I want to read at least 36 books in 2016. This does neatly break down into three books a month, but past experience tells me that I shouldn’t use that as a hard and fast ‘rule’.

Some months, like last month, I will read more than three books – maybe because they’re short, or easy reads, or I happened to have more reading time for whatever reason.

That’s okay, because in other months I will read less than three books – maybe a book is 1000 pages long, or I’m crazy busy and don’t have much time to sit and read, or I’ll have a book hangover or reading slump and just want to play XBox games instead of picking up a book.

Reading what I want to, when I want to, means that in the end I will probably reach my target without an issue. If I made the three books thing a rule then I’d feel pressured and stressed about it in the months that I picked up a huge tome and not enjoy what I was reading. I’d miss out in the phases where all I want to do is keep reading because I had hit my three book limit and made myself do something different with my time.

Everything is a balancing act and whilst I do love a target and the odd deadline, making it too strict takes all the fun out of it. Especially when it is a target for something you do entirely for pleasure in the first place.