Have you made a reading resolution in 2024? So have more than five-and-a-half million people on Goodreads, a social media site for tracking reading habits and leaving reviews.
Between them, they've pledged they'll read 231 million books this year, an average of 39 each.
Or maybe you're looking to watch more movies and fill in your cinematic gaps? You can join the cinephiles on Letterboxd and take part in challenges via lists — not necessarily to watch a certain amount of films in a year but to conquer a genre or niche, like horror flicks or films with a female director.
Or your could work through your popular lists, including Palme d'Or or Best Picture winners, as well as more esoteric collations, like "you're not the same person once the film has finished".
Even though they're fairly harmless in comparison to the usual financial or health-related resolutions, these reading and watching goals can transform a hobby into an overwhelming task at hand.
With that in mind, we asked two avid culture consumers – Brodie Lancaster, a writer and podcaster in Melbourne, and Sydney podcaster and film critic Alexei Toliopoulos, who watched 444 films in 2023 – for their tips on reading and watching more without losing sight of enjoyment.
Don't let social tracking become social pressure
Just as fitness trackers have made us all too conscious of our step counts, streaming services and sites like Goodreads and Letterboxd have made us more aware of our individual media consumption statistics.
While easy access to statistics can help people reach reading or watching goals, it also adds a performative element, prompting some to even alter how they listen, read or watch ahead of year-end wraps.
And challenges can sometimes end up becoming more about winning or beating your goal, rather than increasing your enjoyment.
Brodie Lancaster has had reading resolutions for many years, but avoids Goodreads (where she doesn't like the vibes). Instead, she prefers to use her own spreadsheet, which tracks not just books she's read, but movies and television shows she's watched.
"[I realised] that I don't care about most people's opinions about books! Maybe this is getting older and not needing social media for everything that I'm interested in."
Lancaster's found the spreadsheet has dramatically helped increase her reading since she started using it in 2018, after finding previous vague resolutions weren't working.
"I used to set big resolutions at the start of the year, like, 'I'm going to read all my books that I bought before I can buy anymore'," Lancaster says.
"It just never did anything for me. It didn't change my habits in any way."
"I really respond well to a spreadsheet, a plan or to-do list broken down into steps. Making visible what I do in a day helps me not just see where my time goes, but what I'm prioritising over the thing I want to be doing."
Lancaster fills in her spreadsheet every day (ideally), tracking habits of all kinds, from (not) smoking, flossing and cleaning, to exercise and screen time. She acknowledges her system isn't for everyone, noting that she took a break last year and is doing a "pretty-pared back" version now.
For reading, Lancaster jots down every day she reads a book, then bolds the title when she finishes it. And it's worked: In 2023, Lancaster read 30 books in 147 days, her highest year since tracking.
At the same time, her spreadsheet offers perspective and context. When she's falling behind in reading, her numbers go up elsewhere, whether that be writing, nights out, seeing movies or something else.
While others might find it a chore, Lancaster enjoys the routine, noting the spreadsheet only takes a few minutes each night.
"At a glance, I can say, 'oh, it's been a week since I watched a movie'," she says. "That's the main appeal. Also, it's just mine – I don't share it with anyone."
Her 2024 reading resolution is simple: Beat last year.
Use social media as a resource, not a challenge
Watching more than one film a day on average, Alexei Toliopoulos isn't setting goals for an amount to watch. Instead, he's driven by a compulsion to "have an actual encyclopaedic knowledge" of cinema.
"Film has always been my great love — it's my passion, my hobby, watching movies is what I like doing most in this world. It's always taken up a lot of my time, my space. It's been the thing that I've always loved the most."
He say Letterboxd really helps people discover films, with its greatest strength being the ability to follow your friends and other people whose taste you find interesting.
"And there's so many movies I would never have heard of otherwise," he says.
"But I primarily use Letterboxd as a diary for what I've watched, so I can keep my thoughts in a really nicely organised place — with statistics attached."
Prior to Letterboxd, he used Twitter as a diary for films, posting a still or poster image alongside a few comments after watching. He's now painstakingly catalogued every film he's seen since January 1, 2015 on Letterboxd: That's 3,400 films and counting. But it has come at a cost.
"I've never seen Succession," he laughs. "I've seen one season of True Detective, I've seen two seasons of Breaking Bad. That's where my gaps are."
Leave your pretension at the door
When we think of must-watch movies or essential reads, we might think of complex modernist tomes or dense foreign films.
Both Lancaster and Toliopoulos agree that a hobby should be fun — or, if you are going to watch something like Salò, at least rewarding.
"Sometimes there is a sense of guilt, of not going deeper," says Toliopoulos.
"But perhaps you're not interested in long movies or being challenged, that's not everyone's prerogative. It's really about letting films meet you on your level, and allowing yourself to meet them on theirs, too."
Toliopoulos sometimes will turn off a challenging film if he's struggling to engage, rather than pushing through for a sub-par experience. And he doesn't think there's anything wrong with comfort watches.
"During one of the lockdowns, the only thing that I could really enjoy — any other movie just couldn't live up to it — was Beverly Hills Cop," says Toliopoulos.
"It was the only movie that I really wanted to watch."
Lancaster is just as likely to read YA or a pulpy romance as she is the latest hyped literary masterpiece, saying she's fond of a fun, juicy book to break out of reading ruts.
"It gets me in the practice of putting my phone down and picking up a book," she says.
"I will say that a novella counts! In 2021, I went along my bookshelf and grabbed the thinnest spines I could find and said, 'This is what I'm reading in January, just the smallest books I've got'. A book is a book, it doesn't have to be Ulysses to be counted."
Lancaster is also happy to put down a book when she's not feeling it. (There's something to be said for her counting not just finished books, but days she reads. That way, she's encouraging the habit, rather than a numerical goal.)
"Not everything's for everyone. There are lots of very popular or really challenging, impressive books that are not for me," says Lancaster.
"I don't watch every movie. I don't read every book. Sometimes I want to be challenged. But sometimes I just want to read Emily Henry books about people having sex and deciding they can't be together but then — spoiler alert! — always being together."
Avoiding phone interruptions
When it comes to phone-addicted people out there who struggle to pull their focus into a book, Lancaster can definitely relate.
"It can be hard to enjoy the act of reading when you're used to looking at an algorithm that's designed to keep you hooked," she says.
Via her spreadsheet, Lancaster quickly noticed a trend: If her screen time goes up, everything else goes down.
"Seeing that I was on track to spend over 100 days this year — and 40 years in my life — cumulatively on my phone, I realised I need to not just tell myself that I'll look at my phone less," she says.
"I needed to brainwash myself into looking at my phone less."
In addition to using an app blocker, Lancaster puts her phone away while reading at home and tries to create an environment conducive to reading, listening to playlists or artists that match "the vibe" of the book ("I know it's crazy for some people!").
And while the cinema is great for ensuring undivided attention, Toliopoulos says he's had some of his best viewing experiences at home too.
"The silly way that I put it is: 'You don't have to go to church to pray. And so you don't have to go to the cinema to absorb yourself'."
Still, he recommends putting your phone on do-not-disturb at home, and trying to really engross yourself as much as possible.
"But you know, life will always creep in. And you can always press pause."