I do feel a bit of FOMO/envy when I watch booktubers, but I couldn’t even fathom keeping up just for the sake of ‘gotta catch ‘em all’. I have two wild young kids, a house and land to care for, a dog that requires lots of exercise, work, health issues, and several other hobbies besides reading. What’s realistic for me in this season of life is not going to compare with a childless twentysomething or a retiree, and that’s ok. I only manage to read between 2-5 books a month (not including dipping in and out of nonfiction and poetry), so I make sure they’re worth it. I don’t buy books on a whim anymore unless it’s by an author I already love. Prioritizing quality over quantity is what works at this time, and I hope to be fortunate enough to live to an age where I’ve got a lot more free time on my hands.
After much personal experimentation I found 200 pages a day to be a sweet spot. For something like Gravity's Rainbow that's a healthy chunk of time but for, say, an Elizabeth George murder mystery, it's easy breezy. We all have different levels of what feels right. Mixing "lighter" books with classics and denser tomes helps keep it all fun. Booktube hopefully exposes us books we'd not encounter on our own. It has been magical for me and thank you Steve and other creators!
BookTube is 100% the cause for my reading pressure. It wasn't so bad when I was watching y'all from the peanut gallery, but now that I'm a supporting character it affects me. I know it is an irrational anxiety. When I watch a movie I enjoy it, but then I realize I did not use that time towards my goal and the anxiety creeps in. This is the only hobby that is public facing, so the others are pushed aside in favor of it.
Additionally, I feel compelled to read more because of this 100 book challenge. It's like my parents caught me smoking and now I have to smoke the entire carton as punishment. Yet this will probably just reinforce my addiction.
That’s not what your channel has done for me at least. It has made me discover new genres and made me finally actually committ to my Western Canon List which has grown from that to me just falling in love with reading again and it has expanded to a growing interest in history too. Mostly what your videos do is make me excited about books. If I’m going to read something I search it out. Hear what you have to say about Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus etc. Another thing is you have made me evaluate my time. Something that do stresses me a little is I’m 38 and just now falling in love wirh history. And there’s so much I want to learn and know while I’m on this earth. And I’m falling in love with ancient classics and just the canon in general. So time or lack of it stresses me. Your videos has made me value my reading time more and make more of it and less of other things. I love jigsaws and I love games too. I still have those, but the amounts have shifted, and I feel so much happier. (Sorry if my English is a bit rushed here. Wanted to respond before bed (yeah I know sleep ..), and I’m Norwegian).
Personally booktube does increase my reading pressure but only because all these great videos tell me about more great sounding books that I haven't read yet. Steve you are personally responsible for increasing my TBR by a large amount. For instance your starter kit video for Best Fiction in the 21st century so far caused me to immediately order all 10 books because they all sounded great (except Little Life which was already on my TBR shelf) but I'm ok with that, the pressure comes from having around 400 books on my shelf that I have not read yet and since I only read 70 - 100 books per year I better hurry if I am going to finish my TBR in my life time, which also seems unlikely since I do not have any plans for a book buying ban or anything silly like that in the near future. Seems like a good problem to have though since I am also a mood reader having lots to choose from is a good thing. So I guess my vote is I do not read to much, I have a growing amount of genres that interest me and only so many years left to learn about them. So I better go crack a book. Thanks Steve.
I completely understand both points. If I had lots of free time I would spend most of it reading, but I absolutely put pressure on myself to finish books more quickly since being on Booktube. Then I try to remember it doesn’t actually matter if we read one book in a month or 20. That said, I do love Booktube. Jack’s video really made me think about not rushing books I’m enjoying. I enjoyed this response and the discussion is a good one.
As just a reader and an older one at that, I find I use booktube to watch the "reading zeitgeist" as much as for any recs. That said, I did become aware mid last year that I was reading too fast, not savouring enough. So I began an idiosyncratic book journal to slow my reading roll. I am not tracking how many books I read but I am tracking every book, annotating more, and writing a brief paragraph or two on most of them. I have also set up planned reading lists for some months. Ya could say that this woman of a certain age has entered book bootcamp.
I’ve always wanted to read more, even before finding booktube. My struggle now is subscribing to too many booktubers and trying to not watch too many videos!
Discovering your channel a couple years ago motivated me to read lightly which is significantly more than the nothing I had been reading until then. Here's hoping I can continue to increase that quantity this year.
