Why Reading Goals Fail
January 1st: you set a goal to read 52 books this year (one per week). By March, you have finished two and abandoned three. The goal is abandoned by April.
This pattern is so common it has become a cliché. The failure is almost never about willpower – it is about arithmetic.
The typical adult reads at 200–250 words per minute. The average novel is around 90,000 words. At 250 wpm, that is six hours of reading. If you read for 30 minutes every evening, it takes 12 days per novel. That is about 30 novels per year – if you read every single evening, finish every book you start, and choose only average-length books.
"52 books" ignores all of this.
The Right Way to Set a Reading Goal
Step 1: Know your reading speed
Time yourself reading a page of a book you find comfortable (not a complex text, not your lightest beach read – something typical). Count the words. Divide words by minutes. That is your words-per-minute rate.
The Reading Speed Calculator on this site will calculate your WPM from a timed reading sample.
Average adult reading speed: 200–250 wpm. Avid readers: 300–400 wpm. Skimming: 600–800 wpm.
Step 2: Know how much time you actually have
Be honest. Track one week of actual reading time – not time you intended to read, time you actually did. For most adults this is 20–45 minutes per day, not an hour.
Weekly reading hours = daily minutes × 7 / 60
Example: 30 minutes per evening = 3.5 hours per week.
Step 3: Choose books strategically
If your goal is number of books, book length matters enormously:
- Short novel / novella (< 50,000 words): ~3–4 hours at 250 wpm
- Average novel (80,000–100,000 words): ~5–7 hours
- Long novel (150,000+ words): 10+ hours (some fantasy/literary fiction reaches 300,000+)
- Non-fiction (varies widely): 50,000–80,000 words for most business/self-help books
At 3.5 hours per week, you can read:
- 52 short novellas (1 per week)
- 26 average novels (one every two weeks)
- 15 long novels (every 3+ weeks)
Step 4: Set the goal
Annual books = (Weekly hours × 52) / Hours per book
Example: 3.5 hours/week × 52 weeks = 182 hours of reading. At 7 hours per average novel: 182 / 7 = 26 books. That is a realistic, achievable goal for someone reading 30 minutes per day.
Making a Goal That Sticks
Be specific but flexible. "Read for 30 minutes every evening" is more achievable than "read 52 books." Process goals beat outcome goals for habits.
Track progress honestly. A reading log (a simple notebook or an app like Goodreads, StoryGraph, or a spreadsheet) makes progress visible and gaps obvious before they derail you.
Allow for DNFs (did not finish). Books that bore you or do not suit your current mood should be abandoned without guilt. A 50-page rule is common: if you are not engaged by page 50, move on.
Adjust mid-year. A reading goal is not a contract. If you set 30 books and life got busy, adjust to 20. Finishing on a revised goal beats abandoning a broken one.
What Counts Toward a Reading Goal?
This is personal – but think about why you are setting a goal. If it is to read more, then audiobooks, rereads, short stories, and graphic novels can all count. If the goal is specifically to read literary fiction or expand a professional knowledge base, be selective.
The Reading Tracker on this site lets you log books, calculate your pace per title, and project your annual total based on your current reading rate.
Summary
Realistic reading goals are built on three inputs: your reading speed (wpm), your actual available time (hours per week), and your target book length. Calculate expected reading hours per book and divide annual hours by that number. Process goals (daily reading habit) sustain results better than outcome goals (annual book count).