While I consider myself a voracious reader and terminally online shut-in, I’ve never found much of a home within the online book community.
For one thing, I’m not a huge fan of the books being pushed by these “content creators” (a.k.a the same 15 YA books on rotation).
For another, there is an incredibly weird push within these communities to read as many books as one can as quickly as one can. I’m all for reading goals and pushing one’s self to diversify, increase, or explore different book, but they’ve taken an incredibly rewarding hobby and turned it into an olympic sport for which there…really isn’t much of a reward.
Videos titled “How I read 30 books in a week” or “I read 300 books in a year” have sprung up on my recommended on Youtube, leaving me baffled and confused.
Okay, you read over 300 books a year….but why?
It’s an impressive feat on paper, but I have my doubts as to how productive this enterprise is. In order to read 300 books a year, you would have to read a minimum of 25 books per month. That’s 5.77 books per week. Even if you are an exceptionally fast reader, when you account for things like work, school, and social engagements that’s a ridiculously high number.
I read around an hour every day (sometimes more) and I don’t read five books a month let alone a week. Yet somehow these Titans of literature are able to pull it off. But how? Well, the most obvious answer is either 1) they are lying or worse yet 2) they are speed-reading.
Speed-reading is a useful (even necessary) tool when you are working on your MFA, but doing it for a hobby is frankly insane to me. It’s like traveling to Paris, France to see precious works of art only to sprint through the Louvre.
Technically you saw everything (at least in your periphery), but was it worth it?
Unsurprisingly, many of these people recall little of what they read once a week or two has elapsed and, to me, that’s sad. If I can’t remember what I read, as far as I’m concerned, that’s time wasted.
Reading is meant to be a transformative experience. It gives you an opportunity to get into the headspace of another person in a way no other medium can. It is an active hobby. It requires concentration and the ability to blot out distractions in a hyperactive world that is constantly screaming for your attention. It teaches you to be mindful and present. In return, it rewards you with questions you never thought to ask yourself, people that endlessly inspire you, and hope for a better future.
If you can’t recall even the smallest scene, the cleverest of lines….then why do it at all?
The Crooked Pen 
I agree with you 100%.
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I don’t understand the people who say they read 300 books a year. As you say, it seems impossible, like they are reading about a book a day?! How can anyone do that and still go to work or school, do chores, and have friends? And what about other hobbies? I typically read over 100 books a year–but that’s counting picture books and graphic novels that I can read in an hour or less. I consider myself a pretty avid reader and cannot begin to imagine how to read triple that and still have time to do….anything else at all, other than read.
But I do suspect there is a lot of skimming happening, as sometimes reviewers seem to have misunderstood the basic plot of a book. And I believe some readers count DNFed books as books read. That’s fine, I guess, since there’s no “prize” for all this reading and people can count whatever they want for their personal records. Unfortunately, however, sometimes these counts do create a sort of hierarchy of readers and imply that somehow reading more is better, when I would argue that it’s really the quality of reading that should be appreciated over the quantity. If I read 300 books a year, I wouldn’t have the time to enjoy them or reflect on them. I also would no doubt have trouble even remembering them, due to the need for excessive skimming. And then what would be the point of reading them in the first place?
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They count DNFed books as books read? Those cheating bastards xD If I did that then that would bump my numbers up dramatically as I am a notorious DNFer.
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Right?! But that’s precisely why the competitiveness is so silly! Everyone is doing something different. There is not official set of rules on how to count books read. (And, really, does it matter as long as you are enjoying your reading?)
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Don’t knock it ’til you try it.
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I’m good lol.
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