Well, we’re already a month into 2025, but I am catching up on posts since my January was spent entirely without WiFi because I moved house!

In 2024 I smashed my number of books goal and read more than I ever have before. I think this was entirely down to the fact that I set the number low and decided to take all the pressure off myself when it came to reading. This year I am doing the same, and have set my goal on Storygraph even lower, at 24 books. I will absolutely surpass that (I’m already halfway), but I have no intention of raising it since I have decided my reading is no longer about numbers (though I will still track them because I love my spreadsheet).

So what goals do I have?

In 2025 I want to focus on reading as many books that I already own as I can. They are all still in boxes from the move, so I don’t know the numbers, but I do know a substantial amount of them are unread.

I want to keep up with my reading journal. I bought myself a cute Hobonichi Weeks and have been really enjoying jotting down what I am reading, my thoughts about the books and a quote here and there.

I will keep expanding my reading horizons. In 2024 I read more outside of the speculative genres and I had a really good time doing so. I also picked up a lot more translated fiction and loved all of it. I am pretty good at reading diversely (gender/representation in stories), so I think genre and country of origin is what I can work on next.

I also plan to do some yearly reading challenges. My main challenge is r/Fantasy Book Bingo. I have been participating since 2018 and I have no intentions of stopping (especially since I moderate the forum now so I have a part to play in its creation!). Bingo runs from April to April, so there’s a bit of time to go before this one starts, and I only have one book left for the 2024 version.

For the first time, I will be participating in The Diverse Baseline Challenge (hosted on IG by @bookish.millenial and @themargherita.s), since it matches up very nicely with my personal reading goal above. The aim is to read one book by a racialized author each month, plus some optional bonus prompts. I am pretty confident I can complete the majority of this using books already on my shelves.

A fun list challenge I have enjoyed in the past is the ‘Friends Recommend’. This year I have a huge list of 36 books from people in my virtual book group, and from my fellow r/Fantasy moderators. This list is low-pressure, however I am certain that a large amount of the picks can be fed into other challenges through the year.

I am hoping to read at least 50% of the book picks for Rewild YourShelf, an online book club that focuses on fiction and non-fiction with nature themes. I am on track for 2/2 so far!

Finally, I’ll most likely be partaking in my lovely virtual book groups readathon(s), at least passively. We have an overarching themed challenge with a monthly prompt until October when we have a full month of prompts. In June we also often have a Pride mini-challenge. My approach to readathons is to retroactively fit books into them so I’ll be doing that here as it doesn’t add any pressure.

And that’s everything! It looks like a lot, but in reality it isn’t really. A lot of these lists and challenges can overlap so I am feeling good about my upcoming year of reading!

Do you make plans and goals for your reading each year?