2025 Reading Goals and Plans

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!

Happy New Year, everybody! I hope beyond hope that 2025 treats you all better than 2024 did. 2024 was a very tough year for me personally, so I think my greatest New Year's wish is that I get more of a break this year. If I have a boring year, I will be so happy.

Alright, today is all about goal setting and planning for the year to come. We all know that I'm not great with super structured goals, but I think if I have one or two more rigid goals, and then the rest can be a bit more loosey-goosey, I might just make it to the end of 2025 with all of my plans accomplished. Here's hoping!

Before I get into my 2025 goals, let's quickly look back at my 2024 plans and see if I accomplished everything I set out to do.

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1. Cut my physical TBR in half (at least)

At the beginning of 2024, I had just over 50 unread books on my shelves. Well, I am happy to say that over the course of the year I managed to read 29 books from my physical TBR, which means that I did indeed meet this goal. However, I ended up adding 50 more books onto my TBR, so I'm not sure how to actually treat that. Though I did say in my 2024 goals post that I wasn't going to count books bought in 2024 as part of my physical TBR until the year rolled over. So, with 29 books read, I did accomplish this goal, but now I have 85 books on my physical TBR as opposed to 50 something.

2. Read at least 1 non novel each month (meaning nonfiction, poetry, manga, etc.)

Looking back at each month and the books I read, I do think I managed to accomplish this goal as well. This goal was in response to my 2023 reading goal of reading a nonfiction book each month, which I didn't accomplish. I figured widening the parameters would be beneficial, and I was right! 

3. Do quarterly book hauls with reading updates

Another win for me! I actually really loved doing the quarterly book hauls because it allowed me to go into detail about each book I bought and why I bought it. I won't be continuing this goal into 2025, but for reasons you might not think.

4. Read from at least 10 different countries I haven't read from before

In 2024 I read from 36 different countries, which I think is an accomplishment in and of itself, but that's not what this goal was about. At the beginning of 2024, I know that I had read from 33 separate countries. And now, at the beginning of 2025, I've read from 55 countries. So that means that over the course of the year, I read books from 22 new countries. I went above and beyond with this goal! I'm honestly so proud of myself.

5. Be more selective buying books

Ah, of course we have to end on a negative note. I ended up buying 20 more books in 2024 than I did in 2023. And I can tell you for a fact that a good number of the books I ended up buying were blind buys or nearly-blind buys. In fact, the first book I bought in 2024 was a blind buy. Don't look at me, I'm so ashamed...

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I also had a priority TBR and books I wanted reread, series I wanted to finish, and so on, but that also kind of fell apart as the year went on. Of the 5 books on my priority TBR, I only managed to read two of them (The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss). Similarly, I only finished (or caught up on) two of the series I planned to read: the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, and I caught up with the Yona of the Dawn manga by Mizuho Kusanagi. As far as the rereads go, I didn't get to any on my list.

Big oof.

Alright, now let's get into my 2025 reading goals and plans!

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1. Only purchase 24 books

I know I said I don't do well with rigid goals, but I seriously need to pull back on my book buying. However, past experience tells me that going on a book-buying-ban is counterproductive for me, so I figured a limit would be easier to manage. I'm allowing myself to buy 2 books each month: 1 new release, and 1 backlist title that draws my attention. It's in my reading journal and everything, so hopefully I'll manage to stick to this goal.

2. Read more books from around the world

This is just a continuation of last years goal. Ideally, I'd love to read from a new country each month, but I'm not going to really enforce that. If I can read from 10 new countries over the course of the year again, I'll consider this goal finished. I'll repeat that as of now, I have read from 55 countries.

3. TBR take down

This is just my fancy way of saying that I, once again, want to read down my physical TBR. As I said above, I have 85 books on my physical TBR. I'd love to end 2025 with that number under 25. This means that I would have to read 60 books or more off of my TBR. Ambitious and maybe even crazy, but I have faith in myself. I think the fact that I'm trying to not buy as many books this year could also help with that. In 2024, I read 28 of the books that I purchased over the year. If I only have 12 new releases available to me to buy, that number should counterbalance my physical TBR. Does that make sense?

 

4. Finish the series on my physical TBR

This could be considered an extension of the last goal, since I'm just reiterating that I want to read the books on my physical TBR. However, I suppose this is putting priority on the books that are part of series. Thankfully, I don't have many series left on my TBR. 

    Wayfarers by Becky Chambers: I have two books left in this series

    The Cemetery of Forgotten Books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: I have three books left in this series

    A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin: I have four books left in this series (though I only own two)

    World of Howl by Diana Wynn Jones: I have two books left in this series

    The Cemeteries of Amalo by Katherine Addison: I have two books left in this series

    Murderbot by Martha Wells: I have three books left in this series (though I only own one)

    Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga: I have two books left in this series (though I only own one)

I also want to mention that I'm not counting series that I'm caught up on, but waiting for another installment, such as the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire or the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. I'm aware that the next book in these series are coming out soon (or already out but I'm waiting for a copy from the library) but it feels silly to count these as I don't own them.

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And that's all for my 2025 goals and reading plans! I decided to forgo the priority TBR and rereads this year, since that didn't quite work for me in 2024. 

I'd love to know what your plans for the next year are. Let me know in the comments, or DM me on Instagram (link in sidebar under the heading "More Media"). 

Until next time, friends!