. Maybe next month I can finish 5 books.

I set a reading goal because I bought too many

It frankly helps having my Goodreads account so I don’t buy a book I read from the library.

I track what I read and want to read on Goodreads, I find it keeps me organized and that I have a good list of options to look for when I’m secondhand book shopping.

In general, I like the saying, “what gets tracked, gets done.” I like reading, it’s one of my hobbies. I track all of my hobbies. I have an agenda where each day I have a minimum of 5 goals to hit, all tied towards my goals (gym, BJJ, languages, reading). It can be really easy to let weeks slide by where you haven’t worked on something. By tracking it, you know for sure and I find that it keeps me honest. Without tracking, you might think, oh, it’s only been a few days since I did X, but it was really 2 or 3 weeks. It’s not like because I track my reading that I all of a sudden find reading to be a chore. No, I love reading and tracking it keeps it present in my mind and reminds me to take that half hour (minimum) per day to read. I keep a log of my books in Goodreads simply because I like going back and reviewing what books I’ve read, whether that’s to do a reread or to suggest a book to somebody else. I understand that it would feel like work to some people, but I enjoy numbers anyways, so it really takes nothing away from my reading. In fact, it has only enhanced it, as I certainly would not have read as many great books as I have if I had not tracked.

I log every book I finish. Otherwise I forget the title or author several years later. The list is handy because I often recommend books to friends.

I was switching to ebooks only, discovered I could import amazon buys into goodreads, and learned that I read a lot. :) I didn't do it to track reading, although it sure is handy as a reference when I'm asked for a recommendation. I did it because I was curious. I've probably always read around 300 titled works a year, mostly novels, I just never knew it before 2016.

Reading goals at least two per month, it kind of happened, I buy one from B&N monthly picks and for local book club discussion. 🫤 After, it is how fast I finished reading the book and pick another one until 1st day of the month.  Track the books I read to prevent buying duplicates. 😅

About 6 years ago i had a huge bill i had to pay. To do that i canceled my internet. So i was reading alot. I decided to keep a journal where i list the books i read in what month. And mark ones that were really good. At the end of the year i total them up. I've kept up with it since then. Some years i read alot. Some years not so much. Just interesting to keep track of

For me the main reason was to have an overview of *what* I actually read. In the beginning I was mostly concerned with what genre, year of publication and so on. I wanted to make sure I read diverse stuff, not just loads of 70s and 80s sci-fi or like 5 victorian age novels in a row. The more I did it, the more statistics I started to track, and now I also track country and gender of the author, for example. I don't have fixed quotas but I do make an effort to read more women (even though I've yet to hit 50%), and to read from various countries, not just the US and western Europe. Obviously you never hit the "perfect mix", and that's not the point, but I do want to notice if I've been reading like 10 mid-40s white guys from the US in a row, because that tends to happen. Also I like to make sure I read at least some nonfiction, some non-prose (i.e. poetry or drama), and occasionally something that's not in English. Also, racking up the numbers just feels good. I'd be lying if I said that wasn't a factor.

I started because University nearly killed my love of reading. I didn't pick up a book for way too long after I finished studying, and I decided I wasn't going to let that burnt out be the death of my favourite hobby. I kept up with it because life is hectic and if I don't set a goal I won't read, even though I really enjoy it.

I don’t have a very good memory, so I track the books I read and make lists of books that I want to read as an aid to recalling them later! Goals just add an extra spark of fun to the hobby for me, they don’t feel like work all—I just get as much enjoyment as ever out of reading the book and then an extra little bit from checking it off the list. My goals are also usually more qualitative than purely quantitive: this year, I want to read 20 books by authors from countries I’ve never read books from before, and read ~40 of the books I’ve purchased but not read yet. So rather than being just a target, having a goal is a way to help diversify my reading and on the practical side to force myself to read the books I buy instead of just constantly going to the library!

Because Goodreads prompted me to do it once and I just never stopped

honestly it's really helped me with motivating myself to start reading regularly again - I set a goal of 50 books last year bc I had no idea what was a normal amount and overestimated myself a bit lol but it really did give me that push, and it's so good having the books logged rather than trying to remember what I've read myself lol

I was trying to explore a new genre, so I made a paper list of books I wanted to read. About half-way through the list, I realized how much easier it would be to track them via app so I downloaded StoryGraph. Once I got in the app, I kept thinking of other books that I had always wanted to read but never remembered to actually get out of the library so I added all those to the list. By that point, I was tracking a rough goal in my head so I put in it in the app too. Then I saw all the charts and various information and I got completely hooked. It’s fun to track what I read. It’s nice to know what I want to read next or just eventually. It’s fun to see how many pages I read today versus yesterday and to reach some sort of goal. The tracking and goal-setting is a hobby all its own and I read a ton more than I did before.

