Why create fake tasks to stress yourself out? Reading should be enjoyable, not a chore. And not all books are created equal. If you spend all year reading Remembrance of Things Past is that bad because you only read one book instead of reading 50 forgettable pop psychology business book of the month books? I don't think so.
Knowing that I'm a week behind or whatever tells me that I've been focusing on things that don't make me as happy as reading books does, and I should make an effort to spend less of my day watching YouTube and more of it reading books (that's what I spent that time on, not reading Proust).
I don't think I'd call it stress, I think anxiety is a more accurate term, but it's a helpful form of anxiety. I've also been reading with friends on a schedule, and the anxiety of having to be ready for our next meeting makes me read more too. Again, I find it really useful and it's made me generally happier day-to-day.
I’ve found hat most books are roundly useless in application — which is fine if you are having fun. But if you’re not your just wasting time.
I think adding something to my mental model of the world is a benefit, yes, but I'm not sure that's what you mean. I find that reading books enriches my life in a way that YouTube doesn't (with many, many exceptions).
Maybe let's try a concrete example: The Republic. It taught me about ancient Greek society, made me feel a connection to people that lived 2400 years before me, made me interested in the ancient Greek language, gave me lots of ethical questions to discuss with my friends, caused me to slow down and deliberately think through many important problems, and allowed me to take part in the intellectual tradition that people have been participating in for over two millennia.
It did not make me overthrow the government, so it goes under "roundly useless in application", but at least I "had fun", so I wasn't just "wasting time"?
What do you do with all your time?
It's the same thing for me. I don't have any goal for books, but I look back and think "hey, last month I wasn't reading too much, why is that?"
This year I'm also interested in movies, so I set a goal to watch at least 4 per month. It's more to make sure I don't waste time on Youtube/TikTok/Social Media, and take the time to do things I enjoy more in the long run