Minnie's Fiction Addiction

Can we talk about something that’s been bugging me? The whole reading-as-a-sport thing that’s everywhere these days. You know what I mean, those posts where people are like “Just finished my 47th book this year!” or the panic that sets in when you realize it’s November and you’ve only read twelve books when your Goodreads goal was twenty-five.

Look, I get it. I’ve been there. But can we please just chill out about this stuff?

When Reading Became Homework

I used to be totally obsessed with my reading numbers. Like, embarrassingly obsessed. I had spreadsheets (yes, spreadsheets) tracking not just how many books I’d read, but pages per day, average reading speed, you name it. I’d get genuinely stressed if I wasn’t “on pace” for my yearly goal.

The whole thing was ridiculous. I remember one time actually putting down a book I was really enjoying because it was “too long” and I needed to hit my numbers for the month. Who does that? Apparently, me circa 2019.

It took me way too long to realize I’d turned reading, something I genuinely loved, into this weird productivity challenge. And for what? So I could post a slightly higher number on social media at the end of the year?

The Thing About “Slow” Readers

Here’s what really gets me: this idea that reading fewer books somehow makes you a worse reader. That’s like saying someone who takes their time at an art museum is worse at appreciating art than someone who speed-walks through it.

I have a friend who reads maybe eight books a year. But she really reads them, you know? She’ll text me random quotes, bring up something she read weeks later in conversation, recommend books to people based on stuff she read months ago because she actually absorbed it. Meanwhile, I used to blast through books so fast I couldn’t tell you the main character’s name a week later.

Who’s the better reader here? Come on.

The Weird Pressure We Put on Ourselves

Social media has made this so much worse. Everyone’s posting their monthly wrap-ups and yearly stats, and suddenly reading feels like some kind of performance. I’ve seen people stress about “wasting time” on graphic novels because they’re “too fast,” or feeling guilty about re-reading favorites because it “doesn’t count.”

This is insane! Since when does enjoying a graphic novel not count as reading? Since when is revisiting a book you love a waste of time? I’ve probably read “The Princess Bride” fifteen times, and I regret exactly zero of those re-reads.

We’ve created all these invisible rules about what counts, what’s impressive, what makes you a “real reader.” It’s exhausting.

What Actually Matters

You know what makes someone a good reader? Caring about what they’re reading. Being open to new ideas. Getting excited about books. Thinking about what they’ve read. Sharing books they love with other people.

None of that has anything to do with speed or quantity.

Some of my best reading experiences have been with books that took me forever to finish. I spent like three months reading “Circe” because I kept going back and re-reading beautiful passages. Was that a waste of time? Absolutely not. It was perfect.

On the flip side, some of my favorite reading memories are from weekends when I devoured an entire series in two days, ordering pizza and ignoring my phone and just living in someone else’s world for forty-eight hours straight.

Both of these are valid ways to read. Both brought me joy. Neither is better than the other.

My Reading Reality Check

These days, I still keep track of what I read, but more like a diary than a competition. I want to remember the books that hit me at the right moment, or the ones that made me think differently about something. But I stopped setting those aggressive yearly goals that just made me anxious.

Some months I read a ton. Other months I start five different books and finish none of them because I’m just not in the right headspace. Some years I get really into poetry or graphic novels or biographies, and my “book count” looks totally different than the year I was obsessed with fantasy series.

And you know what? That’s totally fine. My reading life doesn’t need to be consistent or impressive or optimized. It just needs to work for me.

Finding Your Own Rhythm

Maybe you’re someone who genuinely loves setting reading goals and crushing them. That’s awesome! If tracking your numbers motivates you and makes reading more fun, keep doing it.

Maybe you’re more of a “one perfect book every few months” person. Also awesome!

Maybe you go through phases where you read constantly and then don’t touch a book for weeks. Still awesome!

Maybe you only read romance novels, or only non-fiction, or only manga, or only books your friends recommend, or only books you find at yard sales. All awesome!

The only thing that matters is that you’re reading things you actually want to read, in whatever way feels good to you.

Remember Why We’re Here

At the end of the day, we read because books are amazing. They let us experience different lives, understand new perspectives, escape our own heads for a while, learn cool stuff, feel less alone in the world.

That magic doesn’t care how fast you read. It doesn’t care if you finish every book you start. It doesn’t care if you prefer literary fiction or beach reads or cookbooks or comics.

The best reading advice I can give you? Ignore everyone else’s numbers, including mine. Read what you want, when you want, however fast or slow feels right. Your reading life is yours, not a performance for anyone else.

Trust me, the books will still be there whether you read them in January or December, whether it takes you two days or two months to finish them. And the really good ones? They’ll wait patiently for you to be ready for them.

What’s your relationship with reading like? Are you a goal-setter, a mood reader, or somewhere in between? I’d love to hear about the books that have stuck with you, regardless of how they fit into any yearly tallies.