It’s that time of year again when you look with disappointment at your only partially filled Goodreads reading challenge. ‘You’re five books behind schedule’. You glance at your bookshelf and try to make out the slimmest books that could still save you. Your Goodreads friends, none of whom you know, have all surpassed their challenges, and you start to feel a little desperate. 

Many of us have, at some point, gotten a little too caught up in quantifying our reading. There is, admittedly, a certain feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment of having finished a book. Attribute that to human psychology, if you will, but the rise in book-related content on social media must certainly have exacerbated it. Social media has led us to compare ourselves to others in all aspects of life, and reading is no exception. I think those videos where creators list what books they read this month are as appealing as anyone, but I can’t help but feel like they reduce reading to numbers — numbers that are all too easy to compare to our own. 

Is reading not, at its most fundamental, about what we take away from a book? A book is nothing more than the medium through which we absorb information; a book is the means, not the end. That is not to say that reading must teach us anything. On the contrary, what we take away from reading may be new perspectives, inspiration or simply comfort. But too often, on social media, I see a disconnect between the contents of books and their physical copies. 

Perhaps that is better attributed to the format of social media than the creators who use it. As short-form videos are increasingly becoming the preferred format for all social media content, creators are constantly struggling to keep the attention of their viewers. The format simply does not allow for complex discussions concerning the content of books. Instead, we end up with a proliferation of snappy videos listing book title after book title. But that, in turn, speaks to a greater shift in mindset: we want information quickly. We want to see what other people read quickly, and consequently, we feel like we should read quickly. 

That can be seen more generally in the abundance of productivity-related content on social media. I mean, if you’re not waking up at 5 a.m. and time-blocking your entire day, what are you even doing? There seems to be an endless number of videos on YouTube telling viewers how they, too, can read 50, 100 or even 150 books in a year, with advice ranging from ‘download Goodreads’ to ‘skim the pages’. Has the end goal become to read as many books as possible at any cost? Has quantity become more important than quality? It seems the emphasis is on reading books rather than the content of those books, much like the emphasis is on being productive, no matter what we occupy our time with.

There is a growing sentiment that all reading is good reading. Perhaps that is a natural response to the decline in reading among young people or a stand against pretentiousness and the belief that some books are better than others. In both cases, I agree with the sentiment. But better yet would be to say that all reading which we feel we get something out of is good reading. Because what happens when having read books becomes more important than what it is we read? We are led to purchase new physical books and to engage in consumerism. Owning books is a way to prove to ourselves and others that we are well-read, which signifies that we are spending our time productively. The phenomenon is nothing new, but it is currently appealing to a new generation through social media. 

We should pause and ask ourselves why we read books. Do we not read books in order to reflect on life and the world around us? That requires us to let go of the expectations of others and to prevent the shallowness of social media from translating into our reading. Most of all, that requires time. In an increasingly fast-paced world, we should all be slow readers. 

WORDS: Helena Thiel