I’ve reached my reading goal of 20,000 pages (and then some) with a few days to spare!

This year, I set a reading goal based on pages instead of number of books. Since book length can be so variable, pages seems like a better comparison of how much I’m reading, year over year.

Also, a goal based on the number of books caused some bad behaviors. I was avoiding really long books and reading a lot of short stories or novellas towards the end of the year, just to keep the book count high.

This year, my longest read was The Golem and the Jinni, at 819 pages. My shortest read was A Gift from the Sea, at 130. That’s quite a difference!

In 2020, I read 104 books but only 800 pages more than the year before, when I read 82 books. In 2013, I read seven more books than in 2014, but only 250 pages more. In 2016, I read one book more than the previous year, but actually came in with 650 fewer pages!

Looking at this data, it seems clear that counting the number of books is misleading!

Now that I am no longer hyper-focused on book counts, I’m looking forward to jumping into some longer picks. For 2023, I want to re-read The Stand (1,358 pages), and finally get around to the latest Outlander novel, Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone (960 pages).

Bonus trivia! According to Goodreads, the longest book I’ve ever read is A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander #6). I’ve read 18 other books that have over 1,000 pages (four of those are Outlander novels, another four are Stephen King, and three are GoT novels).

What are you looking forward to reading in 2023?