You sir are partly to blame for my endless TBR. If I watch any of your Friday reads or book mail videos, I add at least 3 books by the end of your video. 😂
I reconciled a long time ago(sometime in my mid 30's) to the fact I'd never be able to read everything I want to. More recently I kind of plan my yearly/monthly reading with the possibility of death. So ~40% of the books are the ones I really want to get to in my lifetime, the rest are split between stuff that catches my eye and still branching out into new stuff. The mixture of being reconciled to limitation and actively reading stuff high on my read before I die list has taken most of the "pressure" to read away. It's mostly joy. I do recall in my 20's feeling that literary pressure to read, and it killed my enjoyment of reading and I stopped reading much for a couple years. This was well before booktube. I watch Booktube for two things: remind myself there are other book lovers out there in the wild!! and find out about books unknown to me; your channel is particularly good for the later. Especially all the out of print animal books you talk about!
Your response was so good - low-key, non-confrontational, just wonderful! But I think our basic situation (ample free time, lack of many other hobbies, deep affection for cats, etc.) is rare on BookTube - I think most people have to fight a lot harder for their reading time -
Thank you for this response, Steve! You understood my main point and put it succinctly: am I reading so much that I’m not savouring what I’m reading? This tipping point will be unique to everyone of course but I definitely reached mine! Much of my issue comes from unrealistic expectations of the time and capacity I have for reading all the books I want to read, as well as allowing time for other things I’d like to do. But I put that down to my own lack of self-control (or shelf-control if you want a bad pun on the books I’ve acquired due to booktube!) rather than the content that we all put out, whether that’s reviews and recommendations or hosting events - we come here to talks books after all! I too have the ‘gotta catch ‘em all’ mentality when it comes to books, but I just need to be more mindful of my reading capacity, for want of a better term. Interestingly, I ended up with quite a few comments which were negative about channels that focused on numbers of books read or did book hauls, neither of which I’m opposed to and had to be clear on that to those commenters. Ultimately, it was good to hear this resonated and mostly in a positive way! 😂
Yes, i experience problems like this. Booktube, specifically Bookshelf tours, which I truly love, and dont ever want to stop watching, despite what im about to say, can attribute to rapid buying and not enough reading, turning my TBR into a long list that ill never be able to complete. this leads to stress and definitely scanning my goodreads TBR 'removing' books from the digital list WEEKLY just to get the number down, which it never does because im always adding. This has been something ive done for at least 12 years. It definitely hinders the reading a bit, and i recognize its not good for me!
I thoroughly enjoyed this video, and the one posted by Jack (sp?). Both your thoughts provoked a self-evaluation for me. I've struggled less from the pressure to read a certain quantity, but more from the pressure to read those titles which somehow qualify one to be part of the literati. It's humbling, but I must confess that force-feeding myself with certain, classic "must-reads" has put my love for reading into a coma for long periods of time. In response to pressure, both from the internet and from friends, to read certain books that anyone must read to consider himself somewhat intelligent, I have lately coerced myself into reading books that I find absolutely dismal. By the end, I feel so awful that, despite my intentions to get back into the saddle with another book, I don't actually pick up another book for weeks, and sometimes I'll go a few months. I didn't realize it at the time, but I've slowly come to associate reading with an unpleasant experience instead of a joy. I'm nearing the place where I've finally learned my lesson. I've got 50 in my rear-view window a few years back, and I am looking at mortality more often. I really need to insist on books that I find personally pleasurable, and jettison even the classics which are just ponderous and joy-sapping. If that means my tastes are too unrefined, so be it. It's better than regretting all the time I spend away from reading because I'm reading things from which I gather no pleasure.
Back in October 2023, I returned to my love of anime culture and video games after naturally assuming I wasn't interested anymore, because at the time I was reading ALL DAY every day. I try not to force myself to pick one or the other hobby at any given time. For instance, I've been binge playing League of Legends and watching Netflix for the past week and haven't read at all, and been enjoying myself a lot. I let reading come back when I start to hunger for it. I'm still in the middle of the Sylvia Plath journals, but I'm taking such a gem like that one very slow to enjoy it more. I'm not obsessed with cramming books down to look performative like I used to be. I also believe for some people, taking small reading breaks can really enhance going back! Intentional reading is key and much more enjoyable! Great videos.
It's because of BookTube that I read much at all. I used to, maybe, read 1-3 books in a year. Because I discovered this channel and bought my first Kindle 3 years ago I can easily knock out 3 or 4 a month if the writing is good. There really isn't a negative for me, save that I'll sometimes not check in and watch new videos for a time. Whenever I need inspiration or recommendations, however, I know where to go to get it.
