Stay At Home Series – Episode 10 : How I achieved my Goodreads Challenge and read 72 books in 2020 :)

I was actually going to write about something else on my blog today, but if I’ve learned one thing this year, it is this: Nothing goes as planned. So always be ready to improvise..LOL

I can’t believe I actually managed to read 72 books this year!! I am so proud of myself for achieving at least ONE goal this year! LOL

When the year started and then lock down started, I honestly started to worry about my Goodreads challenge, because as a working mother, there were suddenly too many additional chores that were added to my day, which used to be outsourced earlier. I used to read a lot while a work, or when I travelled to work, but now it was all work from home and no travel time. However, my partner and I worked out our me time and with some sacrifices (aka reducing screen time drastically), I was able to manage 🙂

I looked at my Goodreads books read count over the years and here’s a snapshot of how my reading has grown with each year.

I thought I wouldn’t have been able to read more than 62 books I read in 2019, but its always good to challenge yourself and see if you can make it.

A lot of my friends asked me, how I did it. The one common question every reader gets is, “How do you manage to read so much?” You won’t believe me if I told you, that I’ve asked the same question to other reader friends who have read 100 or even 300 books in a year! And no, reading isn’t their profession either! They have a day job or are students like most of us. Reading is for fun and for companionship 🙂

I thought I’d write a blog titled ‘How to read more’, but I felt that was too pretentious for me, since I am learning too. So I decided I’d write about how I managed to achieve my GR’s challenge of reading 72 books this year 🙂

One thing I’ve learned over the years of reading, is that reading can also be a skill. So like every other skill, the more you practise it, the better you get at it. I realised, that the more I read, the faster my reading speed became! So now, I can finish a 300 page fiction book in about 3-4 days – of reading an hour and half per day
I literally don’t do anything else. I’m active only on my Instagram account on social media, and I just scroll there when I post, which is once a day, for maybe 15 mins. I don’t watch any series or movies on screen or even if I do, they are very rare. So in a day, after I finish all my usual home, parenting, personal and work chores, I get about two hours of free time, or you can say me time, which I use to read
I have a book at all times with me. If I’m walking, I have my audiobook. If I’m at the playground with my daughter in the morning, I carry my physical copy of a book, if I’m in the playground in the evening, I have a kindle app on my phone or I carry my kindle. It can be the same book or different books, but I read every time I get some free time in between 🙂
I find it easier and faster to read physical copies of books. So I have ended up buying a lot of books this year, which has turned into another hobby of book collection now. But it keeps my excitement alive and I’m thankful that I’m privileged enough to be able to afford to buy physical books
If I’ve read a heavy or sad book, I try to mix it up with some fantasy or light fiction
I don’t read a lot of non-fiction since those take longer to finish. However, this year I read more non fiction that any of the years before that and I’ll write a post on my non fiction reads in 2020 soon 🙂
I also found that buddy reads, virtual book clubs, book discussion groups on discord and having your own little book community definitely helped in reading more and wanting to read more and keeping the fun of reading alive

I think those are some of the things I thought about at the top of my head on how I achieved my GR reading challenge goal this year. I hope I’m able to continue the streak or read even more next year 🙂