Reading Books Does Not Have To Be a Race

I do log my reading on goodreads but I am not an obsessive about it. Today I came across an article on just this topic. Here's a good quote from the article:

I look at my friend’s reading numbers and compare them to mine, like it’s some bizarre literary Miss Universe pageant. If I miss the reading goal I arbitrarily set myself at the start of the year, I feel like a total failure....

Online culture has cultivated a constant pressure to be “grinding,” with the omnipresent eyes of your followers judging how you spend each second of your time. Billionaire bootlickers preach the doctrine of the constant hustle; that in order to be successful, you have to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of the day, which generally includes waking up at 4 a.m. and having cold showers (ew). While this is usually applied to girlbossery, this mindset has seeped into all aspects of our lives, with no activity being exempt from the pressure to be done as well and as often as possible. From exercise to skincare routines, our Spotify playlists to the hours we sleep: Everything we do has to be tracked and ranked, be it against our own personal goals, or worse, other people’s.

I asked Nicole Villegas, an occupational therapist and mental health practitioner, about why we are obsessed with tracking everything we do. “Health-related tracking for sleep, steps, energy levels, menstruation, mood, and the like can give us a picture of what’s currently happening and aid in the healing journey,” she tells me over email. “When we track things like the books we’ve read, friends we’ve visited, or how many socks we’ve knitted, we’re gathering data about our non-obligatory hobbies. It can also help us validate our experiences. It’s a powerful tool to help us look back at our progress and acknowledge how our time has been spent.”

The whole article is worth reading. When did reading become a competitive sport? I do believe that it is important to spend a certain amount of time in reflection and contemplation. Life includes not just doing, but also being.