My reading has slowed down a little with teaching in the new term, and I thought for certain this year I wouldn’t be able to top 100, but I have surprised myself.

Yes! It’s the Goodreads Challenge, the motivation or bane of many readers’ existences out there on the internet and social media. I just watched this YouTube video earlier today asking how people read so many books. The creator mentioned 100 being an insane amount, and then I thought about mine. I just broke 250.

I like doing the Goodreads challenge to be in competition with myself, but not other people. And yet I can’t help but wonder if people see my numbers and wonder if maybe they are doing something wrong, or worse, I’m one of those people who reads only the dialogue in books or skims the text to “finish.” You know, somebody who cheats.

Here’s my secret: I read a lot of manga and comics, which are by nature shorter pieces (about 200 pages or so), and of that manga, some are serialized into 40-page pieces that you have to keep buying in order to get the full story. Only 12 so far have not been manga or comics or graphic novels.

One of my coping mechanisms when I’m feeling sad or down (but I can’t do it if I’m too overwhelmed) is read manga, in particular BL manga. This year has been an emotional rollercoaster so I’ve hopped into manga many, many times. I also have kicked up reviewing books for this website, too, which has also helped grow my numbers.

So…that’s my huge secret. Manga, comics, and graphic novels.