The reading challenges mattered

So get this: the reading challenges mattered.

Let's start from the beginning.  In May 2010 I gave myself a challenge - The Reading Challenge - which was to read 8 books by the end of August.  4 months, 8 books.  I gave myself this challenge after I was done my undergrad, to fight my fear that now that I was no longer pursuing an English degree, I would stop reading.  With all the possible ways of filling up leisure time these days, I wanted to ensure a longtime hobby of reading didn't suffer.

The result of the challenge was that I finished 8 books by September 5th, so for all intents and purposes, it was a successful challenge.

Working off that success, I thought: let's do another.  So Reading Challenge 2 (or rc-2) was to read another 8 books over a 4-month period (September - December 2010), but the stipulation was that 50% of the books had to be classified as fiction.  In the end, I finished the challenge on February 19, 2011, but again - so what, who cares?!  The whole point was to be reading, and I was.  Even better, 100% of the 8 books ended up being fiction!

Then there was rc-3, which overlapped with rc-2, and the challenge was to read 20 books in 2011.  I read 17.

rc-4 was the same - read 20 books in 2012.  I read 12.

Highlights of the challenges?  Encouraging myself to read more + the following books: Sex Drugs & Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman, By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham, The Girls by Lori Lansens, No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod, When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris, and In One Person by John Irving.

But there wasn't and hasn't been an rc-5.  What was my reasoning?  I guess not completing my second two challenges wasn't super encouraging and so I thought, why not take the pressure off, stop writing about it, and just read?  Well that's great, and I stand by it, except... I'm reading less than ever.  Granted, it's been a busy first third of the year, but I've read two books!!!  Grace by Grace Coddington, and just the other day I finished The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb.  Great books, and THIFB was a hefty read, but still.  Two books in four months?  I can do better than that!

So I don't think I'm necessarily going to give myself a new challenge, but I guess I just wanted to acknowledge that the reading challenges mattered, and that for me, blogging about my goals helps me achieve them, because you - whether you know it or whether it's an active thing that you're doing - are holding me accountable.