Why is my GoodReads Challenge 1?

So the question is: Why is my Goodreads Challenge only 1 book?

Before I set my challenge to 1 book, I always found myself with this need to complete my Goodreads challenge, and if I didn’t I would feel kind of bad about it. Which shouldn’t be the case right? I shouldn’t feel bad about not reading a certain number of books. Reading anything at all is great! Of course at this time, I believe it was 2012, I was new to Goodreads. I felt as though I HAD to complete it, and seeing everyone else with there goals just added to that feeling. I also noticed that I wasn’t picking up books that I wanted to read, but more so books that I thought would be quick, and help me reach my goal! By doing that, I was missing out on other amazing books.

Eventually, I saw a friend of mine on Goodreads set her goal as 1, with her reasoning and all I could think about was how PERFECT that would be for me. So in 2014 I set my goal for 1 book and ended up reading 29 books that year. It may not seem like a lot, but I felt amazing at the end of the year. I had no stress, no pressure, and I read books that I WANTED to read. When 2015 came along, my goal again was 1 book and I managed to read 74. It felt great!

So every year since then my goal has been to read 1 book. It’s perfect for me because I pick up books that sound fun, books that I want to read. Now, I love to do challenges because I simply have fun with them. If I complete them great. If not, then oh well. It’s all about the fun!

And now I would love to hear from you guys! Are you participating in the Goodreads Challenge? What is your goal? Do you feel pressure to complete it?