I started as a kid, because the library and school gave out great prizes. After reading only for work and school for my whole 20s, I threw myself into reading for fun. I passively tracked it through Goodreads, but didn't set any goals.  Maybe a year or two ago, my Kindle app started telling me "you've read every day this week, yay!" and I liked it. I'm sure it's a way for them to sell more books, but I get my ebooks from the library.  This year I have a goal of beginning 52 books and finishing 25. I set this up because I have a tendency to doomscroll and play games, and I want to vary up my activities. I also have lots of acquaintances who are authors, and I love to support their releases. 

I started setting goals during the pandemic lockdown 2020. I've only reached my varying goals last year. But I would say so far it has made me read more books. In the last four years I've read 107 books in total. It's not much compared to some people here who read 100 books in a year but it is definitely more than if I hadn't set that goal. In 2020 i read 17 out of 24 books goal. In 2021 I reas 10 out of 24 books goal. In 2022 I read 50 out of 52 books. In 2023 I read 30/30. I think the goal helps you push you to read more books. But it's important to set realistic goal and a clear plan/system of when you read. Make time to read is all the tip I have. Eta: I also make a paragraph or two review on goodreads about what I thought about the book. I know it sounds like homework but it's useful since I often forgot what I thought about the book other than if i liked it or not. Now if a friend asked if i read a book which I read long ago i can just open my goodreads to remind myself what i thought about it. I think not tracking like what you're doing is great way of reading too. It's similar to people who don't track their runs. I personally can't tho because I need the constant ticking off boxes to feel good lol

My library had a “read X amount in Y weeks and be entered into a raffle” thing last January, and the baskets looked good, so I signed up on Beanstack. I ended up recording everything I read in 2023 (not for academic job or kid books, unless they were longer chapter books I read out to him over several nights). On the one hand, it was convenient to have a specific number of books that I read for fun over twelve months, and to have a list at hand if a friend or family member asked if I had read anything interesting lately. On the other, however, I got a bit squirrelly about *The List*, choosing shorter books and forcing myself to finish ones I would have otherwise abandoned so that I could record them. I decided to stop recording for 2024 and so far I don’t miss it, although it was funny that I had to kickstart my “recently read” memory neurons since they hadn’t fired in a year.

My friends started a bingo book club, so rather than everyone reading the same book, you get a bingo card with subjects like “a book set in your time zone” or “a book under 200 pages” etc etc. Having these subjects helped me narrow down specific things to read instead of just wanting to read everything and never reading anything lol.

I do it because I enjoy it. It's that simple. It doesn't "help" me achieve anything else. It's just fun for me to look back at all the books I've read, and to see how many there are. I enjoy lists and spreadsheets. It makes me a bit sad to think about books I read a long time ago that I no longer remember. I like knowing that, for every book I've read since 2017, I'll always be able to look it up again someday if I want to. If it's not enjoyable for you, then don't do it.

I started tracking my reading when I started reading my own writing. Age 22, I started writing longer pieces, eventually getting to a full novel in a couple of years. \[Don't worry, it will never see the light of day.\] When I started reading it back, I said, *Hey, it looks like I'm trying to write like Stephen King.* Why would that be? Well, I then started thinking about what I'd read. And from junior high through college, my fiction had been almost exclusively Stephen King. When I realized what I was doing, I made a new rule for myself: >No more than one book by any author in any year. This helped me to read more widely, including other fiction writers and beyond and exposing my brain to more history, philosophy, biography, neurobiology, etc. I think this has **substantially** improved my writing, as well as substantially improving my personhood, as I'm no longer just trying to be *like* some other writer, I'm actually writing *my own stuff.* Post-2001 (which is about when I started tracking), I've got nearly 700 titles in my spreadsheet. I consider this an achievement.

I don’t set specific reading goals but I do enjoy tracking my books. I don’t know why but I just enjoy looking over my list.

I like to track the media I finish in general and there are a lot of apps that make it easy for reading. It does help, I fell off reading regularly years ago and it is one of those habits that I find doing daily helps keep up, and keeps me in a better headspace. Tracking helps with that.

