January 2018 Life Update; I read 100 books in 2017 BUT I cheated!

Hi readers,

This is my first post of 2018! Happy New Year to you all!

I've been thinking about writing this post since I realised at the start of September 2017 that I wasn't going to reach my goal of reading 100 books in a year. To be honest, it was a lot to ask of myself due to being dyslexic, picky about the books I read and having goal committed issues. I wanted to prove I could do it though but in the end I just put too much pressure on myself and found that it was affecting my reading enjoyment. 

So, I ended up cheating by reading a lot of manga and children's books, plus putting an end date on two books I hadn't finished reading, so that my GoodReads 2017 reading challenge page says 100 books; https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/7287580.

I did it because the idea of not reaching what seemed to me an easy goal was frustrating. Plus, I also realised that if I'd just had a little more time I could have achieved 100 books without having to change the dates. The feeling of being disappointed over this would have made me miserable too and I just wanted to say that I could do it.

Some people would say that a book is a book no matter what and I didn't make it an added goal of only reading a certain type. It doesn't matter what I read but the fact that I did read. That's a good thing in the present world as most people say they don't read because of lack of time. Though, books are so much easier to access then ever before and everyone surely has a few minutes at some point in their day to read.

I recall a news report about a man who read 200 books in 2017, but I can't find the actual report now. It was that story that got me thinking about how much time people spend doing other stuff - sometimes meaningless. I wanted to try and change then, to read more instead of scrolling through social media pages which hadn't changed in hours or just watching re-runs of TV shows. 

A quick Google search comes up with things like this;

http://observer.com/2017/01/the-simple-truth-behind-reading-200-books-a-year/ 

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rosie-leizrowice/the-secrets-to-reading-mo_b_14315860.html

I have no plans this year to aim for 200 books! Instead, I'm back to 50, though if I read more then that's good too. Really that's what this post is all about it, it doesn't matter what or how much you read as long as you do so and enjoy it.

Thanks for reading and please check out my other blog; https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/