For the past few years I’ve set goals as to how many books I hope to read in a year. They’ve been good goals and they’ve helped me read more but I feel the need to shake things up in 2024. I’ve been feeling the pull to read some more of the real tomes that have sat on my list for far too long. The Gulag Archipelago, Middlemarch, The Far Pavilion. Maybe even, finally, Ulysses. These books are Goliaths. Doorstoppers. Not something you’d throw in your pocket and take to the beach. (I’m talking any book over 500 pages here.) So in 2024, instead of focusing on the number of books, I’m setting a page count goal.
In 2023 I read 98 books (my goal was 100) and Goodreads tells me that was 27, 288 pages. So for 2024 I’m setting a goal of 30, 000 pages. (I’m not yet sure how I will count audiobooks in this so, uh, stay tuned, I guess.) I figure if the average book is between 200 to 300 pages and I can read approximately 100 of those in a year, this is an achievable goal. We’ll find out!
(Check out FictionFan’s King Kong challenge for 2024! I had this idea in mind and then was delighted to read her post and see that she’d come up with something similar. King Kong or Goliath, some big books will hopefully get read this year!)
Some other reading goals for 2024:
Read 15 Translated Works
This is the same goal I had for last year. I didn’t reach it so I’m not raising it but I hope to do better in 2024.
Read 30 Books I Already Own
I got closer with this one in 2023 but I’m keeping it the same because I know I’m probably only going to add to my piles this year!
Read 25 Books That Have Been on my TBR since before 2023
I didn’t reach this goal in 2023 either but for the last two years I’ve used 2020 as the cut-off date. This year I’m moving that line forward and I think this will mean I’m crossing a lot more books off this particular list.
As ever, I plan to keep reading a lot of Canadian writers and a lot of women. I’d like to read a few poetry books. At the moment, my hope is to consistently post one review a week, maybe with two when they start to pile up. I think I’m going to aim for Monday as a consistent review day but I’m open to suggestions. I’m going to try to share quotes from what I’m currently reading, hopefully doing that on Fridays.
Do you set specific goals for your reading?
What’s your favourite book that would qualify as a Goliath?
Karissa Reads Books 
My favourite book is Vanity Fair by William Thackeray, which is definitely a Goliath (912 pages in Penguin Classics edition, although that truly shocks me—it’s so unbelievably addictive, it always reads faster than that to me!)
I’ve never read it! Maybe I should add it to my list for the year…
Oh, do! It’s wildly entertaining.
Great challenge! I’m doing something similar this year – specifically I want to read some of the large history books on my shelf, many of which are over 500 pages. My favourite novel of all time is Lord of the Rings – I have no idea how many pages that is, but the fact that it had to be published in three volumes tells you that it’s not slim! A lot of my favourite novels meet this criterion, since so many of them are big Victorian doorstoppers.
Ooh, history books over 500 pages are a whole other thing! I’ve realized that some of my favourite reads in the past few years have been huge books where once I really immersed myself, I just fell in love. I love the Lord of the Rings but I never think of it as a huge book. I guess because it is split in three. But also because it’s so incredibly readable.
A Goliath goal sounds like a great idea, I’m definitely guilty also of just not getting around to some of those hefty books stacking up in the tbr, even when I’m sure I’ll enjoy them. And setting a page count goal instead of a book total is brilliant, seems like a great way to keep the focus on reading itself rather than an arbitrary numbers game, it can be far too easy to get caught up with those even though it’s so instinctual to set one! Best of luck with your 2024 goals, looking forward to seeing how it goes 🙂
Thanks! We’ll see how it goes but I’m excited!
I consider anything too heavy to comfortably read on the train a Goliath/King Kong. I save them up for my holidays.
Tracking your page count instead of books numbers is a good idea. I don’t set goals as my available reading time is too irregular, which means that I get anxious when I’m not meeting them. Plus I tend to see them as ‘deadlines’ rather than goals, which adds to the anxiety.
I’ve heard that from others as far as deadlines versus goals and I think that’s very fair. For the most part, goal setting helps me personally to stay on task but I’m curious to see how a page count goal changes the way I choose what to read.
Being able to hold the book’s comfortably or carry them on a commute is a definite factor!
Very cool challenge! I loved when FF announced hers so fun you are doing the same. I really enjoyed Ann-Marie McDonald’s latest release Fayne, which I believe qualifies for this challenge…
I think it would. I’ve read MacDonald before but have found her previous books so bleak that I’ve avoided Fayne!
What a great idea to use page count for your target! It makes much more sense than trying to rush through the big books or avoid them just to meet some arbitrary number of books. I may adopt it myself next year! It’s annoying that the page count often isn’t included on GR for audiobooks but I always list the equivalent paperback page count on my spreadsheet. Your tomes look pretty formidable! I tried and failed with The Gulag Archipelago when it first came out in English, but I’d only have been a teenager then so probably being far too ambitious. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it. You won’t tempt me with Ulysses though! It’s on my “No, no, never!!” list! Good luck – hopefully we’ll both survive this harrowing challenge! 😉
I think I’ll use the GR book equivalent page counts to be able to include audiobooks. I’m going to keep track of hours too, mostly just out of curiosity.
I’m going to start with Middlemarch and work up to Solzhenitsyn. I’ve never tried it before but have attempted Ulysses twice and failed twice so we’ll see. I’d like to cross it off my list once and for all!
I’ve posted on the same day of the week for a few years now, if I remember correctly, and it’s funny because readers will email me and ask if I’m okay if I miss that date for any reasons. It’s nice, actually.
Also, I’ve noticed some bloggers will suddenly post a bunch of reviews at once if they’ve been reading more, and if I’m busy, I need to decide if I’m going to read 4 posts in one week from blogger A or skip over a few and read more widely, catch up with bloggers B, C, and D, etc.
If you post once per week and schedule blog posts out for the same day of the week, that gives you more time to read these chonky books at your own pace without worrying if your blog has been silent for too long. Does that all make sense?
Also, a great way to figure out the page count of an audiobook is when you add it to Goodreads, don’t choose the audio version, just choose the text. That way, at the end of the year, Goodreads will still calculate how many “pages” you read. If you need it for yourself, take how many pages are listed on the Goodreads page, take the number of hours, and divide. So, a book that is 800 pages and you want to read 100 pages per week, you should finish in 8 weeks. If the book is 20 hours on audio, you need to finish in 8 weeks to keep up, so listen for 2.5 hours per week.
I’ve definitely been one who has gone to your blog on a Sunday afternoon to see why I’ve missed your usual post!
I’d like to avoid the bunching up of posts, as you say. I agree that I think that works against bloggers. Right now I’m trying for Monday posts.
That sounds great, and posts are easy to schedule for the future. When you open the little posting calendar, it has a dot on each day you’ve already got something scheduled.
I actually do pre-schedule most of my reviews, I’ve just never had a consistent schedule for it.