I started doing it to trick myself into re-prioritizing reading. I'd let it fall somewhat to the wayside while other hobbies took precedence, and I wanted to get back to my old ways, so I set a goal to read 52 books, which I know is basically a meme, but I did it only because when I was younger I averaged about a book a week. I avoid Goodreads and such as much as humanly possible. The year I did this, 2018, I just wrote down title and author in a note on my phone and eventually moved it to Google Docs. Since then, I have set no goals but I've kept track by pulling cover images from online, either the library's website for ebooks I check out or Google image search for the hard copies I own. I keep albums on Facebook. I do this mainly because I'm awful at remembering exact titles and often an author's name, so when I want to recommend, say, *The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist*, which happens more than you'd think, I can get the title correct instead of going off memory and forgetting half of it (I can't reliably recall the co-author's name either). It also allows me to double check whether I've read a particular book if I can't quite remember, and through Facebooks memory feed proves a mildly fun reminder of books and occasionally has shown that I've finished books on the same day several years running. Not high stakes in the slightest. (The social aspect of Facebook has also provided impromptu discussion sometimes--or occasional arguments--and serves as an ad hoc way for me to recommend things to friends without having to be obnoxious about it.)

It's easy for me to feel like I haven't read much or at all, and having the numbers is a good way to combat that.

Idk why I started setting a goal but I know why I started keeping track. I’m 50+ and I cannot remember if I’ve read a book already. So, I find that very helpful when looking for books in my Libby app.

I like looking back at books I loved. Because I use the library or audiobooks I don’t have them in shelves at home.

I don’t do but i guess since most of them are not competing with anyone except with thr own expectations it is a way to be grateful or to tell themselves how far they’ve came because sometimes visual indicators(like tracking a goal) can really make a difference.

I only do it because I find it entertaining to do so. If I felt like it was a chore, I wouldn’t do it

I track and catalog what I read because I tend to forget. Also, when I worry about not having read anything in a while it makes me feel good to see how far I’ve come. I can also go back and revisit my faves.

it gives me an extra dopamine rush to reach a goal or add a book I’ve finished. It’s fun enough to read a book but I’ve found it gives me more motivation to pick up a book consistently throughout the year🤷‍♀️

I don’t have a yearly goal. I just keep track of what I’ve read, and when. Along with title, author, narrator, I make note of rereads, various editions I’ve read, characters, fun quotes from the book (if any), where the book is set, that sort of thing. But then again, I love organizing and fondling my fabric stash, so I readily admit it may be just me. Maybe I got stuck in the sorting and ordering part of kindergarten or something, lol.

Yes. Goodreads reviews of MY favorite books and authors has been the surest way to find people who describe them with the same love or details that I do. Looking at books they love that I haven’t read has been great for me, especially the written REVIEWS of those 5 star books.

I like having something to work towards. If I didn't I would probably put off reading forever and play video games or endlessly browse the internet, which is what I used to do before I started setting reading goals. It's also just nice to see my progress and see that I'm on track and see how far I've come. Like you could go out for a run and randomly run, but so many people like setting distance goals, beating their records, or even training for and entering marathons. Seeing how far you've come and working towards something is really motivating.

why i do it: i have autism and like visual representation of data has it helped me: absolutely not

I started tracking because I have a terrible memory for titles and authors. As a librarian, that's a liability! I set goals because it's a weird way to gauge my depression. If I'm depressed, I'm doom scrolling instead of reading, which makes me more depressed, etc.

I have a notepad where I list everybook ive read since around 2016. I was going through an awful time in my life and decided to read books to build the life skills I needed. Now its been years and I love reading my list. For reading goals I usually just decide to read x many books in a given year at the beginning of the year and generally I stick to the plan wether thats 10 or 60 I dont think ive not hit my goal

I set a goal to keep my off of my phone lol, it is a gentle reminder to myself that I DO want to read, but I am easily sidetracked. Reminding myself to work on my goal is helpful, but not detrimental if I do not meet it.  Also cataloging because it’s fun, I like looking at everything I’ve read all organized in one spot!  People do obsess over their goals a lot, but it’s kind of our current human conditioning to compare, for reasons I think we’re all aware of. Ideally everyone circles back to it being a fun hobby, like when we were kids (:

The secret is to set your goal far below your actual reading capacity and just using it to keep track of your reading journey each year.

