Goodbye Page Counting · 4:09pm Apr 26th, 2022
The year is 2014. Highschool. A young Blobskin is about to embark on a new adventure out in the real world. Blobskin had told his favorite English teacher he dreamed of being a writer someday but wasn't sure how to pursue it. The teacher suggested he read more. To help him do that, he also suggested Blobskin keep a reading journal. Make a record of what and how much he was reading. The key to being creative was to expose himself to as many ideas as he could after all. Blobskin thought the suggestion was pretty cool. For the next 8 years he would write down the title and length of every book and short story he read as well as strive to read more than he had ever in the past.
8 years. That's a long time to dedicate to something. Now it's time to put the journal away. The practice, while fun for a while, I realize now was only ever meant to help create a habit. I wasn't reading nearly enough as a kid, but now I read constantly. Sure, continuing to keep track of how much I read could end with a really interesting little fact... when I'm on my death bed. Can you imagine the news story? "Old man releases reading journal listing everything he ever read in his life!" Cool idea, but... who would fucking care?!
The original goal was just to develop a habit of reading more. That goal has been accomplished. Does the journal have any more value than that? No, it really doesn't. It's just a distraction. How much time am I wasting writing down titles and trying to figure out how many "pages" long a story was? Probably not much, but it's not needed anymore anyway. It's time to stop and put the toy away. It was cool and fun for a while, but I'm an adult now. I've got more important things to do.
Begin Date: The 1st of January 2014
End Date: The 25th of April 2022
Number of Days: 3,036
Final Page Count: 258,687
Average Pages per Day: 85
Original Goal: 100 pages per day
