Let’s face it. Readers are always looking for challenges. There are always new readathons being hosted by bloggers and booktubers. The Goodreads Reading Goal is very widely used, as are other year-long reading goals such as the Read Harder Challenge.

This year, I didn’t make my reading goals. I’m still about 20 books shy of my 200 book Goodreads Reading Goal.

And that’s okay.

We all want to meet our challenges, especially self-imposed ones. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little upset that I didn’t hit my reading goals. I have 2018 releases I’ve received from publishers that are still unread. There are series sitting on my shelves that remain unfinished.

Yet, this has been the best reading year I’ve had in quite some time. It’s definitely the best reading year I’ve had since starting this blog.

Not everything you read will be a book listed on Goodreads. This seems obvious, but it’s something I need to remind myself of every so often. All of the Shonen Jump magazine issues I’ve read aren’t listed on Goodreads. I haven’t added them to my personal reading spreadsheet, either. The GameInformer magazines that come into the house. Scattered issues of Wired. The free short stories and novellas from online magazines and Tor.com also tend not to land on my Goodreads either because they aren’t listed on the website, or, more often, I simply don’t think about adding them. And when I was in school I never bothered adding textbooks even though they were 1000 page behemoths I should have been proud to have gotten through.

The last couple of weeks I’ve pushed myself to read more. I’ve been picking up some old manga that have been sitting on my shelves for months, sometimes years. I’ve been trying to push myself through the last dozen 2018 releases I have sitting around. And while I’ve gotten through a number of books, I haven’t gotten to my 200 book goal. More importantly, it hasn’t made my blog post output any quicker or better.

Just hitting my Goodreads Goal number began feeling like a chore these last few weeks. And it doesn’t have to be that way. No one is forcing me to hit this arbitrary number. It’s completely self-imposed.

At the end of the day, I posted more articles and reviews here on the blog this year compared to last year. I’ve started getting back into genres I haven’t picked up in a long time. I’ve started reading more nonfiction and mystery, though I don’t always post them on here. I’ve finished a few series I’ve been reading for years.

Honestly, I’m really happy with my reading this year. I’ve found some authors who are now instant pre-orders. I’ve added books to my all-time favorites list.

That Goodreads number? It might feel like it matters, but it doesn’t matter at all. Sometimes I need to remind myself of that.

So go forth! Enjoy the rest of 2018. And whatever you read, read it for yourself and not a number.