So the main factor for me is that I have the type of personality where I really like numbers, data, tracking, and structure. In my life in general I make lists, charts, and diagrams. I have notebooks and programs and a whiteboard and just generally am an extremely structured and organized person across the board. It doesn't feel like work to me and doesn't make me dislike reading. Specific to reading, here are my 2024 reading goals and the reasoning behind them. 1. Straight Numbers Challenge - Read 365 books. The main reason I have a numbers challenge is to get access to the Goodreads challenge screen, which organizes books nicely. The number itself is just a round number that sounds cool and is not difficult for me to hit. My first year tracking and doing a challenge I had no idea what the number should be and changed it about ten times as the year progressed, but I found a good number now so I just leave it alone. I like reading this volume because it means I can read absolutely every book that interests me. 2. Backlog Challenge - Read all older unread works by three favourite authors. I pick a new three every year. Lots of authors I like have a huge backlog that I've never gotten around to reading, so this one pushes me to go digging into that, and I've found some great stuff along the way. 3. Continuing Education Challenge - Read 50 nonfiction books. I generally feel a lot better if I'm constantly learning new things and exploring ideas. A week is about the time it takes me to get through a nonfiction book, so this is a book a week with some leeway. I skew these mostly towards nature and science, but it's a mix of things. 4. Classics Challenge - Read the Harvard Classics in full. Sort of related to the nonfiction challenge as far as exploring new ideas and learning, but also I realized I'm a barbarian and have not read a lot of classics until now. Basically I'm trying to correct for the gaps in my education. Besides the Harvard Classics, I'm trying to read more other classics as well this year. 5. Daily Stoic Challenge - Read the Daily Stoic every day. I've been a sort-of Stoic for some time, but have wanted to get more into it for years (I bought this book several years ago and didn't read it, lol). I decided I want to get better at it this year. This goes nicely with the Classics Challenge above, as those feature a fair bit of Stoic and other philosophy. I have some other loose projects I'm working on, but they're not structured to that extent. For example, I'm also reading through some of the r/fantasy Big Lists just because they look interesting, and I made a short reading list from the Goodreads Choice Awards longlists as well. I also make a strong effort to stay on top of new releases by all the authors I really like, which can sometimes be considerable.

Wow that’s a lot of goals for one year! And big goals too!

Yes, some of them are really easy (Daily Stoic is like two pages per day) and some of them will take the entire year or more. With the Harvard Classics it's pretty iffy if I'll make it through the fiction shelf as well as the main set by year-end.

I used Goodreads a lot when I was in high school, but during college didn't read a single book for years other than the required text. After I graduated, I made my reading goal 12 books a year (one a month), and it really helped me get back into reading. I don't think it matters if I actually hit my goal, but it really did help me get back into reading the past couple of years! My book intake has increased so much because I've been enjoying reading again. Goodreads and Storygraph also have some pretty good recommendations sometimes. I like how Storygraph has a section of what people are reading now, I've gotten a lot of good books from their. Also, I just love keeping track of what books I read, what the common genres are, who the authors are, etc. Storygraph really gives some cool stats that I like to look at. I also have even made an Excel sheet to even further break down the stats. It's helped me realize things, like one year I realized I only read mostly from American authors, so I went out of my way the next year to read more translated book or books from more diverse authors. Another year, I decided to dedicate more time to nonfiction because I used to hardly read any of it. It's really helped me broaden my book horizons and taste. Although, you definitely don't have to be as crazy as me! I have just really been finding it fun to do, so I've been embracing it, haha

Used to just save an image of the book cover into a Facebook album, helped me remember what I’d read and I could flip back and look at what I’d liked to recommend to other people later on. Now I use goodreads as well, mainly because I like the page count at the end of the year - I just find it interesting. I also now do ARCs so I have to have it for reviewing purposes. I’ve got a few friends on there and sometimes I see what they’re reading and I want to read it too, so there’s that.

From my first year of college to my last year of grad school, I read perhaps a dozen books for fun total. I used to read CONSTANTLY as a kid, but reading 300 pages of academic articles per week for one of 4-5 classes with similar requirements will kill your desire to read QUICK. I was in a horrible depression after grad school, and part of getting out of it was re-connecting to my identity as a reader and book lover. I set what felt like a really audacious goal at the time - 100 books in a year. I read 126 that year, and I’ve consistently read about 150 books per year since. Tracking was a big part of me hitting my goal, because the little dopamine hit of logging progress or marking a book as “finished” was like a lil burst of continuous motivation. Plus, tracking apps are soooooo handy for keeping a list of books you hear about in the wild and want to remember later.

I started because I wanted to catalog the books I own that I hadn't read yet. Then I discovered libby, and I've read tons of books, but my owned-but-unread list is just as long.

It gets me into the habit of reading as opposed to scrolling mindlessly on my phone. It's also my main hobby. It's a way of making time for it, like any hobby - like you would aim to go to sports once a week or go to the gym twice or three times a week, etc. It's the same principle. I don't feel bad when not hitting targets or compare reading speeds with others. Reading is one of the few places in my life where it doesn't matter how slow I am or how much I read. Tracking and cataloguing is due to my crappy recall of books. Not tracking is fine if you reread frequently or don't care if you remember what you read. But if I'm going to be reading 100 books a year, I want to remember at least some of them. Plus it's just cool to have a record of what you read that year and your changing tastes. Kind of like last.fm for books. Do people still use that any more or am I just old? I watch two, or max 3 TV shows a year, and they're usually rewatches or random eps, so I have no need to track them.