I loved her video, which I saw before seeing your response. It resonated with me, and I made a decision to scale back on booktube. It does feed the obsession to read more. I too find myself counting pages, obsessing about how many I will complete in a month and so on. It definitely thwarts savoring a book. Yet I think most of us would agree that not all books are to be equally savored. Yet book tube is fun as well. If I hadn't watched you tube, I would not have "A Distant Mirror", "Witches" (by Schiff), the Last Songbird and many more. So I guess it is a mixed bag this book tube.
Booktube has introduced me to many wonderful books but has also led me to read many books that I did not savor due to FOMO. I am trying now to watch a BTer long enough to learn if our book tastes overlap before trying their recommendations. And I DNF more than ever.
That’s interesting! Yeah, I did feel that pressure too, definitely got it a little bit from your videos, but it was also because my reading has slowed down a fair bit since getting a regular job etc… but I quickly realised I really don’t care about competitive reading, if you want to call it that! I mean I never had any good feelings associated with finishing books anyway, if it’s good I feel like oh no, it over? if it’s bad, oh no, why did I read this crap? So keeping track of reading, reading journals, whatever, I just don’t do it. I mean if you like reading you are going to do it anyway and there’s no reason to turn it into a spreadsheet exercise!
I've always read a lot even when I was young. When I discovered booktube, it sparked my love for reading. 🙂❤📚 I've only had positive effects from booktube. However, I'll admit there are a lot of booktags out there that are hard for me to keep up with. I just enjoy sharing my thoughts on what I've recently read.
Absolutely felt pressure to read more and read faster once I started watching booktube. I only read on a kindle and the % complete and time to finish didn’t help. I’ve turned off that lower banner on the kindle and that made a world of difference. And I have decided to just be happy at whatever pace I read. Because I want to digest and enjoy what I read, not try to just mark another book off the list.
I love how much i read, but am now resistant to having too many projects. I want to read well and deeply, not shallowly in a hurry. I font wish to be pressurised either. Hence, I am doing Historathon and will double up with a Roman read next month. Im too old to feel pressurised by RUclips friends. It comes down to something you advocate, Steve, discipline.
Steve, this is an interesting conversation. I've been reading since the age of 4 & never thought one could read too much. I've always savored the books I've read. Interestingly, when I was in college, I felt all the readings for my courses diminished my love of reading. In my literature courses, I felt having to read 15 books, write numerous papers for just one 3 unit course (semester semester), was excessive. When one has 3 classes like this at one time (reading 40-50 books per term), I can see how some people get turned off.
I remember Steve doing a video about Alex O'Connor, where Alex said he didn't like 'reading' but liked 'having read' I think that's more common than we realise. Some people want to absorb the information without going through the process. It's the reading equivalent of taking a diet pill.
Booktube has influenced my reading in helping me to prioritize reading. I used to view reading as a treat or luxury that I earned if I got my impossibly long to do list completed. Now, thanks to certain influencers such as yourself I have moved reading to a daily necessity. I do get competitive with myself to read more books annually, but I’ve learned not to make a rigid TBR list like some BookTube influencers do.
I am just a person that lives by stats, if there are any, so GR etc. push me towards higher numbers. This year though I decided to do a lot of long books, so that will (hopefully) kill this urge to do more than I can enjoy
I love Booktube for the recommendations, which I record on my free library list and may or may not read. I don't participate in any of the Booktube themes. To me that's too close to the old classroom syllabus. I have two degrees in literature, and I don't want to revisit that pressure. Keep reading. ❤
I'm doing 3 reading projects. Chris priest, muriel spark and Patrick obrian. But I don't think booktube is driving that as they aren't talked about. Next Yr I'll do a silverberg project perhaps.
Am I reading too much? No, I don't think so. What I am is more and more frustrated because I can't find or read books you guys (I'll include Roger as one of you guys) talk about. Could you (a) add a few more hours in the day and (b) expand all the libraries I use.....
Steve, I read 30-40 books per year, an amount you read in an a week or less. I've come to the realization I'll never be someone who reads hundreds of books each year. So I'm okay with watching other people chase totals.
Negative affect? No such thing. No such thing as reading to much… its far better than youtubing, movies, or even a social life ( vastly overrated). I actually believe it to be one of the healthier things you can do for yourself.
