First time I've had a moment to pull data from my spreadsheet...

Through the end of October 2020:

Goals:

Length Goals:
Total Books: 50 (stretch goal of 75) | Total Pages: 25,000 | ETBR Reduction: 25 | PTBR Reduction: 10
Substantive Goals:
Read at least 51% non-American authors | Read more female/nonbinary authors than male | Read at least 52 short stories | Read at least 10 of the New Leaf Book Club/Literary Book Club selections

Cumulative 2020 Totals:

98 books - 160% of my goal (110% of stretch) - GOAL MET / STRETCH GOAL MET
43 short stories - 82% of my goal - On Target
31201 pages - 124% of my goal - GOAL MET
62% female/nonbinary authors / 38% male authors - On Target
31% US authors / 68% non-US authors - On Target
ETBR Reduction: Reduced by 33 - 132% of my goal - GOAL MET
PTBR Reduction: Reduced by stopped couting - ABANDONED - my wife has been buying a few books a week from our local independent bookstore to support them while they are closed due to Covid-19. She plans to keep this up until they are able to re-open, so my print TBR goal may just be shot for the year. Still, worthy cause.

Overall TBR Reduction 43 - reduction of Ebook TBR and Audiobook TBR. I have removed paper books from the calculation for the reasons above.
Amazing! I saw people's list in the listing thread. How is it possible to read more than 100 books per year. Is it natural or you apply some tricks to read fast?
There are so many factors. Some have a lot of free time to read; some have next to none. Some use their free time exclusively or almost exclusively for reading; some have other pursuits as well. Some read Kant, some read Cartland. And yes, some read faster than others, but I suspect those are the super outliers and that reading speed is less a factor than others.

In other words, it’s not a contest! The point of goals is to make reading more interesting and to act as a personal goad. Goals are individual and the point is to achieve your own and cheer other people on theirs.
I usually read over 300 a year but due to mood read much less this year, will break 200 but not by much. It depends on many factors - types of books read, length of the books, and time are main factors. I don't read many large tome classics, which makes a big difference.

But as issybird said, it's quality over quantity so reading (as one example) 12 books is as worthy as reading 500 as long as you're enjoying them and reaching personal goals.
Welcome to MobileRead!


As others have said, it's a combination of factors.

Some of it is reading speed. Although I don't do anything to 'speed read', my reading speed for fiction is about 400 words/min. This is just how fast I read when I'm reading for enjoyment.

Most of it is time spent. I think I spend two hours a day reading on average. So I will finish a 250 page book in a couple of days usually.

So two to three books a week adds up to over 100 books a year.

But if I read more slowly or didn't read so much and only finished 20 books a year, I'd still be getting great enjoyment from my reading.

But it can also be fun to challenge oneself. And I've certainly found it fascinating to actually track how much I read.
18 books so far. I will make my 20 book goal.
I'm retired and mostly listening to audiobooks while doing needlework. I watch very little TV and rarely more than an hour a day online. Still, some years it's difficult to hit 100. When I was working, I read 2-3 books a month. My Mom was a very fast reader and could read a doorstop in 5 days or less.

The best 'trick' to increase reading is to be able to read a book during found time. I used to read on my Itouch while in line at the post office, at the doc's office, at the car place getting muffler replaced, any place where I had a few minutes. You can add 1-2 books a month that way. This works better though if you are a multiple book reader - in other words, can read a fantasy and scifi at the same time. I'd have the scifi on my Itouch and fantasy on the ereader. Also works if you can sync between phone app and ereader.
My Goal for 2020 was 40. I am on book 51. So I am slowing down a little. I do have audio companions for my long ebooks which helps with the goals
I didn't have a goal until joining the StoryGraph in mid-September after learning about it here. Since then, I've read 74 books and have just passed the 91 book goal I set there.
Good work!!! Another one gets within striking distance of his/her goals.

Personally I set my 2020 goals at 95 books and I have blown past that, I am at one hundred twenty books read. I am within striking distance of my all time finishing point of one hundred twenty three books read, let's see if I can break that barrier.