Why I Set My Goodreads Challenge to One Book

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Hey peeps! It’s that time of year (the very beginning) where everyone (or a lot of people) are wondering what to set their Goodreads Reading Challenge goal to for 2017. A lot of people want to exceed last year’s goal by X amount of books, and some just want to read the same amount they did – or even less. I was thinking about my own challenge and I was going to set it to 30 books again this year, but as I thought more and more about it I realized how much I crave a stress free year.

So I set my goal to one book. And I’ve already accomplished it.

I want to do more than just be a book blogger this year, so I want to do a lot more of my other passions this year than just reading. That’s one of the major reasons why I set my goal to one book. I have more passions than just reading and they’ve been thrown to the wayside these past couple of years.

The other major reason is that by setting it to one book, no matter how many books I’ve read, that feeling of accomplishment will still be there. I don’t feel that pressure that everyone feels when they set that goal. It always seem like we have to reach it, like we have no choice in that matter. But we do.

I don’t think reading, or any passion/hobby/activity should be stressful. We’re doing this for fun, right? We’re doing this for ourselves, to have a voice in the reading world, to share our love of books. So why stress about how many we read?

If you want to set your goal to 100 books, go for it! If you want to set it to 10, go for it! Do whatever you think will make you happy and just set out to achieve that goal! I hope you all have a stressless reading year and that you read the books you want.

Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

What did you set your challenge to, if you did set it? Do you think it’s a good idea to just have one book as your goal, or do you think having a larger number to reach for is better? Tell me your thoughts!

17 thoughts on “Why I Set My Goodreads Challenge to One Book”

  1. I also set my goal to one book (already accomplished too yay!) and it’s definetly a weight lifted off my shoulders. In past years, I would always have to lower my goal in order to reach it so honestly, the Goodreads challenge does’nt really matter to me anymore if that makes sense. I’m more excited to read I think because I don’t have a number in the back of my mind and I can just read for pleasure and not for some silly goal. I always felt I was competing with other people and now I just don’t care anymore and I’m reading for me.

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    • That makes perfect sense! I agree: it can feel like a competition, and when you see someone read 100+ books, then you feel like you’ll never be up to their level when you’re only at 25 (at least that’s how I’ve felt). Reading for you is definitely more important.

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  2. This makes so much of sense! I set my goal to 5 books this year. And if I hit it, I may extend it one book at a time, just because it makes me feel good to hit that number. Or I may just leave it as it is and read more. But setting the bar low makes me feel so much less stressed?? It just allows me to read, and I love it.

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  3. I commend you for your awesome attitude! I always tell readers the same thing: don’t worry about it, it’s supposed to be a fun hobby… But it seems more and more everyone is making it to be some kind of stressful job! Even I end up feeling that way sometimes and hate it >.>
    This year I maintained my goal of 60 books, even though I barely managed to achieve it last year. And yes, I was dreading not reading those 60 books! But I know it was because I slacked and could have easily reached that number. I think I’ll do it comfortably this year.
    Also, I see it as a personal goal, so of course I want to achieve it but if I don’t, I’ll try not to be so hard on myself 🙂
    I hope you get to do everything you set your sights on! I look forward to reading about all your hobbies and milestones ^^

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  5. I definitely agree that it should be stress-free–something to aim for, not worry about. I didn’t even make it hallway to my goal in 2016, which disappointed me because I read so little, not because I didn’t reach some arbitrary goal. I did decide to set my goal lower this year, though, because I do like that sense of accomplishment of completing it. Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t. We’ll see.

    While I by no means care what others’ goals are, I think setting it to 1 book would bother me, personally. It would cause me the stress you’re trying to avoid xD

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