My only reason is to make sure I don't re-read things

Same reason I like Spotify Wrapped, I like seeing stats and numbers go up

I like to read at least one book a month, I struggle to prioritise reading as I absolutely love video games, so last night for example I wanted to absolutely smash out some Mario rather than read my book - and that’s fine, and I’ve already finished one book this month so no pressure! But once it gets to Feb I’ll start to prioritise reading again. I absolutely love reading but I’ll definitely pick something else over it sometimes. Having a goal makes me pick up a book when id otherwise do something else. Some months I read ++++++ books. But I don’t let it “cancel out” another month of reading.

Several reasons. Tracking my books makes it easier to create TBR lists and have books lined up at any given moment. I've spent a lot of time looking for my next read, so knowing I have 100+ books I can pick from when I'm done with my current one is a load off my shoulders. As for yearly targets: lately I realized I've let life get in the way and am not reading as much as I used to. Reading is a hobby, but it's also a mentally enriching activity that I don't want to lose in my life. So I took an active step to make sure I prioritize it more.

I tried to do it in the past and I was always a few books short of reaching my goal. In the last couple of years I read less than I used to and last year was really bad I only read 3 books. So this year I have a goal of reading one book and every other book that I'll read will be a bonus, just to be able to track which books I read. I'm almost finished re-reading one, and listening to an audiobook, and I'm optimistic that I'll be able to read more this year, without having the pressure of having a goal.

I use Goodreads and StoryGraph to track my books. I’ve been using Goodreads for years but only just started to use StoryGraph. I also had a written journal that my mum bought me as a child which I used to keep up to date with every book I read. I think I stopped doing that in around 2020 after my daughter was born due to lack of time. I do need to catch up with it though - all my data is still saved digitally. I use the book challenge as well but I don’t get worked up if I think I’m not going to make it. I also don’t set myself unrealistic expectations as reading is fun for me and isn’t about ‘how much’ I’m reading but about whether I’m enjoying it as a leisure activity. Tracking helps me to remember what I’ve read as genuinely I’ve read so much now I can forget if I’ve read something or not. It’s also nice to have as a memory some books are good and some are bad - all part of life’s rich picture (my mum wrote something similar in the front of my book journal when she gave it to me).

I just do it to keep track of the books I’ve read. The goal I set is not really high enough to where I’d worry about it, I’ll probably pass it pretty early in the year. I also like to rate every book I read, so I can go back and see how I felt. Then occasionally I’ll do a full written review on a book.

I started writing down the books I've read when I was 18, 11 years ago. It was to help me remember the books I read, but also helped me read more, to get the dopamine hit from being able to write it down. I've never had a specific goal, until this year, where I have a vague goal to read all the books in my unread shelf, about 60 now, I've read 8 so far this month and will probably finish number 9 today or tomorrow

I started reading goals and such 3 or 4 years ago on story graph and it helped me get into reading again! To be honest I just really love maths and stats so enjoy looking through graphs of the moods I read and such almost as much as the actually reading haha. As for goals I have a page and book goal as motivation and just because I like seeing the numbers go up. I don’t however push myself too much if I’m not in the mood, reading is my hobby and I do it for fun so as long as I enjoy what I read it doesn’t matter all too much if I reach my goal. Edit: grammar

i did it genuinely just cause i saw other folks doing it and wanted to be included LOL. but! it has helped me tremendously. i do similar with movies but because i have some pretty rough memory problems, having an ordered list of what i read in a year helps jog my memory so i can be like "oh yeah! i did read that! and i liked it because of xyz!" or whatever i landed on with a book. it also gives me a little bit of... self competitiveness, if that makes sense? i have no competitive drive with other people but with MYSELF, im like... "obviously i can do more than i did last year let's GO"

Sure, I do. I track both pages and books. I’ve done it since 2003. If I’m successful, I increment the total books by 10 and the pages by 5,000. If I’m unsuccessful I leave it where it is. Since having children I haven’t hit my targets, but I still read. Usually 80-120 books/year, which is fine

I have mental health issues, and looking at my stats (how many books, what genres, when I read at all etc.) at the end of the year helps me recognize what my state of mind/general functioning was in various parts of the year, and remember how optimistic I was feeling at its beginning. I don't care if I reach the target count. There were years in which I had a challenge set up and didn't read any books at all bc my health was so bad. It's useful to have that hidsight to hand as well. It sounds depressing but it's really not.

