I really got to evaluate my reading habits. I believe with more understanding of my reading habits there will be less frustration in my reading.
My Reading Phases
- Updating the Queue: I read books that I have started but have not finished in small or big chunks.
- Purging : I reach a large amount of books that are okay/not good. I dump liberally.
- Layering: I start a bunch of books.
*These phases are prone to overlap
Stressing Yourself Out Reading/Quantity vs Quality
I feel that when you unconsciously read without all the qualifies it makes you actually read more than when you say for example try to read 160 pages a day. I dabbled in reading 160 pages a day to reach my goal of reading the last 7 books to reach 30 books. I was okay for the first day but after that I could see why it could get really old fast. I noticed that in my first week and half when I read unconsciously I read 1000+ pages. Readers now are so obsessive on how many pages, books, and such they are reading. We are unconsciously syching/stressing ourselves out. It got to me when I saw a video of that person talking about how she was embarrassed that she only finished 2 books in a month and is currently reading 9 books. Reading 9 books is every week for me. I read 40+ books in this 30 day challenge. I guess it made me think why should I be embarrassed for how I read? Why should I be embarrassed that I started 44 books? Don’t be embarrassed about your reading style. I was so against the people who read 400 books in year at first. I thought that is not possible to comprehend that many books. Now, I know that I can read 400 books if I wanted to. The question is do I need to knowing me as a reader? If my reading is all about saying I read x amount of books it begs the question: Who am I reading for? Am I reading to say that I read x amount of books to show off? Pause. I am not getting on people who do number challenges in a way that does not harm them. I am getting on people who like me do number challenges and they stress you out. Yes, you get yourself together. Unpause.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izvfhRSh8Ww sums up my overall opinion on the subject
Being apart of this challenge reminded me of the good and bad of numbered challenges. I see so many people who don’t read big books or because “I can finish x amount of books in the amount of time it takes to read this one book.” I feel that quantity over quality is taking over. People who read fast or a large amount of books a year this is not for you. I want to talk about this quantity over quality attitude that is stressing people out. What it all comes down to me is people trying to read outside their means. Support your reading style. Experiment and learn what works for you.
I can understand wanting to read as many books as possible in the shortest amount of time. I want to make progress too. I don’t want to just put things down and flutter to the next thing like a butterfly. But I cannot force myself to finish/dump books. I did not want to flow back into my 100 book challenge habits. I did not want to go into forcing myself to finish books just to say I finished books. I have to read how I read.
Ultimately, I get annoyed when I see all these barriers that readers put up that stop us from reading.
End Rant
I took a look at my post from way back when of January on why I hate numbered challenges: https://themollyweather.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=405&action=edit
I wanted to look my post to see how my experience now compares to my experience and opinion back then. In addition, I wanted to list the things I got from this challenge.
- Almost 30 books off my books left to read list: a combination of dnfing and finishing.
- I do not fall into the trap of finishing books I do not like because they are short. I did finish some books that I did not like but that is entire other reading issue I need to deal with.
- I got back into A Clash of Kings
- Everything did not take a backseat to me reading.
- I did not cut corners
- I let go of reading x amount of books in a month
- I was excited to read throughout the challenge. It did not feel like a chore. I am not going to act like I did not stress myself out a few times during the challenge though.
I am happy that it is over. In the last couple of days I was ready for it to be over so I could read without feeling constricted. If you have done the 30 days book challenge how was your progress? How was your overall experience with the challenge?
Good so far. I cannot wait until all the stuff hits the fan. That is kind of my issue with most of the books on my currently reading list. I have to read through all this stuff to get to the action. I want that feeling of flipping pages to see what happens next. I want action and intrigue right now.
I did not feel anything. 
themollyweather 