My mind is whirling as it is taking in all that is happening and my eyes are acting as if the words will disappear if I don’t read them fast enough. The pages nonchalantly pass by each other from one side to the next, and my eyes race to the end of the page. As much as the plot is keeping me enthralled in the book, so is my Goodreads goal.
If you haven’t heard of Goodreads, it is a social media like platform where you can track what you are reading, give it a review and a plethora of other actions. I joined Goodreads earlier this year, after one of my friends was raging about it.
While setting up my profile, I added the books I had read and gave them a score out of 5 stars to add some fun. Soon, I found myself going on the app and scrolling through all the books that were trending and too often comparing myself to my friends.
I would get a notification saying my friend had just finished her third book that week and I was barely making it through two books a month. I felt like a failure at leisure reading, and my restful hobby began to turn into a comparison game.
After I realized what was happening, I knew I needed to change the thinking pattern I had fallen into.
I started by setting some good old fashioned boundaries. I decided that Goodreads would be a space for me to enjoy reading with others, while I would find another app to log my reading. I did some research and soon found StoryGraph which has been a great outlet to be able to track my reading without seeing others progress and condemning myself for not keeping the same pace.
This simple app switch changed the game for me. I created a space to be able to log my reading just for me and another to enjoy reading with others online.
Whoever said, “comparison is the thief of joy” was onto something, and I almost let comparison steal my joy of reading. By making some simple changes and boundaries for myself, I was able to save something so dear to me.
When I read now, my mind is still whirling trying to take in all that I’m reading, but now my eyes can walk down the page taking in the beautiful scene in its fullness without the rush of meeting unrealistic expectations.