The number of books someone has read is now flashed online as an intellectual status symbol.
Goodreads, a popular book tracking website and app with over 150 million users as of 2023, has a reading challenge each year: Users set a goal for how many books they want to read that year, and can share their Year in Books with friends toward the end of December.
Jack Edwards, a popular YouTuber who is part of a subcommunity of readers called BookTube, has accumulated over 1.5 million subscribers for his book videos, ranging from recommendations to organizing his home library. His Goodreads 2025 Year in Books indicates he read 135 books and plans to read 150 in 2026.
Haley Pham, another BookTuber with nearly 4 million subscribers, read 63 books in 2025 and 80 books in 2024.
But before BookTube and reading tracking apps, people didn’t emphasize the number of books they read. Now, sharing the number of books read within a span of time has become a staple of the online reading community. It is a quick communicator on social media for book influencers to grab the attention of readers.
Although millions of book lovers subscribe to this content, a Goodreads Instagram video reveals that users on average reported reading 17 books in 2025, a major drop from what book influencers are able to achieve.
Numerical reading challenges don’t account for books that are harder to read or for people with busier schedules. A person who frequently reads easier novels will be given more merit than someone who challenges themselves and takes longer because this measurement is based solely on a number.
Sophomore writing, literature and publishing major Kylie Lohse said she feels pressure from social media to read more despite her busy schedule as a student.
“[An influencer] was literally reading for 24 hours straight, not stopping,” Lohse said. “I was like damn, I’m not doing enough.”
A peer reviewed research study reported that people read about 260 words per minute on average for fiction. The average length of a novel is between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Hypothetically, if each book the average person reads is 85,000 words, it would take more than five and a half hours to read just one novel.
This estimation becomes murky once lengthier and more difficult novels are considered. Reading a 500 page classic will take longer to finish and understand than the latest bestselling romance title.
Cate Schneiderman, the School of Film, Television, and Media Arts librarian at Emerson College, stated she has less time to read for pleasure now that she is taking care of a toddler. Although Schneiderman has less time for reading in her schedule, she still sees value in a numerical reading goal, depending on the person.
“I would recommend a numerical reading goal to someone who enjoys reading but feels like they don’t get to do it enough,” she said. “I would not recommend it to people who feel a lot of pressure or anxiety.”
This naturally alters what people choose to read and why. A clear example are videos of short books read specifically to reach a reading goal faster. Instead of savoring the deep thought and time commitment authors pour into their work, readers have been conditioned to flip pages at record speed and finish books without a second thought.
Yet, announcing a high number of finished books by the end of the year creates the illusion that a person is a “true reader.” It signals that someone has gained more knowledge than other readers by sheer overconsumption without regard to the type of books or the person’s schedule.
This misconception is tragic. Rather than discussing the impact novels can have on an individual’s perspective or the challenging of societal norms, the messaging is skipped past as a minor element of a story in comparison to the quantity of books someone can read.
A different challenge that Schneiderman enjoys is the Read Harder Challenge by the popular editorial book site Book Riot. The challenge for 2026 features 24 categories ranging from reading a book by an intersex author to a nonfiction comic, pushing readers to diversify the books they pick up.
“I’ve definitely read books that I would not have read based on those challenges,” Schneiderman said.
As someone who used to write a book blog, I understand the difference between reading to gain stories to write for an article and reading to see the world from a fresh perspective. One is exhausting, and the other provides me with wisdom on topics I otherwise wouldn’t know about.
Lohse said she finds value in what books can add to conversations about issues in daily life.
“I’m a firm believer that reading and consuming art in general is very important because it teaches us messages,” Lohse explained. “I think reading is also inherently meant for learning … and being able to have discussions about stuff in our real world through a book is very special to me.”
After all, it’s not the 100 books you read in a year that you will reminisce on in the future: It will be the novel with a message so powerful it could never leave your mind.
