The Reading Goal Kit

The MeReadALot kit for turning a books-a-year number into minutes your real week can carry, at the pace you already read

MeReadALot's Books-Per-Year Goal turns a reading goal into minutes a day, and it is right for what it assumes: one speed, one average book, and all 365 days of the year. Our Reading Speed Test times a short passage, and our TBR Backlog Estimator wants the pages you read a day, a number only the goal planner prints. None of them knows your real week, this year's long books, or the books you keep buying. The Reading Goal Kit puts them together. In its worked example, a 24-book goal the planner prices at 23 minutes a day needs 39 minutes on each of the 250 days the reader actually reads, once a timed 20-minute sitting, the words on her pages and two 600-page novels are counted; moving those two to her commute brings it back to 34. The same arithmetic sets a buying budget, 4 books a year, that clears a 40-book pile in 24 months, and shows that ten more minutes a day adds more books than reading 10% faster. It promises no faster reading and is not a speed-reading course: it plans with the pace you already hold, checked by a simple recall test, and every worked figure is an example you replace with your own. You get a 24-page printable PDF with seven steps, a sitting log, the year's list, a weekly tracker, a pile ledger, reference tables and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet worked out from the numbers you entered in our calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the kit, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• A sitting, not a sprint: a timed 20-minute read in your own book with a five-point recall check
• The page count: words on your page from three lines, and planning in pages an hour
• Reading days: your goal on the days you really read, not all 365
• The year's list priced book by book, so long and dense books show their real cost
• The listening clock: long books moved to audio, with the recall check at your playback speed
• The pile: a buying budget from the date you want your unread books cleared
• Minutes before speed: what ten more minutes, one more day and 10% more speed each add
• Working pages: a sitting log, the year's list, a weekly tracker and a pile ledger
• Reference tables: minutes a day for a goal, books a year from minutes, and pages an hour
• A quickstart, and a personalised sheet worked from the numbers you entered

The kit picks up where the free Books-Per-Year Goalleaves off. The planner spreads a goal over all 365 days at one speed for one average book; the kit times a real sitting in your own books with a recall check, counts the words on your page and the days you actually read, prices this year’s list book by book, moves long books to the listening clock, sets a buying rate that lets your unread pile shrink, and shows why ten more minutes moves a yearly total further than chasing speed. It promises no faster reading: it plans with the pace you already hold. The worked figures are examples; your own sittings and books replace them.