I spent over a decade tracking my reading habits and goals. Now that I’ve stopped, I love books more than ever.

My past self would never believe it, but I couldn’t tell you how many books I’ve read this year.

After all, I’ve been hooked on reading since I was 7 years old, and for most of my life, I’ve kept track of all the books I’ve finished.

It started in middle school with reading logs and journals I completed for homework. Then, I took it a step further and started keeping track of books I borrowed from the library, and later developed a reading diary.

I loved that I could look back on different versions of myself and see how my reading preferences and taste in books changed over time.

My love for book tracking only intensified when I discovered Goodreads in 2014. The website (and app) allowed me to more easily track my books, reviews, and reading habits from my computer or phone.

Years later, I still read a lot. If I were to guess, I’d say I finish an average of 30 to 40 books a year, but I have no way of knowing the exact number because I no longer track the books I read.

Tracking my reading habits made the experience less about fun and more about meeting a metric

After many years of tracking the books I’d read, I began to lose some of the joy that came with reading.

I became obsessed with hitting the reading goals I’d set for myself on Goodreads every January. Whenever I fell into a reading slump, I’d force myself to read books I didn’t even want to read yet just to achieve an arbitrary metric.

Last year, I spent a whole week trying to determine if finishing Madeline Miller’s short story “Galatea” should count toward my reading goal for the year. Why did it matter so much? I was overthinking and missing the point of reading in the first place.

All in all, actively tracking the books I read was making me unhappy, so I decided to stop.

Ditching the metrics and goals have been freeing in many ways

Of course, some of this is my fault. Setting reading goals is optional, and book tracking doesn’t need to be as rigid as I’d defined it.

Many people find happiness and satisfaction in all of the metrics and digital shelves, but stepping away from them has been great for me.

Now, I read because I want to enjoy the content, go on adventures, and learn more about myself, not because I’m trying to achieve something. I no longer feel pressured to keep up with new books or stress over whether re-reading old favorites “counts” toward a goal — I just enjoy the hobby I’d always loved so much.

I’ve given myself the freedom to branch out and read more than just books, too. I’ve expanded my interests to enjoy articles, think pieces, and poems I previously wouldn’t have read because they weren’t things I felt like I could easily track.

Now that I’ve removed book tracking from my life, I don’t see myself ever going back. After all, what good is reading so much if it doesn’t bring me joy?

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