Has Reading Become Competitive?

Spoiler alert: it has, but you don’t have to subscribe to it

Last week, I had a short but interesting chat with a friend. She wanted some book recommendations and was keen to jump back into reading. Naturally, I was in my element.

My friend then commented about needing to read more, which then led me to mention my own fairly successful reading year thus far. At the time, I had read 16 books this year, and I am now sitting at a total of 21, which already makes it my best reading year to date, but her response to this completely threw me. With a few more expletives, she said I won’t quote, “Now I feel extra behind”. Wait, what?

I have been an avid watcher of BookTube videos since I was about fifteen, and I was always mesmerised by the creators who recorded at least ten books a month and hit 100 books a year with ease. At the time, I struggled to hit ten a year, so I felt inadequate. I felt like I wasn’t a proper reader. I felt behind everyone else.

When my friend mentioned feeling behind off the back of my own reading, my first thought was: am I that person now? Am I the benchmark? Oh no.

It’s kind of a compliment, in hindsight, to be the benchmark, but as the person who has idolised readers who churn out books at the speed of light, I know how detrimental that pressure can be. The same content creators will emphasise reading at your own pace and that it’s not a competition, but it is literally impossible not to be green with envy or believe you’re not reading enough. Comparison is inherent in humans, unfortunately, and quite frankly, it sucks.

So, has reading become competitive? The answer is yes, but also no.

Let’s Talk about Goodreads

The book community has seen a monumental increase in engagement over the last few years because of its growth online. YouTube and Instagram have huge communities to the point where they have a name, aptly named BookTube and Bookstagram, and a wealth of people either create content themselves or use said content for recommendations.

There is also the reading-dedicated platform, Goodreads. Right, where do I start with Goodreads? Allowing users to become friends with each other and follow people, it’s purely to track your reading.

It’s supposed to be about recommendations, but pigs will fly before that feature is actually useful. No matter what I read, it will recommend John Green and Twilight, and I once got an email upon finishing This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay telling me based on this medical memoir, I would like Twilight.

Make it make sense because I can’t.

Rant aside, it stimulates competition through the Goodreads Challenge and just being clued in on how much your friends are reading. If you’re unfamiliar, the Goodreads Challenge is a yearly goal readers set themselves, detailing the number of books they hope to read that year. I always set mine to forty, as I hope to read a book a week but aiming lower takes the pressure off.

Unfortunately, It Gets worse

The worst aspect of this, though, is that those participating can see their friends’ challenges alongside their own. As great as tracking your friends’ reading is, I always get intimidated when someone is crushing their reading goal, and I am slipping behind. As part of the Challenge interface, Goodreads tells users how many books ahead or behind schedule to achieve their goal. It literally says, “You are X books behind!” and I hate it.

If you read for fun, then this is quite disheartening. It’s a hobby, an escape, a relaxation method, and I don’t want to be pressured. The obvious solution is to detach yourself from the online book community and fly solo, but a similar pressure is applied to interactions between friends like I described above.

There will always be someone who has read more or is jealous of your reading, online or not.

(If you want to add me on the aforementioned platform I spent ages ridiculing and still actually use a lot, you can do so here. Let’s be friends!)

Be Your Own Competition

All of that in mind, it is possible to detach yourself from the competitive nature of reading as I have done it myself. I don’t compare myself to others because I have grown to appreciate how much I read on a personal level. Last year, I read twenty-three books, and the year before, I read a grand total of one.

It sounds cliché, but being your own competition really helps. Twenty-three books in the eyes of the online community are not many. Still, as a final year university student with a dissertation to write, I was pleased with this, especially compared to the year before.

This year, my non-numerical goal is to either match or beat my personal best from last year, so I am consciously trying to gear my inevitable competitive nature to an internalised goal. If you’ve not tracked your reading before, then read as much as possible this year, on your own terms, and use this as a goal for next year! I’ll say it louder for the people in the back, on your own terms!

Numbers Don’t Matter, so Just Enjoy The ride

I also believe quality over quantity is a perfect mentality for reading. I would always rather have one or two new favourites than ten mediocre reads. Of course, for a goal, it’s easy to power through some short fluffy romance novels that take no time at all, but if your most anticipated reads are the latest series of epic fantasy novels boasting 700 pages apiece, then read the gigantic fantasies!

Despite my “small” total from last year, I found my favourite book of all time and read amazing books, which forced me to take personal time off from reading to recover. That’s the sign of a good book to me, and I wasn’t concerned with the time I wasted crying instead of reading.

Reading Is Personal — You Do you!

Writing this made me realise it’s largely about mindset. I’ve changed my perspective from one of jealousy to inspiration. The big yearly totals always make me excited to read more next year, not necessarily to try and match the totals floating around, but just to read more for myself.

Throughout my life, I want to read as much as possible for my own sake. I want the wall of books I’ve read and the plethora of reading to boast. I want to be the fountain of knowledge when it comes to books and be the person everyone thinks of when they want a recommendation.

That’s one of the many reasons I push myself to read as much as possible, and comparison now inspires me instead of demotivating me.

It’s clear I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I hope my points stand. Reading has definitely become competitive, but it’s definitely possible to not subscribe to it.

Whether you read 100 books this year, a book a week, a book a month or one book more than you read last year, I am proud of you, and you are no less of a reader despite some keen beans reading more.