I do feel a bit of FOMO/envy when I watch booktubers, but I couldn’t even fathom keeping up just for the sake of ‘gotta catch ‘em all’. I have two wild young kids, a house and land to care for, a dog that requires lots of exercise, work, health issues, and several other hobbies besides reading. What’s realistic for me in this season of life is not going to compare with a childless twentysomething or a retiree, and that’s ok. I only manage to read between 2-5 books a month (not including dipping in and out of nonfiction and poetry), so I make sure they’re worth it. I don’t buy books on a whim anymore unless it’s by an author I already love. Prioritizing quality over quantity is what works at this time, and I hope to be fortunate enough to live to an age where I’ve got a lot more free time on my hands.
After much personal experimentation I found 200 pages a day to be a sweet spot. For something like Gravity's Rainbow that's a healthy chunk of time but for, say, an Elizabeth George murder mystery, it's easy breezy.
We all have different levels of what feels right. Mixing "lighter" books with classics and denser tomes helps keep it all fun. Booktube hopefully exposes us books we'd not encounter on our own. It has been magical for me and thank you Steve and other creators!
BookTube is 100% the cause for my reading pressure. It wasn't so bad when I was watching y'all from the peanut gallery, but now that I'm a supporting character it affects me. I know it is an irrational anxiety. When I watch a movie I enjoy it, but then I realize I did not use that time towards my goal and the anxiety creeps in. This is the only hobby that is public facing, so the others are pushed aside in favor of it.
Additionally, I feel compelled to read more because of this 100 book challenge. It's like my parents caught me smoking and now I have to smoke the entire carton as punishment. Yet this will probably just reinforce my addiction.
That’s not what your channel has done for me at least. It has made me discover new genres and made me finally actually committ to my Western Canon List which has grown from that to me just falling in love with reading again and it has expanded to a growing interest in history too. Mostly what your videos do is make me excited about books. If I’m going to read something I search it out. Hear what you have to say about Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus etc.
Another thing is you have made me evaluate my time. Something that do stresses me a little is I’m 38 and just now falling in love wirh history. And there’s so much I want to learn and know while I’m on this earth. And I’m falling in love with ancient classics and just the canon in general. So time or lack of it stresses me. Your videos has made me value my reading time more and make more of it and less of other things. I love jigsaws and I love games too. I still have those, but the amounts have shifted, and I feel so much happier. (Sorry if my English is a bit rushed here. Wanted to respond before bed (yeah I know sleep ..), and I’m Norwegian).
Personally booktube does increase my reading pressure but only because all these great videos tell me about more great sounding books that I haven't read yet.
Steve you are personally responsible for increasing my TBR by a large amount. For instance your starter kit video for Best Fiction in the 21st century so far caused me to immediately order all 10 books because they all sounded great (except Little Life which was already on my TBR shelf) but I'm ok with that, the pressure comes from having around 400 books on my shelf that I have not read yet and since I only read 70 - 100 books per year I better hurry if I am going to finish my TBR in my life time, which also seems unlikely since I do not have any plans for a book buying ban or anything silly like that in the near future.
Seems like a good problem to have though since I am also a mood reader having lots to choose from is a good thing. So I guess my vote is I do not read to much, I have a growing amount of genres that interest me and only so many years left to learn about them. So I better go crack a book. Thanks Steve.
I completely understand both points. If I had lots of free time I would spend most of it reading, but I absolutely put pressure on myself to finish books more quickly since being on Booktube.
Then I try to remember it doesn’t actually matter if we read one book in a month or 20. That said, I do love Booktube.
Jack’s video really made me think about not rushing books I’m enjoying. I enjoyed this response and the discussion is a good one.
As just a reader and an older one at that, I find I use booktube to watch the "reading zeitgeist" as much as for any recs. That said, I did become aware mid last year that I was reading too fast, not savouring enough. So I began an idiosyncratic book journal to slow my reading roll. I am not tracking how many books I read but I am tracking every book, annotating more, and writing a brief paragraph or two on most of them. I have also set up planned reading lists for some months. Ya could say that this woman of a certain age has entered book bootcamp.
I’ve always wanted to read more, even before finding booktube. My struggle now is subscribing to too many booktubers and trying to not watch too many videos!
Discovering your channel a couple years ago motivated me to read lightly which is significantly more than the nothing I had been reading until then. Here's hoping I can continue to increase that quantity this year.
You sir are partly to blame for my endless TBR. If I watch any of your Friday reads or book mail videos, I add at least 3 books by the end of your video. 😂
Hee. As soon as I made this video, I had a feeling I myself would emerge as Part of the Problem, not Part of the Solution!
