100 BOOKS CHALLENGE

This year, I managed to fulfill my long-time wish to read 100 books in one year.

Thanks to Kindle, Libby, and almost 6-hour commuting time to work 3-days a week, I got to do it easily and without spending a lot of money. 

Even though the challenge can be seen as a quite ambitious one, or maybe, quantity over quality. I actually can feel the benefits by reading that many books this year. 

First, I truly realized that the more you know, the more you don't know. 

In regards to (always) on-going conflict and attempt on ethnic cleansing by Israel on Palestine, at first I didn't plan to read any book about it. I was afraid that the book I read would mislead me or written biasly by Israel or pro-Zionist people. But after reading Barack Obama's memoir, A Promised Land (which has nothing to do with Israel's promised land, by the way), I got more curious more on USA-Israel's relationship. Which leaded me to read Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé's books: Gaza in Crisis and On Palestine. And that's not the end of my curiousity, because I plan to dig deeper on the issue by reading more books about it.

Second, non-fictions are great to find knowledges, whether it's social or scientific, but fictions makes me questioning things in life more. So the next time people thinking I waste my time by reading novels, or people who think that they are better by reading more non-fictions... no. 

Third, I finally have enough options to create lists like, "Most favorite books", "Recommended books", "The books that linger with me", and "Books I will not re-read". And even then, I still think that I didn't have enough options from 100 books that I read this year. 

Fourth, due to many books in my to-read list, I also find books that, turn out, I don't want to read after I read around 10% of it. And that's okay. I don't need to read every book, despite the book being the most popular book of the year. Read what I can enjoy, what beneficial to me, what connect to myself. 

Fifth, it's fun to see the list of books that people recommended and find that I have read a few of them. Or when my friends just finished reading books that I have read so we can talk about it. 

And perhaps there are more...

The next question would be, will I read another 100 books in 2024? 

I'm not sure. 

While reading 100 books was fun and I genuinely enjoyed it, there are parts of me who wondering if I could do another fun things if I didn't read. Maybe watch more movies and tv series, catch up more BTS videos, play games, journaling, or other activities I haven't thought of. 

So for next year, I won't set a solid number for me to achieve. Let's see!