First and most obvious, when we read to hit a goal rather than simply for pleasure, everybody reads as fast as possible to hike up their numbers.

I don’t find this to be true. If I wanted to bump my numbers, I would read short books. The goal encourages me to read rather than scroll TikTok or other less healthy ways to consume time.

More worrisome, when we read fast, we experience nothing. The book does not have a chance to burrow into our heart.

I don’t think this is true, either. I have read fast my entire life, and absolutely there have been books that burrowed into my heart.

If we’re gamifying our reading, we stop reading widely: we pick different versions of a story that we are guaranteed to like, and with that we lose a sense of well-roundedness, a sense of discovery and surprise.

Surprise, I disagree with this too. I read more widely now than I did in years past, and I track my reading now and didn’t in the past. I don’t believe there is any connection at all between these two things.

From What We Lose When We Gamify Reading - I’m not sure I would classify tracking reading and an annual goal as gamifying either.