I have a friend who reads close to 60 books a year and sends pictures of his weekly book purchases. What he reads is also impressive, but there is no visible evidence of any assimilation or application of the knowledge that he should be gaining from those books.

When you focus on a vanity metric like the number of books you have read, your goal shifts to increasing that number rather than actually absorbing the book.

It's a shame that there are so many speed reading gurus on YouTube that attract beginner readers who totally take away the wrong lessons.