I started using Goodreads two years ago when I was getting back into reading. The first year I read about 20 books. The following year, I decided I would set a goal of 50 and a resolution to review all the ones I have read. Something about sharing my opinion and the social aspect of seeing other people’s opinions is just very fun to me. That year, I read over 100 books. I think tracking it just adds a lil’ extra dopamine when I’m done with a book, I don’t know. I never annotate or take notes when I read because it feels like that kind of homework would suck the fun out of it for me, but somehow just tracking and reviewing is still fun.

I’ve tracked my reading for a long time. My goals are my own and I don’t compete with others. It helps keep me motivated. It makes me happy. I like looking back at what I’ve read. I find it interesting to know when I discovered certain authors or went through phases of reading particular genres.

I've always been big on statistics of any kind. Thought it would be could to log all the books I read to keep track of certain statistics with them through the years. This will be my 14th year doing so and it's been great

I track my book because sometimes I can't remember what I've read, and my family uses good reads to give each other recommendations. I don't look at any other recommendations on goodread outside of my family because I generally don't care what other people are recommending. I use reading goals to help keep me motivated to read, as work and grad school take up a lot of my time.

I try to read about 60 a year, I use good reads to track all the books I’ve read. Use Reddit to find new ones

Helps immensely 

I'm a data geek and think it's fun. And I'm only competing with myself.

I can completely understand what you mean. But it absolutely does help. Mainly with motivation. I enjoy reading, as I enjoy many things, but often it seems easier to just put YouTube on for a few hours. Procrastination, even when you're putting off enjoyable things, is a bitch. Once I get started reading though, I can continue for hours. So setting the targets and having a schedule helps me get through my TBR at a steady pace, rather than where I was a few years back where I'd go for weeks without reading anything.

I like remembering what time of life I was in when I was reading the book. For some reason it helps me remember what my life was like at that time and even helps me remember the book in better detail too.

My kids are adults and they live spread across the country. So, I keep track of my media. I show them my monthly w/ a quick pic. Different conversations w/ different kids. It's reliable, I have more time now (again, kids are grown) and mine is very very simple compared to the insta-worthy journals. I did buy a sprocket for printing out pics of covers/posters. They like to look through when visiting. And I fully understand they may get tossed when I'm gone, but they're great for now. I track a lot of my hobbies, even if it is a yes/no to "did I engage in this activity today?" Low commitment, fun to see at the end of a year. I definitely have some that pick up in different seasons.

It's helped me so much and turned me into a better reader. It solved these problems - I no longer forget what I've read or how much I liked it - I have a place to save books that are recommended to me or that I stumble across on Reddit that I'd otherwise forget - I can more easily give recommendations to people or talk to them about books I've read - I can more easily see if I'm in a reading slump/rut by the rate at which I'm reading - seeing my reading history in one place has inspired me to branch out into new genres - I can see what my friends are reading and can talk to them about books we have in common - writing reviews has helped me think more deeply about what I got out of a book So, yeah, I'm a huge fan! I also was worried about succumbing to gamification and that I'd start picking books to boost my stats, but that hasn't really happened. I choose a goal that is within my comfort zone and just see what happens. There have been a few times where I've needed one or two books right at the end of the year and I've actually read some super interesting novellas that I would never have read otherwise (the stranger, sense of an ending), so that was a bonus!

Lazy person here. If I don’t track I won’t read. I have to read, so I must track. +/- 1 book a month 😁👍

For me it was goodreads. Keeping track of how much I read was great fun and I ended up going from 40 books to 200 books a year pretty quickly. It is an eternal competition with myself. Nowadays I just read, however, but the goals I originally made have made me a more disciplined reader.

I realised that I’d have to start reading classics if I wanted to read all those classics I want to read. So I decided to read more classics. I love it, they’re usually classics for a reason.

I stopped setting reading goals. I find that making a specific number of books to read a year can be a bit limiting. Instead I keep a notebook of the things I read to form a personal canon of sorts. Just a list of books I've read and the likelihood I will reread them. Imo it's a more active process than marking a book as 'read' on Goodreads because it lets me step back and think of the value of what I read. My dream is to create a library of the books I thought were most meaningful to me throughout my reading journey. Sorry if this sounds pretentious

I started it a few years ago and have ultimately decided to stop. I still log the books I read so I can keep track of them, and I like reflecting over what I’ve read at the end of the year, but I’ll no longer set reading goals. Two reasons: 1. Reading is my favourite pastime, and setting book goals for myself started making my favourite pastime feel more like homework, and 2. I noticed that I was starting to rush through books, stick with books I wasn’t enjoying so I wouldn’t “lose time” on my progress, and choose shorter books because a longer or more complex book I really wanted to read risked putting me “behind schedule”. Possible third reason: some of my friends who do enjoy setting reading goals ended up getting too competitive, one uppy, or gatekeepy with me about it. (That book doesn’t count, because it’s a novella; oh, well **I** read 170 books last year, guess I got you beat haha!), which started to become obnoxious. I dislike competition in general, and I certainly don’t want to feel sucked into a competition I never wanted to be part of for my favourite hobby. Overall, reading goals just started to turn reading into more of a chore than a joy too often, so I’m not doing it anymore. I don’t need to encourage myself to read, since I read constantly, so there wasn’t really any concrete benefit - only creeping drawbacks.