I reconciled a long time ago(sometime in my mid 30's) to the fact I'd never be able to read everything I want to. More recently I kind of plan my yearly/monthly reading with the possibility of death. So ~40% of the books are the ones I really want to get to in my lifetime, the rest are split between stuff that catches my eye and still branching out into new stuff. The mixture of being reconciled to limitation and actively reading stuff high on my read before I die list has taken most of the "pressure" to read away. It's mostly joy. I do recall in my 20's feeling that literary pressure to read, and it killed my enjoyment of reading and I stopped reading much for a couple years. This was well before booktube. I watch Booktube for two things: remind myself there are other book lovers out there in the wild!! and find out about books unknown to me; your channel is particularly good for the later. Especially all the out of print animal books you talk about!
Oh dear. Do I have to respond to a response? BookTube does indeed introduce me to more books than I can realistically read.
Your response was so good - low-key, non-confrontational, just wonderful! But I think our basic situation (ample free time, lack of many other hobbies, deep affection for cats, etc.) is rare on BookTube - I think most people have to fight a lot harder for their reading time -
Thank you for this response, Steve! You understood my main point and put it succinctly: am I reading so much that I’m not savouring what I’m reading? This tipping point will be unique to everyone of course but I definitely reached mine! Much of my issue comes from unrealistic expectations of the time and capacity I have for reading all the books I want to read, as well as allowing time for other things I’d like to do. But I put that down to my own lack of self-control (or shelf-control if you want a bad pun on the books I’ve acquired due to booktube!) rather than the content that we all put out, whether that’s reviews and recommendations or hosting events - we come here to talks books after all! I too have the ‘gotta catch ‘em all’ mentality when it comes to books, but I just need to be more mindful of my reading capacity, for want of a better term. Interestingly, I ended up with quite a few comments which were negative about channels that focused on numbers of books read or did book hauls, neither of which I’m opposed to and had to be clear on that to those commenters. Ultimately, it was good to hear this resonated and mostly in a positive way! 😂
Yes, i experience problems like this. Booktube, specifically Bookshelf tours, which I truly love, and dont ever want to stop watching, despite what im about to say, can attribute to rapid buying and not enough reading, turning my TBR into a long list that ill never be able to complete. this leads to stress and definitely scanning my goodreads TBR 'removing' books from the digital list WEEKLY just to get the number down, which it never does because im always adding. This has been something ive done for at least 12 years. It definitely hinders the reading a bit, and i recognize its not good for me!
great name... Movingthebookmark. how clever.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video, and the one posted by Jack (sp?). Both your thoughts provoked a self-evaluation for me. I've struggled less from the pressure to read a certain quantity, but more from the pressure to read those titles which somehow qualify one to be part of the literati. It's humbling, but I must confess that force-feeding myself with certain, classic "must-reads" has put my love for reading into a coma for long periods of time. In response to pressure, both from the internet and from friends, to read certain books that anyone must read to consider himself somewhat intelligent, I have lately coerced myself into reading books that I find absolutely dismal. By the end, I feel so awful that, despite my intentions to get back into the saddle with another book, I don't actually pick up another book for weeks, and sometimes I'll go a few months. I didn't realize it at the time, but I've slowly come to associate reading with an unpleasant experience instead of a joy. I'm nearing the place where I've finally learned my lesson. I've got 50 in my rear-view window a few years back, and I am looking at mortality more often. I really need to insist on books that I find personally pleasurable, and jettison even the classics which are just ponderous and joy-sapping. If that means my tastes are too unrefined, so be it. It's better than regretting all the time I spend away from reading because I'm reading things from which I gather no pleasure.
Back in October 2023, I returned to my love of anime culture and video games after naturally assuming I wasn't interested anymore, because at the time I was reading ALL DAY every day. I try not to force myself to pick one or the other hobby at any given time. For instance, I've been binge playing League of Legends and watching Netflix for the past week and haven't read at all, and been enjoying myself a lot. I let reading come back when I start to hunger for it. I'm still in the middle of the Sylvia Plath journals, but I'm taking such a gem like that one very slow to enjoy it more. I'm not obsessed with cramming books down to look performative like I used to be. I also believe for some people, taking small reading breaks can really enhance going back! Intentional reading is key and much more enjoyable! Great videos.
It's because of BookTube that I read much at all. I used to, maybe, read 1-3 books in a year. Because I discovered this channel and bought my first Kindle 3 years ago I can easily knock out 3 or 4 a month if the writing is good. There really isn't a negative for me, save that I'll sometimes not check in and watch new videos for a time. Whenever I need inspiration or recommendations, however, I know where to go to get it.
