Books: Setting Targets

Anyone who hasn’t caught on to my love of books clearly hasn’t managed to grasp the whole story yet, although I’ve never been one to trumpet what I’ve read it can’t be said that I have never mentioned books and reading in my blog.

Fortunately I am not the only one who enjoys reading, who almost always has a book with them, who reads whenever the chance arises. There are many of us out there, even if it is just a light romance, a penny-dreadful, we read for the love of words, the love of other worlds and experiences. On the Goodreads site, for example, six hundreds and eleven thousand people signed up for the reading challenge this year: setting a target for how many books would be read over the year and then updating their status as each book joined its fellows on the shelves.

Achievable targets are good, in my opinion, they spur a person on to do something. One over what is achievable is also more than acceptable if not downright desired; the extra challenge to spring over your shadow and really do something, to go that extra mile. Without a challenge in life, what do we have?

What surprises me is how many people set themselves outlandish challenges, ones where anyone with an ounce of sense will ask how they can possibly hope to achieve their target. I have seen people who put down one thousand books as their target for the year – I can only assume that they thought they’d have masses of free time and a very deep pocketbook – and those who try for five or six titles. In all, the Goodreads challenge for 2014 encompasses well over thirty-two million titles, with an average of fifty-three titles per person, and nearly two thousand people have reached or surpassed their noted number.

But, as we draw towards the end of the year, I am also surprised to see how many haven’t read any books. Or perhaps they simply haven’t updated their status? I set my target at a very conservative twenty-five books: college work and many other leisure activities taken into account, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep up with my past efforts. I’ve surpassed my target, which is pleasing, and still managed to do all those other things life brings.

Setting targets, taking on a challenge, is a good thing. Perhaps we ought to do it more often, and then admit to our success or failure not only to ourselves. It spurs us on to greater things, to new targets, new challenges, new experiences.

Love & Kisses, Viki.

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