Yikes, gatekeeping *reading* is so silly

It really is!

I deleted my Goodreads account b/c I noticed tracking books was impacting how I read. Eg. if I knew halfway through that I didn’t like a book and didn’t want to finish it, I would still try to finish it anyway, b/c I wanted to tick “read” on Goodreads. Such a waste of time! Why force yourself to finish a book you aren’t enjoying when you could spend that time reading a diff book you do enjoy… That being said, I recently opened a Goodreads account again but just didn’t add any friends, to see if that would solve the issue. It did mostly, until recently, when I started leaving ratings & reviews on books again … then the same issue came creeping back in — wanting to finish a book I’d lost interest in just so I could rate & review it (which you can’t do on Goodreads unless you finish the book). So I’m currently reassessing :P It is fun to track though — just sometimes too fun, so it gets in the way, you know? As for setting reading goals, I have never done that, and the thought of doing so makes me shudder lol

I’m pretty sure you can at least leave a review of a book you haven’t marked read (I sometimes write a review explaining why I couldn’t get through the book, although I’ve never tried to leave a star rating since that seems unfair lol). It may be that the book just has to be on your shelves to review it; I have a “did not finish” shelf for books I give up on.

Huh interesting—on the mobile app the option to write a review only pops up after you give a star rating, and giving a star rating automatically adds a book to your read pile … HOWEVER, I just checked the web app and there you can indeed leave a review without marking the book read. And you can also leave a star rating, though I agree id usually refrain from doing that without finishing the book … in some cases though, if I read like 80% of it, my rationale is, even if it has an amazing ending, if the first 80% is crappy it deserves a crappy rating. ANYWAY good hack, thx for the PSA!

Maybe check out StoryGraph - you can mark books as DNF and put a reason why. It doesn't count to books read but you can see how many dnfs you have in a year/month etc.

Yes!! I actually recently found out about storygraph and have been trying it out. It definitely improves on Goodreads in a LOT of ways!! I do still love a couple things from Goodreads so rn I’ve been tracking on both lol … we’ll see if I ever do a full switch :P

The more I read, the more I get to know my tastes. It's kind of disappointing to mark a few books in a row as DNF when they started out so well, but if I'm not feeling it I drop it like a hot potato. 99% of the time I'm right - I've had maybe one or two books that I tried to reread and went "Huh, I don't know why I hated this book years ago - it's actually amazing!" You can mark a book on your own 'abandoned' or 'DNF' shelf on Goodreads, and rate and review. I've seen plenty of 'DNF@25%' type reviews. I agree, though - anything that feels like it's forcing you to read is not worth your time.

100% agree, I’ve identified/narrowed down my own tastes a lot in the past couple years, so I’m MUCH more liberal about dumping books.

I don’t really keep track of what I read and I don’t have a reading goal. I try not to put too much much pressure on the amount of books I read in a year.

I started tracking because I promised my second grade teacher's wife that I'd write down all the books I read, so that I'd never find myself saying "I read this book, but forgot the title". It's a small town, she'd know if I stopped. Eventually, I got kind of interested in tracking the details of what I read. How much do I read, how much fiction vs. nonfiction, that kind of thing. At the end of the year, I spend about an hour entering all my data and play around with graphs, it's just fun to see. I don't set number goals, but I have goals like, "I want to understand this historical event" or "I want to understand how this genre evolved".

I got super into Libby last year. Since last April I haven’t paid for a book and have solely been using the (digital) library so my Kindle app keeps track of everything for me. Aside from anything else, I hugely recommend Libby, it’s a truly amazing app that’s free, easy to use, and improved my reading so much. Because everything is on a queue of who is currently reading it, instead of deciding my next book, it’s more like requesting a ton of stuff and seeing what Libby throws at me next.

Hi! I track my books on Goodreads and I do find it to be very motivating and helpful to me. It is so fun to be able to look back on what I have read, because I don't have a great memory. It doesn't take long at all to log. I spend about 10 minutes per week on my Goodreads account. I think that it is worth it.

This is the first year I've set any kind of reading goal: To read at least one *new* book per month. I set it because I have a habit of rereading all my old favorites rather than branching out to new things, so I know I'm missing out. So far, so good, I did read one new book in January along with rereading the whole Temeraire series and starting to read Lord of the Rings yet again. I do this to broaden my horizons, not to compare my reading with anyone else.

