Does Tracking Reading Make It Less Enjoyable?

Deep into the summer time of 2014, I started monitoring my studying in a cherished spreadsheet. I began easy by logging dates, titles, and authors. I created columns for notes and references. In them, I recorded what resonated with me from an underwater scene to particulars about flowers, meals, and music; {that a} guide made me snort; how I first realized of the work; which bookstore I discovered the title at; favourite essays; craft selections I admired from narrative buildings to citation mark-less dialogue.

As my work grew to become extra entwined with books, my monitoring expanded intimately. I documented genres, partial to finish plots, necessary occasions, settings, character names and relationships, content material warnings, themes, comparable titles, and extra. In April of 2019, I joined Goodreads and the Goodreads Reading Challenge, a fast custom. Since that motivated determination to trace my studying 9 Augusts in the past, my annual studying has risen 12 months after 12 months.

At Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Professor Jordan Etkin researched the results of monitoring actions together with coloring, strolling, and studying (which we at Book Riot are, after all, further all for). Overall, Etkin “found that while measuring prompts us to do more, it can make us enjoy activities less.” Etkin noticed that whereas monitoring coloring, strolling, and studying can “increase” exercise, “[e]njoyable activities can become almost like a job, by focusing on the outcomes of things that used to be fun.”

Typically in my studying life, I juggle one fiction, nonfiction, and poetry title. Every day, I replace my studying progress on Goodreads, which stirs up good emotions. In January, my annual Goodreads aim can loom in my thoughts till I get on observe or forward. As I learn, I jot down copious notes, which I additionally contemplate monitoring my studying, in a doc or on a Post-it. For my private spreadsheet, I compile these feedback, on common, weekly. Of every thing, always gathering and organizing info generally frustrates me. Occasionally, I procrastinate, and the data collects, which might induce stress. Because every thing I learn is probably for work, I observe my studying 100% of the time, even after I reread. In case, flowers forbid, this Virgo missed one thing.

So, I make an exception. This 12 months, I’ve spent a lot time studying new-to-me books, stopping each web page or two to file studying observations, that I discovered myself craving a sweeping saga to flee with. Missing a doorstopper’s weight in my arms, I return to One Hundred Years of Solitude, certainly one of my most reread novels, completely for pleasure. Why not one of many myriad unread titles on my cabinets or guide cart or mail pile? My considering: If I flip to one thing acquainted, I gained’t bookmark it to scribble impressions or really feel compelled to replace my studying progress.

For the much-needed break, I hearken to the audiobook whereas studying alongside in my paperback copy — which is, based on my love, “more sticky flags than pages” — to busy my arms, educated to seize particulars. As deliberate, I don’t pen notes. Some bonuses: I ignore texts, emails, and social media. Rarely distracted, the main focus of it resembles a date with myself: such candy consideration and self-care. I believe I’ve found a brand new most well-liked approach of studying.

As the story of the Buendías in Macondo streams into my ears, I comply with together with my eyes, appreciating the rainbow of highlighted textual content and the circles I drew within the margins. In mattress with Gabriel García Márquez’s novel one new-moon morning, 4 dried, pink petals flitter from between the pages onto my abdomen, and it appears magical. Mainly, I left the guide on my nightstand and floated off to desires after a chapter. And but, I, out of muscle reminiscence and maybe obsession, nonetheless up to date my progress in Goodreads. Granting myself a tiny intermission from my intensive monitoring refreshed me, one thing I hope to do extra with go-to rereads and books destined to grow to be go-to rereads, like Alexander Chee’s How to Write an Autobiographical Novel; Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s Sabrina & Corina; Okay. Iver’s Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco; and Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing.

Naturally, I’m wondering about different Rioters’ stances on monitoring their studying. In a quick survey, all 35 members reported monitoring their studying. Twenty-two members observe their studying on Goodreads. Of these, 11 take part within the Goodreads Reading Challenge. Fourteen use Book Riot’s Reading Log, eight use private spreadsheets and paperwork, six use Storygraph, and eight use different modes comparable to Bookly and writing in a bullet journal by hand.

On common, 12 members observe their studying every day, 9 sporadically, 9 weekly, two month-to-month, and 5 describe different frequencies: three after they end a guide, one other after “3ish” books, and one other just a few instances per week. Twenty-one reported monitoring their studying makes them really feel comfortable, 10 impressed, eight impartial, 5 discouraged, three careworn, and two talked about feeling different feelings. One participant expressed experiencing “all” of the listed feelings. Three really feel optimistic feelings as a result of monitoring their studying helps them bear in mind and entry what they’ve learn. Another participant feels comfortable or careworn relying on the state of their titles-to-review shelf, one other experiences “ALL THE GOOD FEELINGS” from comfortable and impressed to “excited” and “accomplished” and “calm,” whereas one other “gasp[s] in joy and sometimes disbelief” when reflecting on previous reads. Since monitoring their studying, nobody reported solely a lower of their studying. Fourteen noticed a rise and 15 a variation.

As standard, Rioters frequently encourage me. In the above-mentioned Our Reading Lives essay, Thang jogs my memory to learn what and after I need to, to hunt and prioritize enjoyment. So, I pen a reminder to myself to learn solely for pleasure in my planner. And when requested about patterns of their studying for the survey, six Rioters commented that monitoring studying not solely impressed them to learn extra however to additionally learn extra diversely and broadly. A aim to at all times maintain shut, one thing to perpetually try for. Like us at Book Riot, whether or not you observe your studying or not, could the time you spend with books largely convey you happiness.

If studying monitoring and challenges intrigue you, please try Introducing The 2023 Reading Log, 10 Book Journals to Track Your Reading in 2023, and The Joy Of Reading Challenges Is Reading by yours really.