For my paper I wrote about the phenomenon of reading goals and challenges. In 2023 nearly 8 million individuals participated in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. Beyond this are endless opportunities for ways to direct and quantify one's reading life. I discussed the some of the overarching types of challenges in which readers participate and how these challenges and goals affect the practice of reader's advisory.
The first type of challenge I identified is the quantity challenge. It takes some form of the goal to read X amount of books in X amount of time, usually one year. The goal can also be to read for some quantity of time each day or week as promoted on the Bookly app. Tracking books, minutes of reading or days of reading for a library's summer reading programs is also an example of a quantity challenge. This type of challenge is helpful for beginning or growing a reading habit. It can also be fun and rewarding to track progress and meet goals and is often compared to the fun of playing a game. Apps like The StoryGraph provide personalized colorful graphs and charts that many readers find appealing. Many challenges also have a social element and provide community for readers (Demarco, 2023). The downsides are that getting behind in a challenge can cause stress, reading can become a chore instead of a pleasure, and the focus on quantity can take away from the quality of time put into reading harder books and taking time to reflect on what has been read (Demarco and Tackfiction, 2018).
Diversity challenges are the second type of reading goals. These are challenges that attempt to broaden the spectrum of what participants read. Examples are challenges to read across different genres, to read books written by authors from marginalized groups, books with diverse characters, or books that take place in different places or times than the reader lives. Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge is a perfect example of a diversity challenge with 24 tasks to complete that encourage readers to expand their reading repertoire. A library BINGO challenge could also be an example of a diversity challenge. The social media app, Litsy, offers many options such as #AuthorAMonth (reading new authors), #ReadAroundtheWorld, (reading books set in countries around the world) and #BookedinTime (reading books set in different time periods) just to name a few. These challenges can help readers read more widely and add interest to their reading life. They also run the risk of turning reading into a chore if they are taken too seriously.
Another common challenge is what I call the reduction challenge. This is where readers commit to reading only books on their physical shelves or on their virtual "to be read" shelf. Similar to the other challenges, it can be a positive and noble goal as long as it doesn't become a chore.
Reading challenges should not be overlooked in the process of reader's advisory work. Often it is assumed that reader's want more of what they already like. This may be so and in that case that is exactly what they should be given. But other times, readers might like to broaden their horizons. Or they may need help getting out of a rut. This is where tools like the "Reading the Whole Collection" and "Reading Among Genres" sections of Wyatt and Sarick (2019) are extremely helpful. Start with what they already enjoy and branch off from there. In support of the reading lives of patrons, librarians should be prepared to assist them in various ways. For some this means embracing goals they have set and cheering them on; for others it could be encouraging them to take on a challenge to read more or more diversely; for still others this could mean encouraging them to worry less about their quantifying their reading and instead, to savor the experience.
References
DeMarco, N. (2023, December 22). What are the mental health benefits—and drawbacks—of reading goals and challenges? Book Riot. https://bookriot.com/reading-goals-and-mental-health/
Saricks, J. G., & Wyatt, N. (2019). The readers’ advisory guide to genre fiction (Third edition). ALA Editions.
Tackfiction. (2018, September 14). Yearly reading goals: The pros and cons of self-imposed challenges. Tackfiction. https://tackfiction.com/2018/09/14/yearly-reading-goals-the-pros-and-cons-of-self-imposed-challenges/
As someone who uses StoryGraph and Goodreads, I personally really like the aspect of a reading challenge, not only because of what you discussed but also it is a way for me to keep track of what I have read and enjoyed. I really like the graphs and information that StoryGraph gives users because it goes into more detail of what I am actually reading than what Goodreads provides. Great work on the assignment!
ReplyDeleteI use Goodreads a lot! Mostly, it's for tracking what I read and where most of my reviews are. I did a reading challenge in 2023 (for physical and popular books), and it definitely motivated me to finish books in a timely manner. I will say that I changed it four different times to reflect how many books I read that year. Reading challenges are a staple at libraries, especially the Summer Reading Challenge since kids and parents need an activity they can do. It's also a way to continue their reading from the school year. I mean, if you are in the middle of a series when school ends, you can't wait a whole summer until you read the next book!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a cool topic to explore! I love participating in reading challenges but in the past, I struggled with feeling like it was a competition and constantly compared my reading goals to others. It was one of the reasons I left Goodreads and started using Storygraph. On Storygraph, I pay less attention to the community aspect of the site and more to the statistics of what I'm reading.
ReplyDeleteGood summary and discussion!
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