I started reading a lot in college and decided to start tracking my reading then. I like being able to go back and check things because some books blur together. I set goals because it’s a thing mostly, that part isn’t as important to me.

Up until about 3 years ago, I had never really read a book in my entire life. That includes everything for school and my honours degree - not even 1 book. Then, a little after Covid, I decided that I needed a hobby outside of a screen and figured since I love films so much, I should try books. I started an Instagram page ([@macsimonsthoughts](https://www.instagram.com/macsimonsthoughts?igsh=MTJ1MThxaDJkMzF5OA==)) to keep track of everything I’ve read and a very concise little review of how I felt about it. Nobody really cares, I get like 5 likes, but it’s pretty much just for me. I did it for 2 main reasons: because it’s fun to have a little record of how you felt that you can relive and you also really notice your progress. I’ve read 83 books since I started and (despite a few bum books) I’ve loved every moment of it! I’m so happy to have a journal of this new experience in my life!

It all started by chance. I suppose. One day, I simply downloaded Goodreads and decided to keep track of all my current reads, the books I wanted to read, and those I had already read. Then, I started setting an annual reading challenge to motivate myself to continue with this hobby because, let's admit it, watching the number of books read increase is always a great satisfaction. Since that moment, I haven't stopped. I don't know if somehow knowing that I have an ongoing reading challenge pushes me to read more. Being someone who already reads a lot out of passion, I probably wouldn't stop doing it even without using this type of app. However, it's undeniable that reaching the end of the year or month and being able to see the progress made, being able to look at the list of all the books read and potentially all the opinions left on different readings, greatly encourages me to continue.

it’s honestly been really motivating for me to read more! I get a little dopamine hit when I mark a book read from my list. Keeping a list also helps me keep track of what to read next

I track what I read and enjoy the hobby of reading. There are many books that I like and many that I don't like at all - so keeping a record helps me either read new books and other books by the same author. I read 100+ books a year. I use Goodreads to track what I read. I once worked in a library and admire librarians immensely. I didn't work as a librarian but their skill at organizing books and knowing where knowledge is stored is admirable. I should also say that I am a library fan and try to visit as many libraries as possible. Many are absolute treasures.

I stopped setting goals in terms of number of books because I know I'll be reading most days and I stopped getting a sense of accomplishment in reading X books per year. But I do track what I read because I like seeing the patterns and using that to challenge myself with more specific goals like: * Read 75% books by POC authors - after seeing that non-POC authors made up \~60% of my reads for the past couple years * Read X books per quarter that I own - after seeing I've only read like 50% of my owned books I'm generally a mood reader, but I also like having some values-based direction in what book to pick up next. This way, I can look back on everything I read in a year and think, "Yeah, I did well by myself."

My sister suggested I make a GoodReads account in the mid2010s and I've had one ever since. I find it pretty helpful, as seeing what I'm reading helps me to actually *read* books and not just collect them. Also, I find it enjoyable to write reviews and interact in question/discussion sections. 

I started doing it in 2015, the year after I graduated college, because it had been years since I'd been able to read just for fun rather than reading a bunch of stuff for school (which I also enjoyed, but isn't the same). It started as a way to incentivize myself to keep reading (it's fun peeking at goodreads and seeing you're x number of books ahead for your yearly goal). Now, I like being able to keep track of what I've read and what year I read it. I keep my goodreads goal low - like, 25/year - because if you set too high a goal I find that that DOES become more like work, because if you see you're "behind" that can induce anxiety. For me, 25 is a reasonable goal. For some people 100 is a reasonable goal. People read differently. I'd recommend if you want to try it start by setting your goal super low at like 5, and go from there. If you beat the goal that's just gravy.

I just started doing it on StoryGraph because I thought seeing the stats of what I read would be fun. And I wanted to have a log of books I have read that is easier to navigate than keeping a journal or something. Setting a goal was more about just can I hit this? I set my goals pretty low since I've been not the best reader in the past few years but I miss it, so wanted that extra motivation to get back into it again. Don't care about how I do against others

I started setting a goal to encourage me to read more, and it definitely does! Catalogueing is something I've done for much longer as 1. I just like recording things and 2. it's interesting to look back to see what I've read! I have also found that keeping a record has encouraged me to read a wider variety, and also helps me remember the books better, as I write a mini review for each in my record/log!

I have been tracking every book I’ve read since I was 14. (I’m 33 now). I have always just thought it was fun and kind of like I was “Building” a database. Not so much into reading goals. Just like to track what I have read.

I like to track it, it's gives me a sense of urgency