Strangest combination of title and thumbnail in booktube history
Hah! I admit, it IS a bit odd coming from me of all people!
I loved her video, which I saw before seeing your response. It resonated with me, and I made a decision to scale back on booktube. It does feed the obsession to read more. I too find myself counting pages, obsessing about how many I will complete in a month and so on. It definitely thwarts savoring a book. Yet I think most of us would agree that not all books are to be equally savored. Yet book tube is fun as well. If I hadn't watched you tube, I would not have "A Distant Mirror", "Witches" (by Schiff), the Last Songbird and many more. So I guess it is a mixed bag this book tube.
Booktube has introduced me to many wonderful books but has also led me to read many books that I did not savor due to FOMO. I am trying now to watch a BTer long enough to learn if our book tastes overlap before trying their recommendations. And I DNF more than ever.
That’s interesting! Yeah, I did feel that pressure too, definitely got it a little bit from your videos, but it was also because my reading has slowed down a fair bit since getting a regular job etc… but I quickly realised I really don’t care about competitive reading, if you want to call it that! I mean I never had any good feelings associated with finishing books anyway, if it’s good I feel like oh no, it over? if it’s bad, oh no, why did I read this crap? So keeping track of reading, reading journals, whatever, I just don’t do it.
I mean if you like reading you are going to do it anyway and there’s no reason to turn it into a spreadsheet exercise!
I've always read a lot even when I was young. When I discovered booktube, it sparked my love for reading. 🙂❤📚 I've only had positive effects from booktube. However, I'll admit there are a lot of booktags out there that are hard for me to keep up with. I just enjoy sharing my thoughts on what I've recently read.
Absolutely felt pressure to read more and read faster once I started watching booktube. I only read on a kindle and the % complete and time to finish didn’t help. I’ve turned off that lower banner on the kindle and that made a world of difference. And I have decided to just be happy at whatever pace I read. Because I want to digest and enjoy what I read, not try to just mark another book off the list.
I love how much i read, but am now resistant to having too many projects. I want to read well and deeply, not shallowly in a hurry. I font wish to be pressurised either. Hence, I am doing Historathon and will double up with a Roman read next month. Im too old to feel pressurised by RUclips friends. It comes down to something you advocate, Steve, discipline.
Steve, this is an interesting conversation. I've been reading since the age of 4 & never thought one could read too much. I've always savored the books I've read. Interestingly, when I was in college, I felt all the readings for my courses diminished my love of reading. In my literature courses, I felt having to read 15 books, write numerous papers for just one 3 unit course (semester semester), was excessive. When one has 3 classes like this at one time (reading 40-50 books per term), I can see how some people get turned off.
I remember Steve doing a video about Alex O'Connor, where Alex said he didn't like 'reading' but liked 'having read' I think that's more common than we realise. Some people want to absorb the information without going through the process. It's the reading equivalent of taking a diet pill.
Sir, your halo briefly appeared at 1 minute in, but was fading fast at 5 minutes in.
Booktube has influenced my reading in helping me to prioritize reading. I used to view reading as a treat or luxury that I earned if I got my impossibly long to do list completed. Now, thanks to certain influencers such as yourself I have moved reading to a daily necessity. I do get competitive with myself to read more books annually, but I’ve learned not to make a rigid TBR list like some BookTube influencers do.
I am just a person that lives by stats, if there are any, so GR etc. push me towards higher numbers. This year though I decided to do a lot of long books, so that will (hopefully) kill this urge to do more than I can enjoy
I love Booktube for the recommendations, which I record on my free library list and may or may not read. I don't participate in any of the Booktube themes. To me that's too close to the old classroom syllabus. I have two degrees in literature, and I don't want to revisit that pressure. Keep reading. ❤
I'm doing 3 reading projects. Chris priest, muriel spark and Patrick obrian. But I don't think booktube is driving that as they aren't talked about. Next Yr I'll do a silverberg project perhaps.
Am I reading too much? No, I don't think so. What I am is more and more frustrated because I can't find or read books you guys (I'll include Roger as one of you guys) talk about. Could you (a) add a few more hours in the day and (b) expand all the libraries I use.....
Steve, I read 30-40 books per year, an amount you read in an a week or less. I've come to the realization I'll never be someone who reads hundreds of books each year. So I'm okay with watching other people chase totals.
Negative affect? No such thing.
No such thing as reading to much… its far better than youtubing, movies, or even a social life ( vastly overrated).
I actually believe it to be one of the healthier things you can do for yourself.