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Why How Much You Read Doesn't Matter

So at the beginning of this year/end of last year, there was a lot of discussion about how many books you should read. People were often spilt into three categories, those who had read lots of books fit into this category, those who had not read that many books and those who read for enjoyment. This discussion which had taken place on #ukyachat and felt like it had unlocked something inside me, like the fact that how much you read does not matter it should be about if you enjoy what you read. It was in that moment this discussion was born...

I think to start, I am going to explain my own reading habits; I had goals of reading over 70 books last year and did so but did this mean that I felt that I had completed the challenge I set myself? No, definitely not, because even though I read over 90 books with many being graphic novels, I found it very hard to start picking out my favourite books at the end of the year, as many of the books that I had read did not seem like favourites. I often found myself going in and out of reading slumps and forcing myself to read books that I was clearly not enjoying myself. So I give you a question:

Should reading be about how much you read or whether you enjoy the books that you read? 


My answer: it should be about how much you enjoy what you read. 

I had always treated reading as a hobby, it would be something that I did and still do to unwind and relax after a long day at school or university. This was changed, however, with the whole Goodreads reading challenge, reading was almost like goal or something that I had to put myself under pressure just to achieve, going against what reading had always been to me. So this year that changed, I set my goodreads challenge to 1 book which I completed in the first day, so in theory, I would have less pressure to read. However, this is not the end of the story. 

Instead, of a number of books that I was reading I started to look at the pages I was reading, however, the whole nature of reading for fun has worked I think and I read when I want to and am being very selective only the books I read, hopefully putting off ones that I dislike. This is the whole reason for reading though, it should be fun and something that you do in your spare time. Reading as become a hobby again and I do like get to get immersed in a good fantasy world. So if you lovely people want to read as much as you can, just think about this post and the fact that how much you read does not matter, but finding a book that you love and enjoy is. 

I asked the people who follow me on twitter the same question and the results are as followed...


So I hope this makes some kind of sense and that remember guys reading should be fun! 

See you soon, 

Amy


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