How to Set a Reading Goal You’ll Actually Enjoy

Decide what the goal is for

Before choosing a number, finish this sentence: I want a reading goal because… Most answers fall into a few groups. You want to read more often. You want to get through the pile you already own. You want to try books you wouldn’t normally pick. Or you simply want a record of the year.

Each of these points to a different kind of goal. If you want to read more often, a number of books is a poor fit, because one long novel can make a good month look like a bad one. If you want a record, you may not need a target at all, only the habit of noting what you finish.

Write the reason down next to the number. In September, when you wonder whether the goal still makes sense, the reason is what you’ll check it against.

Books, pages or hours

There are three common ways to count, and each rewards a different kind of reading.

Books per year is the most familiar and the easiest to remember, and it works best when the books you plan to read are of similar length. Pages are fairer to long books but awkward for audiobooks and for ebooks whose pages reflow. Hours per week measures the thing most people actually want more of, time spent reading, and it doesn’t care whether that time went into a thriller or a thousand-page history.

Whatever you choose, keep one unit for the whole year. Switching in June makes the first half impossible to compare with the second.

Size it from last year’s numbers

The best starting point is what you actually read last year, not what you wish you had. If you kept no record, count the books you remember finishing and look along your shelves. A rough number is enough.

Then turn that number into time. Multiply the books you finished by their typical length, divide by your pace in pages an hour, and divide again by 52. That’s how many hours a week your reading really took.

Here, 18 books of about 300 pages at 40 pages an hour come to 135 hours over the year: a little over two and a half hours a week, or about 22 minutes a day. A goal of 20 books asks for roughly 150 hours, which is just under three hours a week.

A good goal sits slightly above last year, around 10 to 20 percent more. Big jumps, such as doubling your books, rarely survive past February, because they assume a reading life you don’t have yet. You can always raise a goal you’re beating comfortably.

Make room for it

A goal only changes something if it changes when you read. Look at an ordinary week and find where the hours could come from. Most people find them in the same few places: the commute, the half hour before sleep, a lunch break, a weekend morning before anyone else is up.

Attach reading to something you already do every day. When I get into bed, I read is easier to keep than read for 30 minutes a day, because the moment chooses itself. Keep the current book where that moment happens: on the pillow, in your bag, a tap away on your phone.

Short sessions count. Ten minutes on a train, five times a week, is close to an hour. Over a year that’s two or three more books without finding a single free evening.

Long books, rereads and other awkward cases

Long books

With a books goal, a 900-page novel can feel as if it costs you three. Switch to hours or pages, or decide in advance that a very long book counts double. What matters is that you never skip the book you most want to read because of how it scores.

Rereads

Count them. A reread is a whole book read, and often a better reading than the first. If you keep a record, mark it as a reread so you can tell the two apart later.

Books you don’t finish

Putting down a book that isn’t working is a good decision, not a failure. It doesn’t add to a book count, but the hours you spent were still reading time. An hours goal counts them as they are; with a books goal, note them anyway and move on.

Audiobooks

An audiobook is a book read. For an hours goal, count the time you actually spent listening, whatever the playback speed.

Challenge lists

Lists like a book from every continent or twelve classics are goals of a different kind. Run one alongside a simple number rather than instead of it, and keep it short enough to add variety without choosing every book for you.

Check in once a month

Look at your goal once a month, not every day. The daily view swings wildly: one long weekend of reading and you’re ahead, one busy week and you’re behind. A month evens that out.

Ask three questions. How much did I read? Did I enjoy it? Is the goal still pointing where I want to go? The second matters most. If you’re on pace but rushing books you’d rather take slowly, the goal is too high.

Change the goal when your year changes

A goal set in January is a guess about a year that hasn’t happened yet. A new job, a baby, an illness or a move changes how much time you have, and the goal should follow. Lowering it in July isn’t giving up; it’s updating a plan with better information.

A simple rule: at the end of June, double what you’ve read so far. If that lands far from your goal, in either direction, move the goal to somewhere between the two.

If you fall behind

Falling behind is normal. Most years have a stretch where reading drops away, and it usually comes back on its own.

Resist catching up with short books you don’t care about: it hits the number and misses the point. Look at the next month only. What’s a comfortable amount to read in the next four weeks? Then read the book you actually want to read.

If you’re still well behind by autumn, lower the goal. One you reach with books you enjoyed is worth more than one you hit by reading things you didn’t want to.

Questions