We’re barely halfway through the year, and I’ve already accomplished my Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2025. That’s after bumping up my initial goal of 50 books. I’m fairly certain I’ll be changing my goal to 100. There’s no saying what it will be by the time this year comes to an end.
When you look at the top readers on Goodreads, you probably think… There’s no way a person can read that many books. They must be cheating somehow!
Of course, you shouldn’t be reading to chase some arbitrary number, but there’s good fun in setting a goal and achieving it. And I don’t think there’s any harm in what some would say is “tricking the system”.
Why would you want to be a Goodreads Top Reader?
There’s a simple explanation for that. A few, in fact.
- Vanity. It’s in our human nature. I will be no judge of that. I’m a bit of a vanity reader myself. It all stems from how I’ve initially picked reading as my hobby. I remember how back on my old blog I even had a two-part publication on “how I became a reader”. Either way, my point is that not everyone starts out as an avid reader, and this doesn’t disqualify them from enjoying good books. If you need a brief stroke of your ego to get you started, go for it. After all, we are living in a time when being perceived as an intellectual is somewhat of a trend. Any motivation are a ‘yes’ in my book, as long as you’re reading!
- Get noticed in the community. Getting your name on a chart is a great way to get noticed if you want more people to follow your book reviews. Unlike blog interviews or blogger spotlights, you don’t have to put in too much effort to find opportunities to get featured. All you have to do is read a certain number of books, wait for the stats to update, and you’re on the list.
- Get noticed by publishers. Better stats on your profile improve your chances of getting approved for some especially desired ARC books on NetGalley, which is, again, important for bloggers.
- Redirect the attention. Turn those Goodreads friends into your blog readers. If you are a book blogger, Goodreads is an established hangout spot for many of your potential readers. And, of course, the more people check out your profile, the more more clicks you’ll get on that link in your bio.
No matter what objectives you might have, lists are fun! And being recognized, even for something as trivial as reading books, makes you feel good.
The “secret” to becoming a Top Reader on Goodreads
Here’s the part where we talk about all the ‘tricks’ of upping your numbers when it comes to the books you have read. I’m not going to mention those readers who only read dialogue, DNF a book at 20% and mark it as read, or only read titles and blurbs. If I don’t read every single word in a book, I can’t consider it read. But that’s just me. You may want to skip the printing details.
Books for children
When looking at the Top Readers, it’s hard to believe that it’s even physically possible to read tens of thousands of books in a lifetime. Naturally, I got curious and went to check up on a few of those profiles. And the first profile I clicked on, I assume, was that of a mother reading to her child and marking their progress through all the wonderful picture books and stories for children. With the standard size of a picture book being 32 pages and mostly containing a few phrases per double-spread, it’s quite easy to go through a few books every day.
I love picture books because of their art, and I often read those to get an idea of how I could potentially make my own picture book some time in the future.
Art books
This is something I thought of randomly when flipping through my art books. Maybe it’s more looking at pictures than reading, but it’s still a book and it counts. I’ve decided to make an effort to read more art books, especially museum and gallery collections, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. Those books contain concentrated beauty and the depictions of humanity throughout its history. I think we should learn more about art and artists.
Graphic novels and comic books
Graphic novels are what got me into reading in English and rapidly improving my comprehension. I know that some look down on comic books because they are for children. But consider this, if you want to learn a new language, instead of grabbing an adapted reader (I hate those with a passion), go for a graphic novel or comic series. Once you get more confident in your reading comprehension, you can read the original stories not bastardized by lexical simplification in an attempt to take a great story, each word and phrase carefully crafted by the author, and bring it down to your current level just because you are new to the language.
Short stories
What I love about Goodreads is that they have short stories listed separately from collections. So, if I only want to read one story, I can do just that. I don’t have to keep the entire collection in my ‘currently reading’ indefinitely. This is also helpful when the short story is newly released so it exists on its own, outside of any collected stories. I’ve read so many New York Times fiction pieces that I found on Goodreads, conveniently containing the link to the published story.
Poetry
I love poetry that is personal and vulnerable. Poetry books are a great way to expand your reading repertoire.
Audiobooks count!
Listening to audiobooks counts as reading. You can exclusively only listen to audiobooks and still consider yourself a reader. At the end of the day, it’s all about discovering new stories, characters and their motivation, diving into a fictional world and exploring it.
Certain non-fiction books
Cooking, crafts, and gardening! Any books that is aimed at teaching you some practical skills.
10 short books you can read right now
So, are you ready to crush your 2025 reading challenge? Here’s a list of some short books to help you on your mission. Happy reading!
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