2025 reading goals
talking about some goals for my 2025 reading year
Hi all! Welcome to 2025!
So Iβve been on a mini hiatus from year due to all the craziness of the Christmas period. But Iβm back again and excited to talk about books and my life/reading plans for the next year.
As I mentioned in my previous post about my 2024 wrap-up, my goal of this year is to basically justβ¦ chill out. I gave myself way way too many challenges last year and it meant I felt stressed out and almost unproductive in my reading which isnβt what I want when this is supposed to be FUN.
So this year I really donβt have as many goals - moreso just some vibes I would like to achieve through the year, but Iβll get to that some more below!
vibes:
The reading vibes Iβm going for this year are upbeat and βwhimsyβ. To break these down:
Upbeat = keeping my reading fun. I donβt want to get trapped slogging through books I donβt really care about or feeling obligated to read certain things, so this year Iβm going to be much more ruthless with my dnfβing and selection. I also want to stop feeling like if Iβm not reading every single spare minute Iβm wasting my time, and focus on some other hobbies of mine like gaming, knitting, journalling ect too.
Whimsy = I want my reading to feel fun and like βmeβ. Whimsy is sort of my word for the year because I want to get back into that headspace of not thinking about every single little thing and just doing something because it might be fun, entertaining, because I feel curious about it, ect. I also think a part of this might be reading unusual books or very niche books that just interest me.
reading my physical tbr
This was a big goal last year, and I think I need to do it again because ultimately my goal was to have less than 10 unread owned books and Iβm not there yet. I do think clearing out a lot of the books I had on my shelf did really make me feel happier and βlighterβ, and Iβm really looking forward to when I might be able to not feel like I have SO many books I own I need to read to not feel guilty.
At the moment, I have 22 books on my owned TBR. 15 of those are what Iβm calling βlegacy owned TBRβ which basically means they were also on the owned TBR last year and I didnβt get to them. These are my top priority, though given my ultimate goal with this is to read books as I buy them, I also think itβs important I read the books I brought into my collection this year.
Some books I decided to unhaul so they were removed. βLiesβ I had just lost interest in, and βHeartstopper volume 3β I decided I would never get to because I couldnβt be bothered reading the other volumes.
Below is my new owned TBR checklist - Iβve left some room for new purchases which hopefully fit onto this list and donβt get out of hand. Iβm thinking of implementing some sort of βread three buy oneβ or similar type reward system - I think that might add some more fun to this challenge especially because I have quite a few new releases coming out Iβd like to read - but weβll see.
read more non-fiction
The second goal I have is just to read more non-fiction. I read eight last year, but I probably mean this more in sprit than in numbers. Extremely tentatively, I would maybe like to read one non-fiction to every 1-2 fiction but weβll see how that pans out. Some of those non-fiction just might be political science essays or literature theory or similar rather than actual non-fiction books I log on Goodreads ect.
I really just miss using my brain like I used to a few years ago when I was in university and I think upping the amount of non-fiction content I engage with could help that. A lot of people at work who I think are very smart and knowledgeable alternate their fiction/non-fiction reading and as Iβve become more and more interested in non-fiction I think that is something that could be really good for me too. Especially since I have so many resources to find these things at my disposal.
I did write a 2025 non-fiction TBR, so these are some of the books I put down on it:
Say Nothing: The True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
I Love Russia: Reporting From a Lost Country
Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall
The Roads to Rome: A History
Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women
London: The Biography
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence and the Pillage of an Empire
Why Women Are Blamed for Everything: Exploring Victim Blaming of Women Subjected to Violence and Trauma
Night Games: Sex, Power and Sport
Consumed: On Colonialism, Climate Change, Consumerism and the Collective Need for Change
25 in 25 TBR
This is my final βgoalβ though I will say finishing this is not so much a goal, I only put it together as a suggestion because I really did like having this to refer back to last year when I wasnβt sure what I felt like reading.
Iβve created the list so a post on that will be coming shortly - like I said, these arenβt set in stone but I did pick books Iβm excited about so there reading them should be somewhat βnaturalβ.
Itβs very short and brief, but there is my goals for the year - I think like many people, my aim this year is to really simplify my reading a little and just have fun with it! Iβm really hoping this year is a nice, relaxing, fun, whimsical reading year for me!
Iβd love to hear what goals everyone has for their reading in 2025!