Goodreads Reading Goals: Overcoming the Pressure to Be “Disgustingly Overeducated”
As I’m sure many people have experienced, I have fallen into the trap of defending my social media use as for “educational purposes,” because I don’t want to admit that I am merely scrolling. I tell myself that I am watching reels because my algorithm is catered towards art, history or reading; but in reality, I am wasting my time consuming the same amount of media as everyone else.
January and the start of the new year mark the time for New Year’s Resolutions, when many people set goals that they may or may not complete. Although I have already lost track of many of my goals, what many of them aim to achieve is a more general conception of growth and improvement, improving upon my habits from the previous year.
For me, one goal that I actively try to complete every year is reaching a set Goodreads book total. The feeling of completing my Goodreads reading challenge and seeing the confetti fall down my screen in celebration marks a time where I can reflect on the year, feel accomplished by the amount I read, and recall the books I did and did not enjoy. Furthermore, achieving this goal makes me feel as if I am part of a community: I am able to connect with others who also enjoy reading and also achieved their goals.
However, what I have found over the past couple of years is that I have lost sight of the genuine enjoyment of reading, and instead have become overly focused on reading enough. When I started tracking my reading on Goodreads, I had been warned of other people who had the experience of prioritizing quantity over quality in their reading habits, but I had sworn that that would never happen to me. Nevertheless, what started as an innocent desire to track my reading turned into a race against my past self. I felt as if the books in which I explored other worlds became a routine of forced consumption, instead of absorbing what the books had to offer.
Over-indexing on quantity over quality plagues many people who use hobby-tracking apps like Goodreads. We are told to have and invest in interests because they are important, but most lifestyles cannot support a full investment in said interests, to the degree of quality we may aim for. I like to read: That must mean that I then have to read a lot, cover a lot of genres, and always be reading more, rather than truly allowing a book to sit with me.
Recently, I have come across a movement of people online wanting to become what they call “disgustingly overeducated.” It is a term I have seen primarily on Instagram and Substack, but also exists on other platforms. It is practically a movement to make learning and reading aesthetic. I was immediately intrigued, as I had discovered a community of people who all love learning, and want to spend their time productively. Participants construct their own curriculums built around their schedules, based on their interests, and then compound different genres of writing about the chosen topic, with a schedule to stay on track and maximize time and learning. The movement, while being a bit pretentious, has good intentions based on the internal and mental development of the person, on their terms.
However, what I have taken away from my own experience trying to become “disgustingly overeducated” is that such a learning structure is only ideal for specific lifestyles. As a college student, and before as a seminary or yeshiva day school student, I have other readings and work to do. I already am in a structured environment ideal for learning. Beyond practically filling up my time outside of class, my required homework and maintaining a social life, such an experience would take over my mind, leaving little room for other valuable things besides education. Even so, seeing other people participating in these programs online makes me feel like I am not doing enough; not using my time wisely, because all of what I am doing is required, rather than of my own volition.
The “disgustingly educated” movement bolsters my sense of not reading enough, leading to prioritizing filling up my Goodreads rather than truly enjoying the process of reading and learning. Seeing people online learning so much and investing so much in their interests makes me feel like I should be doing the same, despite my own life and the life of the influencer being vastly different.
In the case of my reading, I got burnt out towards the end of high school, after reading for my AP English class. I sacrificed my own fun reading for my serious school readings, which I did enjoy, but eventually got sick of. In my second year of using Goodreads, 2022, I read 122 books. Last year, 2025, I read 15.
It is hard not to compare myself now to myself in high school, and even more so to compare myself to other people, who reached their reading goals of 100+ books a year. For this year of 2026, I am trying to maintain 15 as my reading goal, and can only hope of potentially reading beyond that. But that is not to mean that I am forcing myself to read to that point; instead, I am hoping it happens naturally. Alongside my regular school reading and assignments, I am always trying to be in the middle of one book. I leave one book at school and one at home, and I read whenever I can. Despite this habit feeling like a downgrade, I am slowly coming to terms with it. I find that while I am still less satisfied when I look at my Goodreads list, I am finding more joy again in the time that I do read, and find myself slowing down and taking in what I can.
Photo Caption: Reading Nook
Photo Credit: Unsplash
